'Not Football Manager' - De Zerbi says misfiring Spurs need time — SkimNews
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- Tottenham drew 0-0 at Nottingham Forest for their first Premier League point of the season after defeats to Brentford and Newcastle, failing to score in three straight league games for the first time since 1974-75.
- De Zerbi told Sky Sports "you can't just build the team with the names like in Football Manager," noting his 10 senior signings only began training together last Thursday following Spurs' £300m+ summer outlay.
- VAR ruled out Neco Williams' bundled second-half effort that would have given Forest the win, sparing Spurs from a third straight Premier League defeat.
- Mykhailo Mudryk made his first Premier League appearance since November 2024, coming off the bench on loan from Chelsea after serving a four-year ban for testing positive for meldonium.
- Danny Murphy told BBC Sport that Spurs "rushed it" in the final third, lacking composure when reaching good attacking positions and taking men on "one too many times."
Why it matters: De Zerbi wants patience, but Tottenham's three-game scoring drought — their worst league start since 1974-75 — combined with £300m+ spent and 10 new faces only just beginning to gel in training, leaves almost no margin for slow integration before results pressure mounts on the new manager.
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