De Zerbi Criticises Medical Staff as Tottenham’s Goal Drought Hits Three Games

• Roberto De Zerbi criticised his own forwards, including new signing Omar Marmoush, for failing to make the right decisions in the final third of Tottenham’s goalless draw with Nottingham Forest.
• The Tottenham manager also said he was “not happy” that his medical staff pushed him to substitute Savio and Destiny Udogie after 60 minutes, a call he blamed for costing his side momentum.
• Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson warned De Zerbi against airing those complaints in public, pointing to Enzo Maresca’s exit from Chelsea after he criticised his own medical team over substitutions.

The Same Warning Sign That Preceded Enzo Maresca’s Exit From Chelsea

Tottenham have spent £400m rebuilding a squad that still cannot score a Premier League goal, and after three matches without one, Roberto De Zerbi picked a strange moment to point fingers. Following the goalless draw with Nottingham Forest on September 5, the Italian criticised his forwards for wasting good positions in the final third, then turned on his own medical department for forcing two substitutions he said broke his team’s rhythm.

Paul Merson, writing in his Sky Sports column, said the comments should worry Spurs supporters far more than the result itself.

What De Zerbi Actually Said

Spurs finished the game at the City Ground without a single shot on target. Speaking afterward, De Zerbi walked through a series of missed chances in detail. “I remember the chance when Omar Marmoush shot at goal, the way we had Robertson overlapping. If we take the right decision and we play with Andy Robertson then on the second post there is Kudus to score like this,” he said.

He kept going. “How many crosses went over the second post? From Mathys Tel, two times, Savio, one time. Savio, I think it’s the last decision.” He also pointed to a passage involving Pedro Porro, Mateus Fernandes and Dominic Solanke, arguing Fernandes had space to run into but chose the wrong pass.

Then De Zerbi turned to his own staff. Savio and Destiny Udogie were both withdrawn after 60 minutes, and the manager said the call was not his to make. “The second half, I’m sorry because the medical staff pushed to change Savio and Udogie after 60 minutes,” he said. “Kudus and Robertson, they played very well. But two substitutions in that moment was not so good.”

He did not stop there. “I’m not happy. But football is like this. Savio has not the best physical condition to play 90 minutes. He’s an important player for us, a crucial player. Destiny is another crucial player for us.” He added a line that read like a manager protecting himself from blame: “I’m not happy when we have the plan, but it’s for my advantage, for my business, the management of the players after injuries.”

Merson’s Chelsea Comparison

Merson’s response was blunt. “Roberto De Zerbi had a go at his forwards after the game. He also had a go at his medical staff for dictating his substitutions. You say that in the dressing room; don’t come out and say it. You need to keep that in-house,” he wrote.

He then drew a direct line to a manager who lost his job at Chelsea after a similar public complaint. “That would worry me as a Spurs fan. De Zerbi does fall out with people. I don’t know if he’s covering himself there with those comments about the medical staff, because that could be kept quiet. He’s having a go at them, and you saw what happened with Enzo Maresca at Chelsea when he started calling out the medical team for dictating his substitutions. He left a few weeks later.”

Merson did not agree with every part of the press conference. On the forwards, he pushed back. “I don’t understand having a go at the forwards, though. They didn’t have 20 chances. It’s not as if the Nottingham Forest goalkeeper was man of the match. I didn’t see that at all,” he said.

A Rebuild That Has Not Produced a Single Goal

Tottenham spent heavily this summer, agreeing a deal worth up to £85m for Savio from Manchester City and adding Marmoush among a wave of new attacking options. De Zerbi took the job in March on a five-year contract, tasked with lifting a club that finished 17th in each of the last two seasons. Three games into his first full campaign, none of that investment has translated into a goal. Spurs lost their opener 3-0 at Brentford, were beaten 2-0 by Newcastle United, and then failed to break down a Nottingham Forest side that had itself lost 3-0 to West Ham United in its previous match.

Merson pointed out that the mood around the club needs to stay realistic rather than panicked. “It’s a long way to go for Spurs. But my problem is the mentality. You don’t come 17th two years on the trot and expect to turn it around in a New York minute,” he said. “I think people have got to be patient. Spurs shouldn’t worry about being eight points behind Arsenal, all they’ve got to worry about is who’s fifth, and how many points they’re behind fifth. They’re not finishing ahead of Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal.”

He also gave Tottenham some credit for the point itself, suggesting they were fortunate to leave the City Ground with anything after Neco Williams had a goal ruled out by VAR. “I thought Spurs were fortunate against Nottingham Forest, if Neco Williams is a little bit braver, then Forest win. But it’s a start for them,” Merson said.

A Complaint Made in Public Rather Than Behind Closed Doors

Maresca left Chelsea earlier this year after a dispute over medical decisions spilled into public view and helped end his relationship with the club’s hierarchy. Merson’s point is not that De Zerbi is wrong to be frustrated by his medical department’s calls. It is that saying so in a press conference, with cameras running, is a different act entirely from raising it inside the building. Whether De Zerbi’s comments become a footnote in a slow start or the first sign of a pattern depends on what happens over Tottenham’s next few matches.

Spurs host Everton on September 12 in their first game back from the international break, and De Zerbi knows another afternoon without a goal will only make Merson’s comparison harder to dismiss. For now he remains backed by a board that sanctioned the summer spending and wants time for the rebuild to work. But three games without a goal, a press conference spent blaming his own forwards and his own medical staff, and a well-known pundit invoking a manager who was sacked months after making an almost identical complaint, is not the platform Tottenham hoped their new head coach would be standing on this early into the season.

Arsenal’s Perfect Start Widens the Gap

Merson’s point about the table understates how stark the gap already is. Arsenal have won all three of their opening fixtures, which puts Tottenham eight points behind the leaders after just three rounds of the season. The draw with Forest was built on a let-off rather than control of the game: Neco Williams thought he had put the hosts ahead in the 67th minute, bundling the ball home on the goal line, only for VAR to rule that he had used his arm in the build-up and chalk the goal off.

The parallel Merson drew with Chelsea has specific detail behind it. Maresca was sacked on New Year’s Day after growing tension with the club’s medical staff over how long injured players were allowed to play, a dispute that became public before his exit. Chelsea eventually put their head of physical performance on the bench for games to manage substitutions directly, a step that followed Maresca’s own frustration with the restrictions being placed on him. De Zerbi’s press conference complaints followed a similar pattern, airing disagreements with the people managing his players’ workloads rather than keeping the disagreement in-house.

Why Tottenham Took the Risk on De Zerbi

De Zerbi built his reputation at Brighton with a possession-heavy style that asked defenders to play out from the back under pressure, then took Marseille to a Ligue 1 title challenge before Tottenham moved for him in the spring. The appeal was obvious: a coach who wanted the ball, trusted young players, and had never been afraid of an unpopular selection. The risk was just as obvious. De Zerbi has fallen out with directors of football before, and his sides have occasionally taken time to click into gear while senior players adjust to his demands in possession.

That risk is now being tested in public. Marmoush arrived as one of several new attacking signings meant to fix a Tottenham side that scored too rarely last season, and instead he is being cited by his own manager as an example of what is going wrong. Savio’s £85m fee was the headline number of Tottenham’s summer, and three games in, the winger is being managed carefully by medical staff rather than driving results on the pitch. Neither situation looks like the platform De Zerbi and the Tottenham board expected when they committed to this rebuild.