De Zerbi to Spurs: This Isn't Football Manager — SkimNews
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- Tottenham drew 0-0 at Nottingham Forest, earning a first point of the season after defeats to Brentford and Newcastle, while failing to score in three straight Premier League games for the first time since 1974-75.
- De Zerbi compared his new-look squad to a Football Manager save file, telling Sky Sports 'you can't just build the team with the names,' and said the 10 senior arrivals only began training together last Thursday.
- Tottenham spent over £300m this summer — part of a record £3.49bn Premier League outlay — yet mustered 38 shots with 3.3 expected goals and zero goals scored across the three league matches.
- VAR ruled out Neco Williams' bundled second-half effort that would have condemned Spurs to a third straight defeat, while the visitors failed to register a shot on target in a top-flight match for the first time since April 2022.
- Mykhailo Mudryk came off the bench for his first Premier League appearance since November 2024, returning from a four-year doping ban via a deadline-day loan from Chelsea.
- Danny Murphy told BBC Sport Spurs lacked composure, saying 'when Spurs did get in really good areas, they just rushed it and shot when they maybe should've passed.'
Why it matters: De Zerbi is buying himself time with the Football Manager line, but the underlying numbers — 38 shots, 3.3 xG, zero goals — show Spurs are creating chances and simply not finishing, a problem the manager tied directly to his new signings still building on-field chemistry after only a few days of joint training.
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