Tottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi steps into his new job with a tall task to tackle. Spurs are now officially in the Premier League relegation zone after watching London rivals West Ham United beat on the 20th placed team, Wolves, 4-0 on Friday Night Football. And in their last game, Spurs were the ones who got trounced in a head to head relegation fight, falling 3-0 to lowly Nottingham Forest.
So De Zerbi clearly has his work cut out for him, and with Mohammed Kudus and Dejan Kulusevski not coming back to a right side that also lost Wilson Odobert an ACL tear, finding attacking production is largely going to fall on the purported master tactician's plate.
But there is more to coaching than tactics, and Tottenham fans want to see De Zerbi prove that he is the right man - as a person - for the job. Even though Thomas Frank was a nice guy, Tottenham fans could not stand the way he spoke about the team and then had the team play - with cowardice and no ambition, literally telling people to expect to lose a lot of games and then going out to do precisely that.
Roberto De Zerbi wants to win it all
De Zerbi, though? He wants to bring Tottenham Hotspur trophies. The manager said of his ambitions at Spurs, via Football.London's Alasdair Gold, "In my plan for sure there is the idea to stay for a long time, to try to put Tottenham, I'm not speaking about the titles because it's not the right moment now, but to put Tottenham to stay in the first position in the Premier League because there are all parts to reach that level."
Now, Roberto De Zerbi is going to have to do more than just talk, of course. From a character perspective, he needs to show that what he did at Marseille, especially the stuff he did with Mason Greenwood, is not who he is today. But also from a footballing perspective, he needs to actually bring those results and win with Tottenham before anyone can anoint him or lavish him with praise.
At the same time, Tottenham fans can't help but find it refresing to hear a manager speak about their beloved club in terms like these again. Ange Postecoglou wasn't a great coach, but he brought optimism and ambition. De Zerbi is already talking about winning the Premier League even in these dire times, and that's at least a glimmer of hope - even just the fact that a Spurs coach is saying something like that out loud.