Evolution for De Zerbi crucial during Tottenham revolution as Spurs, Forest still wait for win | OneFootball

We can’t say we weren’t warned.

Oliver Glasner and Roberto De Zerbi told the world on Friday how familiar each is with the other so no-one at the City Ground can be surprised to have witnessed Nottingham Forest and Tottenham Hotspur cancel each other out, leaving both sides still winless after three games.

That is a bigger problem for De Zerbi. Not only is what Tottenham have served up so far this season, after their most lavish summer, not a satisfactory return on their huge spend, there are too few signs of encouragement to think much better is immediately around the corner.

Tottenham were game at Forest. Both sides were. The intensity, especially through a frantic first half, made for a fascinating battle, but the quality was sorely lacking.

De Zerbi could point at Spurs’ robustness as a marker of improvement because, almost certainly, they would have lost this game last season. And making a team harder to beat is always the first step on the road from the depths Tottenham have plumbed to wherever it is they hope  they are heading.

Of course, the new signings need patience while they settle in. But De Zerbi, nor any Premier League manager, has time for them all to ease themselves in gradually. ‘Underwhelming’ is perhaps as complimentary as we can be about any of them so far.

Four new boys, collectively worth around £285million, started against Forest but, in possession at least, none suggested they might break the stalemate at the City Ground.

For the money spent, De Zerbi is entitled to look at Sandro Tonali in games as tight as this to make a greater difference. The Italian managed a total of three accurate forward passes in and into the Forest half, none of which could be considered a key pass.

That has to be a concern when Tonali is the midfield’s most creative presence.

The £100million man was partnered by Rodrigo Bentancur, praised pre-match by De Zerbi for the “balance” he brings, while Conor Gallagher played as the no.10, with Mateus Fernandes again on the bench.

There is no suggestion of a fitness concern for Fernandes so Gallagher’s deployment is evidence that De Zerbi feels the need for a pragmatic approach at this stage of Tottenham’s transition.

But his attacking players, new and old, won’t thrive with the service they are currently receiving.

De Zerbi started with Savio and Omar Marmoush in attack, the ex-Manchester City pair joined by Mathys Tel. Which is unlikely to be a long-term arrangement.

Savio, we have to assume, is occupying the right-wing slot while Mohamed Kudus builds up his fitness. The Brazilian, courted for so long by Spurs, is infinitely more comfortable on the left, highlighted by plenty of positive approach play but nothing by way of end product. Yet still he carried a far greater threat than the anonymous Tel.

De Zerbi, while praising the performance, suggested his attack needed to make more of the openings they had but the forwards, while failing to record a shot on target, were fed thin gruel.

It is a challenge for the manager as well as his players. As Glasner said in pre-match: “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.”

Amid the revolution at Spurs, some evolution is necessary on the manager’s part too.