vavel.com

Tottenham Hotspur made several signings during the summer window and there was a hope that this season would be different. In the last two Premier League campaigns they finished in 17th place but this season Roberto De Zerbi will be hoping for more.

However, they have kicked off the new season with successive league defeats. On the opening weekend, Spurs lost 3-0 at Brentford and last week it was a 2-0 defeat at home to Newcastle United.

Success came in the EFL Cup with a 5-1 victory over Championship side Charlton Athletic but the North Londoners are yet to find the back of the net in the Premier League.

They make the journey north to face Nottingham Forest this week. Former Crystal Palace manager, Oliver Glasner is now in charge at the City Ground. His side suffered a late defeat to Leeds United on the opening day, before also losing to Daniel Farke's side in the EFL Cup.

Forest did draw 2-2 away at Anfield last week, against Liverpool where they picked up their first point of the season and left Merseyside with positives to take from the game.

When the two sides met last season, Forest completed a league double over Spurs. Both matches finished 3-0 to Forest.

Embed from Getty Images

The defeat at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium back in March left Spurs with a lot of work to do to avoid relegation, which they did with the arrival of Roberto De Zerbi a week after the Forest defeat.

Lack of goals a concern

The fact that Spurs have failed to score in their opening two league games may be a cause for concern.

It was a poor performance against Brentford on the opening day and the game simply got away from Spurs. De Zerbi's side never really got going and the scoreline could have been worse than it was, following Igor Thiago's missed penalty.

The display against Newcastle United was better but, again, two second half goals proved to be the difference.

They could not recover from the setback.

Mathys Tel's free-kick that sailed high and wide summed up the attacking threat of Spurs.

Embed from Getty Images

Omar Marmoush joined from Manchester City in the transfer window but he had a quiet afternoon.

Fellow striker Dominic Solanke scored against Charlton but is yet to start a league game and Mikey Moore, who has featured in the two league games, has now left the club on a loan deal.

If Spurs are to gain a positive result against Forest then they will need to look sharper in front of goal.

Same defensive errors

The goals that Spurs have conceded in their first two games have largely been avoidable.

They have been caught ball-watching at times or have been too slow to react.

Yoane Wissa's goal for Newcastle was a clever flicked finish in the box but the striker was allowed too much space to make the required contact.

Defensively, Spurs have struggled for the past two seasons but they cannot keep switching off at the back if they want to climb the table.

The Dutch duo of Micky van de Ven and Jan-Paul van Hecke have the potential to form a good partnership but it is not currently happening.

Embed from Getty Images

Away form better than home form

Last season, Spurs only won three times on home soil. Victories came against Brentford, Burnley and Everton.

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium remains one of the best arenas in the country but over recent seasons it has not been an enjoyable place for Spurs to play.

Inevitably, there can be more pressure playing at home and that intensifies when a team is not playing well.

The atmosphere at home can soon change and this can be reflected on the team's performance with players not necessarily wanting to take risks.

Embed from Getty Images

Therefore, an away day to the East Midlands could be a welcome trip as there could be argued to be less pressure when playing away from home.

This was not the case when Spurs went across London to Brentford and conceded an early goal.

However, after a positive result last week there could be said to be more pressure on Forest this week as the home crowd may be expecting another promising performance after the Liverpool draw.

If Spurs were to take an early lead in Nottingham then it could be the home supporters who become restless.

It is still very early in the season

Spurs are searching for a positive result and some points on the board. A win would certainly improve their situation and the mood around the club.

However, it is only the third week of the Premier League season so it is very early on.

Teams lose games and Brentford and Newcastle were always going to be teams that could potentially cause them problems. The performances have not necessarily helped but everything can still change in an instance.

Spurs have invested heavily this summer. Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali are good additions in midfield. Van Hecke and Andrew Robertson are good defenders and Marmoush has the potential to bring goals up front.

Embed from Getty Images

On transfer deadline day, Mykhailo Mudryk and Tosin Adarabioyo joined from Chelsea and they are also players who have the potential to contribute and strengthen the squad.

Therefore, it is likely that the new arrivals will need time to adjust and adapt to life at their new club. It is not time to panic just yet, the club are not in crisis mode.

After the struggles of the previous two seasons, there was always the chance that it would take a while to turn things around.

De Zerbi has been backed and Spurs do need to get their season going but there is not enormous pressure just yet.

It is easy to be negative when things do not go your way but it could be said that this is the time for patience and calm heads.

Embed from Getty Images

That said, every game in the Premier League presents a challenge and Forest will be tough opponents.

However, it is a chance for Spurs to silence their critics and get moving in the right direction.

Whereas, another defeat may leave more questions to be answered.

This is their first of three league games in September before the international break and they will want to be sitting higher up the table when that break comes around.

Flirting more with relegation by the week, Tottenham Hotspur have now appointed their third manager of the season, passionate Italian Roberto De Zerbi.

Putting out the fire

On the face of it, the Lewis family, fronted by Vinai Venkatesham and Johan Lange, has taken a huge gamble. De Zerbi is not the interim solution that would calmly steer the club to safety before making way for the more obviously popular appointment of Mauricio Pochettino.

