Tottenham Hotspur left back Andy Robertson knows what it's like to be a part of a winner, and while he has not really done a whole lot of winning since joining Spurs this summer, a big reason why Roberto De Zerbi OK'd the continued interest in the former LIverpool legend was because of the winning mentality he can bring to the table as a former Champions League and two time Premier League winner.
Robertson was a part of the 2024/25 Liverpool side that won the Premier League under Arne Slot with the last great juggernaut that the legendary Jurgen Klopp built, but he was also a part of the dead Reds side that barely qualified for the Champions League last season.
In juxtaposing the contrasting approaches from Klopp and Slot, Robertson brought up a point that will be music to the ears of the people who defend the job De Zerbi is doing as Tottenham manager and believe in the Italian coach over the long haul.
Tottenham are trying to build an identity
Robertson said on The Overlap podcast, via Anything Liverpool, "Jürgen Klopp was always like... "IF we do this, NOBODY can match us!" It was more about US, not looking at the opponent. And with Arne Slot we would always analyse the opponent more, and looking at how we are going to play out from their tactics. Arne Slot would always say: "look, if THEY do this.. then WE do THIS, while Jürgen Klopp would just stick to his own blueprint, we NEVER changed under Klöpp, while Arne Slot would constantly adapt to the opponent's tactics."
There is something to be said about the great players and coaches always focusing on playing their own game rather than changing things up too much based on the opponent. Eden Hazard, for example, used to tell people who asked him that he never cared about what the defender was doing, he would just play his game and play on instinct, which would lead to him playing at his best.
Roberto De Zerbi is clearly a coach in the Jurgen Klopp mindset who wants his team to play on instinct and play their own game with the style he has imposed on them. Meanwhile, Thomas Frank, who was even worse for Tottenham Hotspur last season than Arne Slot was for Liverpool, had no gameplan, distinct style of play, or patterns and would just try to chameleon his clearly out of rhythm (and out of confidence) Spurs side based on the opponent.
The Klopp approach of having your own plan and sticking to it instead of having nothing and playing into the hands of your opponents based on pure guess work is clearly better, and it's actually a real big positive that De Zerbi is in the camp of having a clear identity.
Add us as a preferred source on Google