De Zerbi frustrated by Tottenham draw but confident goals will come

Roberto De Zerbi said he was disappointed after Tottenham were held to a goalless draw by Nottingham Forest, but praised his players’ performance and pointed to Omar Marmoush’s missed opportunity as evidence of the improvement still required in the final third.

The result gave Tottenham their first point of the Premier League season. They had opened the campaign with a 3-0 defeat by Brentford before losing 2-0 at home to Newcastle United.

Speaking to Sky Sports after Saturday’s match, as reported by BBC Sport, De Zerbi said: “I feel disappointed because of the result, but I am very happy with the performance. Considering that we started working together for the first time last Thursday, from the first day, I think we can improve in terms of the final decision and the final pass.

“I remember the situation with Omar Marmoush when he shot, while Andy Robertson was behind him and moving forward on the same side. If we improve our performance in the final third, I think we can score a lot of goals because we have players with great quality. It is difficult to accept this result now because I think we played a good game.”

Tottenham’s manager said the team had shown quality in possession and was capable of becoming more effective in attacking areas.

“We have to keep working because I think we played very well when we had the ball and managed to find solutions,” he added. “I think we can be much better in the final third.”

De Zerbi also acknowledged that Tottenham’s mentality was focused entirely on winning, but urged his squad to remain calm while a new group continues to develop.

“The mentality of the team is to win, win and win,” he said. “But I think we need to stay calm to keep our confidence. I think we have players with enough quality to score many goals, such as Dominic Solanke, Savinho and Omar Marmoush.”

Substitutions affected Tottenham’s balance

De Zerbi explained that Tottenham were forced to make changes after the medical staff advised him to replace Savinho and Destiny Udogie after 60 minutes.

“I am sorry because the medical staff asked me to replace Savinho and Destiny Udogie after 60 minutes,” he said. “Mohammed Kudus and Andy Robertson played very well, but perhaps making two substitutions at that moment was not the best decision.

“But we cannot risk Savinho suffering another injury because he is a very important player for us, and the same applies to Destiny. Perhaps we lost some balance and some connection between the lines. We have to respect Nottingham Forest because they consistently relied on second balls and long balls.”

The Italian said Tottenham still had considerable work to do, both in possession and without it, despite being pleased with their defensive effort against Nottingham Forest.

“We have to improve in every aspect of football, both in terms of our organisation when we have the ball and when we do not,” De Zerbi said. “Even today, I think we defended very well. We have signed very good players, but you cannot simply build a team based on names, as happens in Football Manager.”

Tottenham were also denied a goal when Nottingham Forest had an effort ruled out during the match. De Zerbi said he could not offer an opinion on the decision because he had not seen the replay.

“I did not watch the replay, so I cannot answer your question,” he said.