Sunderland 1-0 Spurs | Roberto De Zerbi's verdict | OneFootball

Roberto De Zerbi left the Stadium of Light feeling positive despite a narrow 1-0 loss against Sunderland on Sunday.

Roberto's first game as our new Head Coach typified our current plight - a penalty awarded then taken away by VAR, what turned out to be Sunderland's winning goal taking a huge deflection and then losing skipper Cuti Romero to injury.

We had chances - seven of 11 efforts on target - but home goalkeeper Robin Roefs denied Dominic Solanke from close range, the best chance, at the end of the first half before tipping over a Pedro Porro rocket in added time. At the other end, Antonin Kinsky, who suffered a head injury in the collision that led to Romero's departure, also made fine saves on his return to Premier League action.

Speaking to us afterwards, Roberto reflected: "I'm sorry for the defeat. I'm sorry for the players and for the fans, because there were a lot of fans.

"It's not a good result for us. I think we played a good game, especially in the first half. 
We could score in two or three situations. In the second half, we lost 20 metres of the pitch. We had another clear chance to score with Richarlison, and we conceded a stupid goal, an unlucky goal.

"
We can play better, for sure. We can play with more energy, with more passion and show more qualities but, if you know football, you can understand when you are going through this difficult moment. 
It's very, very tough to show what you are and what you can do.

"I'm positive, because I talk with them, and I know, I understood, they are suffering. They are good people inside of the dressing room. 
I stay to help them, because I think it's not a problem of state of play or that they know what they have to do on the pitch. I would like they can put on the pitch more passion, more enthusiasm, more happiness, to play football.

"We have to be stronger than this moment, and positive, because we have the qualities enough to win the game, and when we win the game, we can see everything's different."