Tudor out, De Zerbi in.

By David Best

Tottenham Hotspur have sacked Igor Tudor and appointed Roberto De Zerbi as Head Coach. There is a lot to unpack here. Why did they appoint Tudor in the first place? What is the current situation for the Lilywhites? Is De Zerbi the man for the job? In this article, I will be discussing all of the above.

Igor Tudor lasted barely more than a month at Spurs, his time was marked by painful failures on the pitch and very little positivity to speak of. The ‘Magnum Opus’ of his tenure was the horrific 5-2 loss away to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League, in which, for some reason, he decided to bench Vicario, the club’s long-established first-choice keeper. Instead, a young Antonín Kinsky started the match between the sticks and made his UCL debut. This was probably, if not definitely, the worst Champions League debut a keeper has ever made. He conceded 3 goals within 20 minutes, two of which were borderline own goals in which he passed the ball directly to opposition attackers. In fairness, the second goal was a mistake from one of his defenders, Micky Van de Ven,  where he slipped and allowed the ball to roll past him into the feet of Antoine Griezmann. He was taken off the field within half an hour and replaced by Vicario off the bench. Let’s break this down for a moment. What on Earth was Tudor thinking? In one move, he has shown his first-choice keeper that he doesn’t rate him by benching him in a high-stakes UCL match, and he’s destroyed the confidence of the backup by taking him off after 3 howlers at the start of the game.

The only excuse I can possibly imagine is that he was ‘resting’ Vicario for that weekend’s league match, but do you really have to rest the keeper of all players? He didn’t feel it necessary to rest Van de Ven who is one of the teams most crucial players. My honest theory is that Tudor knew exactly what would happen. He started Kinsky knowing that he would not be able to handle the shots that would pepper his goal from Griezmann, Alvarez and Simeone. I truly believe that the only explanation for what happened was that he knew Spurs would crumble against Atletico Madrid and needed a scapegoat, so he used Kinsky. The final straw for Tudor’s time at Spurs was the heavy 3-0 loss to their relegation rivals Nottingham Forest.

Tudor out, De Zerbi in.

Roberto De Zerbi is a talented coach, that much cannot be disputed. Just a few seasons ago at Brighton, he essentially revolutionised Premier League tactics by actually inviting pressure from the opposition. He was the godfather of truly baiting presses from the opposition. At the time, teams pressed extremely high; Klopp’s Liverpool and Arteta’s Arsenal are good examples. Instead of avoiding these high presses, he sought them out. He instructed his players to be extremely patient at the back, pass the ball around and wait for the opposition’s forwards to trigger the press. When this happened, snap, you fell for it. Within a flash his defence would play lovely quick one/two touch passes through the pressing players in the midfielders who could take the ball on the half turn and immediately get it out to the front line where his wingers such as Mitoma would remain wide, allowing them to receive the ball in a 1 vs 1 situation with the opposition full backs. Essential midfielders such as Moises Caicedo and Alexis MacAllister made this play possible.

Now what are the pros and cons?

Pros:

• Extremely fast-paced attacks make it extremely difficult to defend
• Wingers remaining wide stretches the opposition backline, leaving spaces in between the centre backs for the striker(s) to exploit
• Quick passing moves from the back to the middle can bypass multiple opposition players in an instant

Cons:

• High risk – one error at the back meant immediate danger as the opposition forwards would receive the ball in dangerous areas
• Dependant on extremely talented specialists such as Caicedo and MacAllister who are able to operate under pressure
• Can become predictable

So essentially what happened to De Zerbi at Brighton was that he got found out. Teams simply stopped pressing high because it became clear that this was what he wanted. That is a key reason why the current Premier League ‘meta’ is to sit deep in low defensive blocks and trigger the press less often than before. This led to his departure to Marseille in which he has been able to turn the French side into real players in that league. It is here where De Zerbi made some very troubling comments around former Manchester United forward Mason Greenwood. The disgraced player left for France after it became public knowledge that he had sexually assaulted his partner, something that De Zerbi mounted a defence of. Other pundits have done the same, citing the apparent ‘forgiveness’ of Greenwood from his partner/victim. Others try to rationalise it by attempting to separate the person from football.

Thus, his appointment at Spurs has been shrouded in doubt and controversy. Many Spurs fans disapprove of his stance regarding Greenwood, while others question how his tactics will save them from relegation. As previously discussed, his high risk, high reward strategies of inviting pressure and playing through the press are now outdated in the Premier League and likely to fail at Tottenham.

I hope for the sake of all Spurs fans that I am wrong about my prediction of his coming failure, not only for them to avoid relegation but also to avoid incurring the massive cost that will come if they decide to sack him (as instead of a short term contract until the end of the season they have decided to sign him on a massive 5 year deal). Time will tell, hopefully the next article relating to the Lilywhites I write is much more positive.