Roberto De Zerbi is preparing for his first game in charge of Spurs at the Stadium of Light this weekend
Roberto De Zerbi has been handed a potential injury boost at Spurs after forward Mathys Tel was spotted in training over the weekend.
Tel had emerged as an early injury doubt for De Zerbi's first game at Sunderland on Sunday after picking an injury in the defeat to Nottingham Forest just before the break. The forward then withdrew from international duty with France U21s but was spotted in footage posted by Spurs of their new head coach's first training session.
In his first interview, De Zerbi confirmed he would stay at the club next season regardless of whether they are able to avoid relegation from the Premier League over the course of the next seven games. And while he hinted that limited training time would require some tactical pragmatism in the short term, he also spoke of wanting to live up to Spurs' traditional possession-based style.
"I think we have to be focused just on the Sunderland game," De Zerbi said.
"I don't want to speak about the schedule or the Brighton game or the Wolverhampton game. Game by game, we have to prepare the players to win the game and to be focused just on the game. We have to play with courage. We have to play with the qualities of the players, because if I accept this challenge, it's because I have a big confidence in the players and the style of the history of Tottenham football is a very clear style of play.
"I think it is not the right moment to speak about my philosophy for football. I am here now at the end of the season because we have to win the games. In football, the style of play and the tactical disposition are important. There is a mentality and I would like to help the player to reach the best mentality we can show.
"I signed five years of contract because for me it is a big challenge and I will be the coach of Tottenham next season, no matter what. I love keeping the ball, I love possession, I love to create chances to score. But at the same time, I love having 11 defenders when we don't have the ball, because in this time of football, we have to attack with 11 players, with the goalkeeper as well. We have to defend with 11 players when the ball is not for us. I think in this moment, we have no time to work too much on more principles, but we have to know what we have to do on the pitch. We have to have a good organisation on the pitch, with the ball, without the ball. We have to consider the qualities of the players. We are lucky, I am lucky because I have big players with big talent and my work is to help the players to show their qualities."
The rest of the Spurs injury news ahead of Sunderland clash
Conor Gallagher, Lucas Bergvall and Joao Palhinha were all also spotted in the training footage having recently returned from injury. Goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario is a major doubt having undergone hernia surgery over the recent break, while Pape Sarr is a fresh doubt having picked up a shoulder issue while representing Senegal on international duty. Mohammed Kudus and Rodrigo Bentancur could be in contention to return at the Stadium of Light having started individual work before the break.
Ben Davies and Yves Bissouma are pushing to return from their injuries this month, while James Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski are hoping to return before the end of the campaign. Winger Wilson Odobert is a long-term absentee with an ACL injury.
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