You know you're getting desperate when you're wondering whether a Pedro Porro pass that bounced all the way through into the goalkeeper's arms counts as a shot on target.
For Tottenham brought home more points from their trip to Nottingham than they did efforts on target, with not a single one of their 12 shots heading between the sticks.
Yet there was still something to be taken from the encounter at the City Ground. Spurs had lost their previous four matches against Forest and done so mostly with a whimper. This time, despite having a new group still gelling and escaping a 66th minute calamity, De Zerbi's men were far more organised and structured in their play with and without the ball in the first two-thirds of the pitch. They registered their first clean sheet of the season.
The problem was they lacked any real cohesion in their attacking play. That should come at some point with the amount of options the Tottenham boss now has at his disposal. Eventually the right pieces will be fitted into the Italian's jigsaw, but at the moment they appear to have fallen out of the box and are lost under the couch somewhere.
What he wouldn't do for a fully fit James Maddison or Xavi Simons right now to thread through balls into the attackers' runs.
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At least one player in particular made a big impression on Saturday. De Zerbi wanted Spurs to make a statement this summer in all areas of the squad, most noticeably in the centre of the pitch.
Yet the £185million splurge on Sandro Tonali and Mateus Fernandes has only shown just how important Rodrigo Bentancur is when surrounded by and challenged by good players.
The 29-year-old is a three-time Serie A winner for a reason. When he's in prime physical condition, he's a dual threat - a midfielder who will cover every blade of grass and snap into tackles but also composed on the ball in the tightest of moments.
On Saturday, Bentancur had far more defensive contributions than any other player on the pitch with 18. If there was a second ball to be won, the Uruguayan was there.
He made nine clearances, seven of those with his head, six ball recoveries, two interceptions and one tackle.
The closest anyone came to his defensive numbers was Tonali with 12, making four tackles, four recoveries, two blocks, one clearance and one interception.
De Zerbi's football requires quick movement of the ball through the lines or out to the flanks. Bentancur provides the latter and if he could do more of the former he would gain more recognition for what he does.
De Zerbi concurred with football.london that Bentancur had a "great game" and also praised Tonali, Micky van de Ven and Conor Gallagher.
Gallagher had an unsung job against Forest, constantly dropping deep as a right-back to allow Pedro Porro to either get further up the flank alongside Savio or invert into the centre of the pitch as a playmaker, to replace the lost Maddison and Xavi.
"You know, I have experience enough to know what this stadium is. This stadium is English football, and Gallagher, he knows better this type of games," he said. "Mateus [Fernandes] will become, for sure, in my time in Tottenham, one of the best players.
"But I'm lucky because I have more players, many players, and I have to find the right balance, the right first XI, if I can, before the game."
Pushing Porro further forward almost worked to perfection with a beautiful, curling pass that Omar Marmoush battled on to only to scuff a shot just wide of the left-hand post.
On the whole, the defensive shape of the team was the best it has looked so far. It was breached just twice by Morgan Gibbs-White. Both times the almost Tottenham signing was denied by Antonin Kinsky, who also provided an 80-yard assist that Marmoush should have done better with.
The first occasion Gibbs-White got through he was later flagged offside, although it looked mighty close. On the second occasion, Kinsky's hand deflected the ball up into the air with Tonali and Jan Paul van Hecke both running back to deal with it.
The Dutchman left it to the Italian who made an utter mess of trying to hook it away but instead ended up making what would be a crucial touch on the Spurs goal line. For Neco Williams forced it over that line, but with his hands as he tried to protect his face. VAR handed Spurs and Tonali the reprieve.
Other than those two moments, Tottenham had structure to the way they defended and built up from the back. Van de Ven looked sharper and should have scored with a header in the six-yard box from a corner and his partnership with Van Hecke is having the cobwebs shaken off from the Netherlands U21s days alongside each other.
The problem for Spurs lay in what came at the other end of the pitch. For De Zerbi's attackers still look like an awkward group of teens at the school disco standing on opposite sides of the room to each other, not knowing how to communicate.
The reason the Italian wanted Cody Gakpo is because the Liverpool man falls into the ready-made attacker category. Unfortunately that's also the reason why Andoni Iraola wanted to keep the 27-year-old.
