Roberto De Zerbi has been revered as a pioneer throughout his coaching career, described by Pep Guardiola in 2023 as "one of the most influential managers in the last 20 years."
His teams are association with sophisticated and patient possession play. Depth is exploited as a means to progress forward, often facilitating artificial transitions by dragging the opposition into a full-fledged press.
It's high-risk, high-reward stuff.
Thus, De Zerbi knew he had to strip it back amid a desperate situation during the back end of last season. With limited resources, Spurs played a watered-down version of De Zerbi-ball and accrued enough points to survive.
Evolution is inevitable with the Italian at the helm, and a record-breaking transfer window has improved the technical level of De Zerbi's squad. Emboldened by the addition of key summer targets, the Italian has overseen a shift from the primitive to the complex. However, after suffering defeats to a physical Brentford outfit and a transition-heavy Newcastle United, the Spurs boss stripped it back at the City Ground, helping us claim our first point of the Premier League season.
Long ball ploy ensured Spurs weren't overwhelmed at Nottingham Forest
While Jan Paul van Hecke remained instrumental in the build-up phase, De Zerbi sought to nullify Nottingham Forest's man-to-man pressure by instructing Antonín Kinsky to go long.
According to TheSpursStatsMan on X, 76% of Kinsky's passes against Forest were more than 30 yards long. Spurs' No. 1 played an average of 36% 'long' passes across the first two Premier League games.
While we produced some lovely sequences against the Magpies, De Zerbi's side were completely smothered by Brentford away from home on the opening weekend of the season. Forest differ slightly in style to the Bees, but there was certainly scope for the hosts, despite their wretched form at the City Ground this calendar year, to overwhelm a Spurs team that's currently a little bit unsure of itself at the start of a new era.
So, De Zerbi sought to alleviate this potential pressure by playing over Forest's pressure. However, only a third of Kinsky's 'long' passes were accurate. With Omar Marmoush operating as the No. 9, direct success from this ploy is unlikely. However, Spurs were able to pounce on second balls to get them up the pitch.
Conor Gallagher gets a lot of flak, but that's why he was included in the starting lineup. De Zerbi said this was Gallagher's "type of game"—a bitty affair. He ended the contest with the most duels won (10) and a team-high six recoveries.
A result on Saturday was imperative to stopping the rot, and while those who didn't tune into the game can easily beat us with the no shots on target stick, Spurs cultivated enough moments to depart Nottingham with all three points. The numbers didn't tell the full story.
We're all scarred from the past two domestic campaigns, and the nightmare of last season means supporters are desperate for a rapid turnaround after a busy summer. However, De Zerbi's team is still a work-in-progress; familiaring themselves with one another.
Rome wasn't built in a day, and De Zerbi proved again on Saturday that the idealism he's typically assoicated with can occasionally make way for some much-needed pragmatism.
Add us as a preferred source on Google