Tottenham's £320m Attack Yet to Score: De Zerbi's Blueprint

Tottenham’s £320m attack has yet to score. Four games in, they stand alongside Coventry City as the only Premier League sides still waiting for a first goal.

For a club that has thrown so much money at the problem, that statistic stings.

Roberto De Zerbi has not arrived in north London to rip up his principles. He has tried to bend them to a new league and a new dressing room, not abandon them. The Premier League he returns to is not the one he left with Brighton in 2024, but the ideas are familiar: provoke pressure, then punish it.

De Zerbi’s risk-and-reward blueprint

His football is built on a simple tension. Slow the game down, invite the press, pass backwards if needed. Lure the opposition in.

Then, when the trap is set, go straight for the jugular.

In a 2020 coaching seminar, De Zerbi summed it up: “The stronger the pressure of the opponent, the more vertical [our] action becomes. [The fewer opponents behind], the easier it becomes to go and score.” That line runs through his work at Brighton and later at Marseille, where from 2024 to 2026 his side averaged 2.3 goals per game.

We have already seen echoes of that at Spurs this season. Forwards isolated in big spaces. Fewer defenders to beat. The structure is there.

What is missing is the finish.

A shape that looks complex – and is

In possession, Tottenham’s layout can look like a puzzle. At times, it settles into a 2-3-2-3: two centre-backs at the base, a holding midfielder – usually Rodrigo Bentancur – sitting just ahead, and then a rotating cast of full-backs, wingers and midfielders forming the rest of the grid.

Bentancur and the centre-backs stay relatively fixed. Around them, everyone else moves.

Wingers drift inside, full-backs push high or tuck in, central midfielders pull wide. When one player vacates a zone, another is expected to slide into it. The shape matters more than the name on the team sheet.

On top of that positional framework sit De Zerbi’s principles. Use the centre. Invite the press. Exploit the space it leaves.

It is the same skeleton that served him so well at Marseille. It just has not yet translated into goals in north London.

Central corridors, crowded minds

De Zerbi wants his teams to play through the middle. That instruction changes everything.

When Spurs’ centre-backs dwell on the ball, opponents are drawn forward. Midfielders step up, forwards close in. The space behind them, between the lines, begins to open. That is where De Zerbi wants his attacking midfielders to live.

Pull the opposition infield like that and another door opens. With defenders squeezed centrally, the wide areas clear for direct wingers to attack. Spurs, in theory, get the best of both worlds: central combinations and isolated wide runners.

But playing into those tight central pockets is not for everyone.

Receiving the ball with an opponent on your back, little time, even less space – that demands a specific skill set and a certain bravery. De Zerbi has recognised that. Sandro Tonali, more comfortable driving into big spaces and facing forward, has often swapped roles with Archie Gray, who starts nominally at right-back. Gray, just 20, has been asked to operate in those cramped zones instead.

It is not his natural role, but he has coped. More importantly, he looks like he understands what his manager wants.

The return of James Maddison, back from a shoulder injury for last Tuesday’s Carabao Cup tie at Liverpool, could be a turning point. Maddison is built for those central pockets – quick feet, quick decisions – and should help Tottenham reach the final third more often and with more control.

The bigger challenge is collective. Players must internalise the instructions, not just rehearse them. They must also unlearn.

Under Thomas Frank at the start of last season, Spurs largely bypassed the centre of the pitch, building up down the flanks to minimise the danger of losing the ball in traffic. De Zerbi is asking them to do the opposite: embrace risk in the most congested part of the pitch.

Changing that instinct takes time.

The pass that never comes

Spurs are getting into promising positions. Their build-up regularly breaks lines, especially when they spring forward quickly after drawing a press. From there, the pitch opens up.

What happens next has been the problem.

Turning those breaks into chances rests on three things: spotting the right pass, movement ahead of the ball, and the technical ability to deliver. Right now, the biggest blockage lies in that first step – recognition and decision.

Too often, Tottenham players see the run but do not feed it. Or they do not see it at all.

Omar Marmoush has made sharp, aggressive runs in behind, yet the through ball rarely arrives. Gray has tried to slide passes down the line, but Spurs have not consistently looked for the killer ball through the centre.

Pedro Porro’s return could change that dynamic. For Spain this summer, as they won the World Cup, he operated in more central zones and showed how naturally he can create from there. His instinct to play forward, to punch passes between defenders, fits De Zerbi’s demands.

If he brings that same edge to Spurs, those “almost” moments might start to turn into clear chances – the kind De Zerbi’s forwards feasted on at Marseille.

Runs without reward

While Porro builds his rhythm, others are still learning the choreography.

At Marseille, one of De Zerbi’s most reliable patterns involved diagonal runs from wide attackers along the last line of defence, hit by midfielders or defenders willing to play vertical, risk-laden passes. Igor Paixao’s goal in a 2-2 draw with Toulouse last season was a textbook example: direct pass, perfectly timed movement, ruthless finish.

On Tuesday at Anfield, Destiny Udogie offered a glimpse of that pattern on the left. As the game stretched, his power and timing exposed gaps in Liverpool’s shape. Tottenham reached good crossing positions as a result.

Andy Robertson has been solid since arriving at Spurs, but Udogie’s physicality gives De Zerbi another tool when matches become chaotic. Those surges from deep are exactly the kind of runs this system needs.

What comes after the run, though, is still inconsistent.

The final action – and the missing cut-back

When an attacking team suddenly increases the tempo, defenders instinctively retreat towards their own goal. That panic drop creates a different sort of opportunity.

Space opens up at the edge of the box for late-arriving midfielders. Clever strikers can also drift off the last line and appear unmarked in front of the defence.

Marmoush has tried to exploit that zone repeatedly, peeling off, showing for the pull-back. The pass has not always found him.

Some of this is chemistry. Players learning each other’s habits, runs, and preferred angles. For Savio, it is also a question of profile. The left-footed right-winger is excellent at getting to the byline, but less comfortable cutting the ball back on his weaker foot.

On the opposite side, the left-footed Udogie and Robertson have produced clearer chances from crosses. At Marseille, De Zerbi had a different balance: both the right winger and right full-back were happy to cut the ball back on their right foot, repeatedly finding Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, whose movement in the box at 37 remained outstanding.

That level of penalty-area craft is not easy to replicate.

Even so, when you watch Tottenham’s attacks under De Zerbi, you can see the outline of something sharper. The moves are often one detail away – a better-timed run, a braver pass, a cleaner cut-back – from becoming high-quality chances.

The system is not broken. It is incomplete.

Marseille’s forwards were ruthless in space and clinical in front of goal. Spurs’ new-look attack has not yet shown that edge. But if the small details across the pitch tighten – the riskier pass played, the diagonal run spotted, the cut-back delivered on the right foot – the goals should come.

And when a £320m frontline finally clicks into gear, how long will they stay stuck on zero?