Savio and Mathys Tel have ability aplenty but both will blow hot and cold, because at 22 and 21-years-old, they will make decisions that show their age.
Savio at times looks like nobody can stop him and then in the next touch he'll give the ball away with a pass or a knock that was never on. Likewise Tel can produce moments of real quality followed up by moments that belong levels below.
The Frenchman will know his place is in danger with Mohammed Kudus getting fitter with each passing game. The Ghanaian looked rusty during his second substitute appearance but still set up Dominic Solanke for a chance that could have won the game.
When the 26-year-old is ready to start, which may come next weekend against Everton, then Kudus will be the man on the right with either Savio or Marmoush on the left. Tel needed to impress at the City Ground but he did not.
"I think we played well but in the last third we have to improve. We have to take the better decisions. We have to keep more calm when we are very close to doing something important in the last third," De Zerbi told football.london.
"I remember the chance when Marmoush shot at goal [in the second half], the way we had Robertson overlapping. If we take the right decision and we play with Robertson, then on the second post there is Kudus to score like this.
"Or how many crosses went over the second post? From Mathys Tel, two times, Savio, one time. Savio I think it's the last decision. The ball from Pedro Porro on Mateus Fernandes when he played in Kudus and then for the header of Solanke, Mateus was completely alone to go forward to score [instead]."
He added: "I'm very happy for the spirit of the team, for the organisation, with and without the ball. We didn't suffer nothing. They have good players and taking points in this stadium is not so easy.
"We are not happy because we didn't win, but I think this is the right spirit and the right way to move on in this moment. Because we started just last Thursday to work [all] together and to create, to build the team, to build the organisation. It's not enough the paper, the transfer market."
Mykhailo Mudryk is older than Savio and Tel at 25 but losing almost two years of his career means he's around their footballing age. The Ukrainian made his Spurs debut in the 74th minute, replacing Tel and mostly looking like someone who has not kicked a ball competitively since November 2024.
He will get better under his former mentor De Zerbi as he gets fitter but one criticism of his game was always that while he has individual quality and a drive to improve, he sometimes forgets about those other nine outfield team-mates on the pitch when the ball is at his feet.
"He's not ready yet. He's working to reach the best physical condition. He needs time, he needs work," said De Zerbi.
"In that position, we have Mathys Tel, big potential. But also Mathys takes too many wrong decisions, and Mudryk. So, two big players, two big potential players.
"But if we want to score, I think Marmoush has 15 goals. Solanke, the header for him, I consider a chance to score. It's not a shot on goal. But how many shots did Nottingham have today?"
De Zerbi went in even stronger on Tel in his club interview, saying he believes the young Frenchman has the potential to become one of the best players at Spurs but he needs to show more than he is right now.
De Zerbi now has the ability to change his entire front three but he needs a trio that will fire together.
So how can he coach his attacking group into bringing the kind of free-flowing football he was known for at Brighton?
"Meeting, watching, analysing together with the players. Also, I think, winning the games, because, you know, the confidence, the enthusiasm, it can be crucial to find the right decision," he said.
"But I love these players. I spoke now about Marmoush. But Marmoush, we have to analyse if he has, or not, 15, 12 goals. I think, yes, because he has all the qualities, enough to score that number of goals. He has to improve, of course. Like Domi Solanke, I think if Domi is fit, is in the best physical condition, the chance he had was completely different."
There is a certain irony to the fact that at a time when Tottenham are yet to score a Premier League goal this season, the young talented striker they bewilderingly sold this summer can't stop scoring.
Will Lankshear, just 21, netted his seventh goal in seven games on Saturday for Middlesbrough. Yes, it's a level below the Premier League but if you're scoring like that at 21 in the Championship then the odds are that you will be scoring top flight goals in the near future.
Yet Spurs' desire to fund transfers for the now meant they lost someone who might just have been both their present and future.
There's similarities to the Luka Vuskovic situation in Spurs selling the Croatian to Brighton only for Kevin Danso to want to go later in the window, which would have opened up the pathway for the younger defender.
Lankshear was not desperate to leave permanently but Tottenham sold him and now have a mess of a situation with Richarlison wanting to leave and left out of the Premier League squad.
