Roberto De Zerbi quietly shifted the blame onto his team
Tottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi is a man known for having a volatile personality, and while what he can say will often rub people the wrong way, he hasn't exactly been wrong when he has made somewhat controversial statements as the Spurs manager.
Take, for example, his spar with Richarlison. He seemed to have pushed Richy out and threw him under the bus, but, as it turns out, De Zerbi wasn't so wrong for singling out Richarlison, who has not exactly made a transfer easier to facilitate, even if his reasons for doing so (money) are hard to argue against.
But De Zerbi's biggest problem isn't Richarlison, rather the overarching problem that Richy was, in a way, part of. See, Tottenham Hotspur's 2026/27 season problem of not being able to score many goals is not a new one, and Richarlison's meager return of 11 Premier League goals last season actually led the team. And now he is not even registered in the squad because of the spat.
Roberto De Zerbi is partially to blame, too
Roberto De Zerbi does have some blame there, not just for eschewing the Brazilian but also for his lineup selection and tactics. Tottenham are great tactically at getting the ball into the final third, but once they have it there, they really struggle to get into scoring positions. They lack the killer pass, they lack the finishing, and their movement off the ball behind the line is pretty much non existent.
Before Tottenham's 3-2 loss to Aston Villa in which they did finally break their Premier League duck of no goals in a game, De Zerbi made it pretty clear to reporters that the problems with scoring aren't actually his fault by pointing out that he's never had issues with scoring goals.
De Zerbi said, via Chris Cowlin, "No, never [has a team of mine struggled to score goals]. I conceded many goals maybe, but to score, never. I think it's a coincidence. I think we could have scored four or five goals in Liverpool. Nine chances to score at Anfield is not that little, no? With Everton, we had three or four clear chances to score."
As an aside, that's quite the bit of unfortunate foreshadowing from De Zerbi to admit that he has conceded many goals in the past, but it is evident that De Zerbi feels his tactics have created enough chances for the players when he points out how many they have had in recent games.
Thus, even if only implictly, De Zerbi has shifted the blame to the players, and when watching the performances of Dominic Solanke, Mathys Tel, and Omar Marmoush in September, it's really hard not to come to the same conclusion, especially when Spurs forward have scored zero of the three goals against Premier League opponents in 2026/27.
