Roberto De Zerbi’s first game in charge of Tottenham Hotspur didn’t go as planned as they suffered a 1-0 defeat against Sunderland on Sunday.
It was another poor performance from Tottenham, as they edged closer to relegation in the Premier League. Nordi Mukiele’s deflected strike in the 61st minute was enough for Sunderland to seal the win at the Stadium of Light.
Spurs weren’t helped by the referee, Rob Jones, but also lacked an attacking edge to overturn the deficit. They are now in the relegation zone, two points behind West Ham and three behind Nottingham Forest.
De Zerbi fails to deliver vs Sunderland
Since his appointment, De Zerbi has often spoken about playing attacking football and heaped praise on the players. He also had around 10 days of training with the Tottenham players. While no one was expecting a complete turnaround, one would have expected some improvement, but there was barely any.
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The Italian wasn’t helped by some of his own choices, which have consistently proved to be detrimental for Spurs this season. Let’s take a look at them:
The starting midfield
De Zerbi heaped praise on Conor Gallagher in his interviews and press conferences before the Sunderland game. He said that he wants to see the player who excelled at Chelsea and Crystal Palace.
While that is fair and Gallagher is a good player, he hasn’t shown it in Tottenham colors. He has been terribly out of form. Hence, starting him over Pape Matar Sarr, who had formed a decent partnership with Archie Gray in recent games, made no sense.
Moreover, the Italian chose Lucas Bergvall to play in the #10 role, where he has struggled all season. Thomas Frank tried it multiple times, but it failed. Again, when Xavi Simons is fit, that choice backfired, as expected.
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The starting midfield should have been Gray-Simons-Sarr.
The starting attack
Dominic Solanke is arguably the best senior striker currently at Tottenham. However, he is also the most out-of-form attacker at the club.
With no right winger due to the injury crisis, Randal Kolo Muani was bound to play on the right wing. However, Richarlison, who is Spurs’ top scorer this season, should be playing in his natural No. 9 position, especially with Solanke so out of form.
Moreover, Mathys Tel, who has been a rare bright spark in an abysmal season for Tottenham, started on the bench again. While on paper, three strikers do provide a good goal threat, in reality, after Richarlison, Tel has been Spurs’ best attacker this season.
The starting attack should have been Tel-Richarlison-Kolo Muani.
Substitutes
After the game, De Zerbi confirmed that his plans to bring Simons on earlier in the game got delayed due to Cristian Romero’s injury. Simons eventually came on in the 85th minute when he couldn’t have done anything considering the game state.
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De Zerbi also brought on Joao Palhinha for Archie Gray in the 62nd minute. While Gray didn’t have a good game, subbing him off after going 1-0 down made no sense. This is the kind of sub one makes when their team is 1-0 up.
As a result, Tottenham had a midfield pairing of Palhinha and Gallagher, with Sarr ahead of them, for around 25 minutes while they were chasing a goal.
To top that, the Italian brought on Tel after the goal as well, but picked Richarlison to replace him with, despite Solanke’s poor performance. As aforementioned, the Brazilian is Tottenham’s top scorer and is also the best header in the team, along with Romero.
With Sunderland looking to sit deep, surely a good header of the ball is necessary to potentially get on the end of crosses.
Now, this was De Zerbi’s first game in charge of Tottenham. Hence, one would hope that he would learn from the performances of the players and choose differently against Brighton.
However, there was evidence of over 30 games this season already, and these choices ended up being expectedly wrong. These choices were even more surprising, considering De Zerbi is an attacking coach who prioritizes highly technical players.
Regardless, Tottenham don’t have the luxury of time to experiment. They have zero league wins in over four months in 2026, and the relegation battle is not in their hands anymore. If they are to have a miraculous turnaround, it will have to start with the managers picking the right team for once.