Spurs accepted a deal from Boro for Lankshear that gets them £10million now and another £10million in add-ons, along with a 20% sell-on clause and matching rights. So there's no guarantee that they will get Lankshear back in the future if he does become a Premier League star.
In the meantime, Richarlison has been left in limbo. Moves to Everton and Trabzonspor did not materialise and now there are only feasibly the Saudi and Brazilian transfer windows left open for him or the 29-year-old will be left out in the cold.
The Brazil international is not part of training with his Spurs team-mates, instead he will be following his own programme on the first-team pitches alongside them.
With more time on his hands, Richarlison has been reposting posts on TikTok of his goals last season as he finished top scorer. He also reported another of a Brazilian journalist from ESPN claiming that the striker's side of the story is that he never asked to leave the club but said he would accept a good offer if one came and the club wanted to sell him. It also claimed that the offer from Everton was far lower than the personal terms offered by other clubs.
Whether Richarlison posts any more of his own words on the situation remains to be seen, particularly with his fate not entirely in his own hands as Tottenham still hold a year's option on his contract.
The club will continue without him and De Zerbi's way is the road they have taken.
The Italian decided not to bite when football.london asked pre-match about Oliver Glasner's comments about his football.
"De Zerbi has a clear way he plays with his teams. That makes it a little bit easier to prepare. The patterns are very obvious," said the Austrian.
The Spurs boss simply said he would not be commenting on other manager's opinions but had his side won on Saturday then the 46-year-old might have snuck in the word 'obvious' somewhere and been more animated about his opposite number's comments.
The best we got after a draw was him using one of Glasner's words, 'clear,' and it felt deliberate.
"Their style of play is very clear, long ball and second ball. But even this second ball, we won many, many duels," he said.
De Zerbi did not seem ecstatic about the medical staff telling him pre-match that he needed to take off Savio and Destiny Udogie an hour into the game as he felt they could have continued.
However, he recognised that Spurs must take a different approach with the way they handle their players.
Performance director Dan Lewindon, who joined earlier this year from the City Football Group, has carried out a major wide-ranging review throughout the organisation.
The changes have been far-reaching and are expected to bear fruit over the months and years to come. Even if it only means more caution with players coming back from injury, Tottenham's history proves that's the right way forward.
So expect more 'muscle fatigue' this season rather than the little knocks that become something far worse. Expect players to be suddenly left out of starting line-ups or even the bench for just one game simply because it makes more sense medically to treat them with caution than risk them when the squad is strong enough to cover.
"I'm sorry because Savio and Destiny [Udogie] in that moment, I think they could play something more than 60 minutes. But there was a plan with the medical staff to not take risks. In this moment, I can't decide like the pitch says," said De Zerbi.
"Before the game, the plan was Savio and Udogie around 60 minutes, because it's dangerous, no?"
Was the Italian happy with that decision?
"No, I'm not happy, but football is like this. Savio has not the best physical condition to play 90 minutes. He's an important player for us, a crucial player. Destiny is another crucial player for us. I think Kudus and Robertson, they played well. But, you know, to start one game like today, it's not so easy to come in from the bench and adapt immediately," he said.
"I'm not happy when we have the plan, but it's for my advantage, for my business, the management of the players after injuries."
The other thing De Zerbi will not be happy with is that once again the team he had decided upon to face Forest ended up across social media and fans' WhatsApp groups the day before the match.
This is not a new issue at Spurs - Ange Postecoglou raged about a mole leaking medical information about players - and it's difficult to prevent team news from coming out with those watching training, players talking to agents, family and friends, unhappy non-starters moaning but the frequent revealing of the starting XI will eventually become an issue.
It can't help De Zerbi that each of his first three Premier League line-ups have been available to the general public - and therefore the opposition - 24 hours before the match.
Spurs need to snare the mole and then do the same to Everton next weekend at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
A team that has been prolific in the transfer window failing to beat one that had a nightmare in it would only increase the mounting criticism.
There's an acceptance that so many new signings require time to gel, but also an acceptance that football does not care one jot about such matters.
Saturday's draw at Forest was a structural step in the right direction but the attack must click and De Zerbi knows it. The goals must come for Spurs and they must not get stuck against the Toffees.