He is a long-term hire (at least based on his five-year contract) who, should he keep Spurs in the Premier League, will be full of demands and expectations to reward the achievement.

This should not be an issue, of course. The club should build an empire for the man who stopped Rome burning. In practice, however, De Zerbi has left his last three clubs in less than half that time, despite relative success, albeit with clear extenuating circumstances ending his time at Shakhtar Donetsk prematurely.

Controversial Comments

Even then, this would not ordinarily pose so many questions. At the end of the day, the length of a manager’s contract is usually only relevant when calculating the eventual cost of their departure, and De Zerbi will have been negotiating from a position of strength given Spurs predicament.

However, unlike the aforementioned former Spurs manager currently in the hot seat with the USA, De Zerbi is not a unifying appointment. No fewer than three Spurs fan groups expressed contempt at going down this path, owing to comments he made regarding a former player who has been tarred by grave historical accusations.

Anybody reading will already be very aware of De Zerbi's words, which were tone deaf and lacking in empathy. They were not beyond redemption, such things are rarely black and white.

Without marginalising the views of those who were against hiring the former Marseille manager, there will be more context around his relationship with the player, the pressures he’d have from his employers PR function, and other contributing factors which are not publicly available. It remains to be seen if this elephant in the room will be addressed by Spurs or De Zerbi.

However, words are very rarely worthy of casting an inedible dye on someone’s character. To the contrary, there are multiple instances of players widely adored by the Spurs fan base despite having acted in a more tangibly harmful way than De Zerbi has. Spurs supporter do not appear to denounce the 2008 League Cup win, the 1991 FA Cup win, or ‘that night in Amsterdam’.

Two wrongs don’t make a right, neither does hypocrisy.

Best fit

Moving away from how complicated the optics around De Zerbi’s character are, Spurs are in trouble. Arguably, not since their own relegation in the 1970s has a club of this size been demoted to the second tier.

With seven matches remaining, there were very few managerial options, and those options are largely populated by recent managerial failures, those with no experience in this league (which the club already tried) or Sean Dyche and Robert De Zerbi.

Both these managers have recent experience in the Premier League and can be considered successful to some degree; both have the hardened self-belief that is undoubtedly required to get the side breaking the habits of almost two seasons. No other candidate comes close in terms of suitability for the role. So in scrutinising who is the right choice, we need to look deeper.

With no wish to diminish the good career Dyche has had so far, this is where he obviously isn’t the answer. Like Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor, he has only ever set teams up to play deep and without the ball. Regardless of aesthetics, this will not work with the Spurs players.

These defenders do not like defending their own box. Van de Ven’s biggest tool, his pace, becomes obsolete, while Romero is always a mistimed lunge away from surrendering a great scoring opportunity. None of the full backs enjoy either stopping a cross or reading it, and all of the midfielders are happier with less of the pitch to cover.

Nothing seems more obvious to me than keeping the Spurs players as far away from their goal as possible, which means the Italian manager’s high press, high line, and determination to play in the opposition half. Spurs do not have what it takes to ‘play ugly’, so they’ll only get out of this mess by doing what the squad has, albeit deficiently, been built to do.

Passing the eye test

The other side of the game, and long-term very relevant, is on the ball. Even if we concede that Spurs should try to find a way to play “Dyche-ball” in these seven cup finals, Dyche, like De Zerbi, wanted a long-term contract, according to every report.

What happens when Spurs stay up, but next season the crowd is again groaning at the style of play? The locals didn’t take it from Mourimho or Conte, so I think the answer is obvious.

De Zerbi’s Brighton, however, were one of only a handful of sides who have broken the trend of attritional, mundane football which has plagued the past half-decade. Only Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, Arne Slot, and, for 10 games, Ange Postecoglou, can say the same.

One thing we know about Spurs' supporters is that they will show far more patience when they feel like their values are being upheld on the pitch. If that happens, I expect plenty to calm down about their assumptions regarding the new manager's values on it.

The risk of not hiring De Zerbi

Amidst all this, having identified De Zerbi as the best long-term and short-term option, the club could not ignore the damage that relegation brings. The bigger a club is, the harder it will fall.

The revenue lost: TV, matchday, and sponsorship, would be astronomical. The result, a huge employer in north London would go for the easiest way to cut costs quickly, dispensing with the jobs of any and every staff member deemed expendable.

In the current climate, that is a lot of income suddenly lost to people who need it far more than the more visible millionaire executives and footballers. If Spurs felt the best chance of survival was with De Zerbi, the club was absolutely right to prioritise survival and hopefully avoid all the repercussions of relegation over avoiding some short-term PR damage.

Seven cup finals

To bring this back to football, whilst not tangible, there is a lot to be said for Spurs hiring a manager who everyone would see at a top club in a top league next season. The message sent to rivals, supporters and the playing staff is “we are not going down”.

Now De Zerbi and his inherited squad need to show as much. Sunderland away, the first cup final, awaits. The first of seven opportunities for the new Spurs manager to earn his stripes.