De Zerbi blasts £165m attack after goalless draw at Nottingham Forest

Tottenham and the pain named goals: De Zerbi vents fury at £165m attack

Tottenham Hotspur enter this Premier League season with a strange problem: they cannot score. For the first time since 2026, the north London club failed to find the net in their opening three league matches. A goalless draw against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground was the final straw that broke Roberto De Zerbi's patience. An attack worth a total of £165 million – signings expected to deliver sharpness – left him shaking his head in front of the tactical board more than once.

"In the final third, we have to improve," De Zerbi said after the match. "We have to improve and take better decisions, make keep calmer when we are close to doing something important. We had enough chances, but the choices made by our attacking players are unacceptable."

Statistics do not lie. Tottenham did not register a single shot on target against Nottingham Forest. They dominated possession, but their toothlessness in the final third made the entire team look helpless. Even though De Zerbi did not name individuals in his official statement, he pointed out several situations where his players had better options but chose worse ones.

The clearest example came when Omar Marmoush shot over the bar while Andy Robertson was overlapping down the left. De Zerbi explained that a quicker, smarter decision would have left Mohammed Kudus waiting at the far post to score. "When Omar Marmoush had a shot and it went over, we had Andy Robertson overlapping. If we had taken the right decision, Mohammed Kudus was at the far post waiting to score," he said.

The Italian coach also counted the number of crosses that sailed beyond the far post. Mathys Tel did it twice, and Savio – a £75m signing – did it once. "How many crosses did we send beyond the far post? Mathys Tel, twice. Savio, once," De Zerbi said. "Tel has big potential but he takes too many wrong decisions." He also confirmed that substituting Savio and Destiny Udogie was entirely due to medical advice, not tactical change.

The specific numbers from those situations revealed an attacking picture even more worrying than the result. The absence of a real centre-forward and poor coordination from rotating attacking players meant Tottenham repeatedly pushed the ball into unoccupied zones. Forwards ran in the wrong directions, chose the wrong timing to make runs, and, more importantly, lacked shared principles to read one another. Modern top-level football does not allow half a second of hesitation. The moment a decision is delayed, the space closes. Tottenham paid for that for 90 minutes at the City Ground.

But if Tottenham felt frustrated by themselves, Nottingham Forest had every right to feel hurt by VAR. In the second half, Neco Williams put the ball in the Tottenham net after it ricocheted off Sandro Tonali's attempted clearance. The home players celebrated, but the referee, after checking VAR, disallowed the goal for handball against Williams in the build-up. The decision infuriated manager Oliver Glasner. He declared: "If we are guessing, VAR cannot intervene. It is not clear and obvious, and we were told before the season the threshold should be very high. We accept the point but it feels like we lost two."

Williams also defended the incident. "It's a goal. VAR is there when there is a clear and obvious error, and for me that is not clear and obvious. I've seen the images and the replays and at not one moment did I think I handballed it," the defender added.

The VAR controversy overshadowed a solid and well-organised defensive display from Nottingham Forest. They did not rush to push high, but when they lost the ball they quickly formed two defensive lines in front of the box. That setup forced Tottenham to pass sideways and backwards without any penetrative ideas. Forest's attack also showed just enough threat to keep pressure on the opponent's defence. Had the referee made a different decision, the outcome could have been different. Football creates such fine marginal situations, and the rules themselves are making it difficult for officials when they must ask: what is the clear and obvious threshold?

From a tactical perspective, Tottenham's display highlighted the gap between creating chances and finishing them. They can get the ball into dangerous areas, but all the decisive passes lacked accuracy or understanding. De Zerbi must quickly find a solution before next weekend's home match against Everton. Will he give opportunities to new faces or continue trusting his expensive signings? The answer will reflect his man-management philosophy: a coach can accept a poor result when the team plays to his ideas, but he cannot accept players repeatedly making the wrong choices when they have the ball.

Meanwhile, Nottingham Forest must also move past their sense of regret. They have produced good performances but have yet to secure their first league win. A trip to Aston Villa next weekend will be a serious test of character, especially against a side also desperate for points. Glasner needs to keep his team focused and not let VAR arguments affect their spirit. Positively, Forest's defence has proven resilient, but football is decided by goals, and they need to improve their chance conversion if they want to climb the table.

The context facing both teams is not easy. Tottenham have no win and no goal, and pressure is mounting on De Zerbi. Nottingham Forest have a point but feel they lost two. Their story this round is like a mirror reflecting two common problems in modern football: the wastefulness of chances and the limits of referee technology. Both leave fans heartbroken, but only one side can turn that emotion into motivation for the next fixture.

For Tottenham, this weekend's game against Everton will say a lot. The team needs to score immediately, but more importantly, they need to regain confidence and sharpness in their final passes. De Zerbi has every right to be angry, but his task is not merely to criticise. He must turn those wrong decisions into repeated training scenarios. Players like Mathys Tel, Savio and Omar Marmoush all have technical quality. The issue lies in their real-time awareness and decision-making, which can only be improved through confidence and consistency within the system. Top-level football does not forgive waste; every match that passes without a goal deepens the mental wound.

Will De Zerbi have the courage to bench his expensive names, or will he patiently wait for them to rediscover their scoring touch? Football is a results business, and the current results are turning against Tottenham. If the attacking fire is not rekindled soon, questions about De Zerbi's future will appear in the media. However, at this moment, the only thing that matters is finding a way to put the ball into the net. Everything else is secondary. Nottingham Forest, meanwhile, do not need to apologise for a decent performance. They simply need a stroke of luck to turn that decency into three points. The match against Aston Villa offers them that chance.