De Zerbi’s Spurs Are Closer Than You Think, And That Makes Them Worth Backing

Tottenham haven't scored a single Premier League goal this season. Four games in, they share that unwanted stat with Coventry City. For a club that spent £320m in the summer, mostly on attacking players, that looks damning on the surface. But dig into what Roberto de Zerbi is actually trying to build at Spurs, and the picture gets more interesting for anyone looking at the betting markets.

The System Takes Time, And That's The Point

De Zerbi doesn't do simple football. His style is built around inviting pressure and then punishing it, slowing play down to bait opponents into pressing, then going vertical the moment space appears behind them. It sounds counterintuitive, which is exactly why it catches teams out when it clicks.

At Marseille between 2024 and 2026, his side averaged 2.3 goals per game. That didn't happen overnight. It required players internalising a set of positional rules, rotating through zones rather than fixed positions, and being brave enough to play passes into congested central areas. The same process is underway at Tottenham right now, and it's visibly not finished yet.

The shape De Zerbi is using at Spurs looks like a 2-3-2-3 in possession. Rodrigo Bentancur sits in front of the two centre-backs as a fixed anchor, while the full-backs, wingers and central midfielders rotate around each other, filling spaces as they open up. It creates a fluid structure that can be hard to read, but also hard to execute without total buy-in from the squad.

Here's the kicker for bettors. Tottenham spent most of last season under Thomas Frank building almost entirely down the flanks, deliberately avoiding central combinations because of the turnover risk. De Zerbi is coaching the complete opposite. Getting players to unlearn those habits takes weeks, sometimes months.

Where The Goals Are Actually Getting Blocked

Spurs are getting into good positions. That's the part that doesn't show up in the goal tally but matters enormously for what comes next.

Omar Marmoush has been making the right attacking runs consistently. The movement is there. The problem is that teammates haven't been picking him out, either failing to spot the pass or choosing the safer option instead. That's a decision-making issue rooted in unfamiliarity with the system, not a talent problem.

Archie Gray, operating at right-back rather than his natural position, has actually coped well in the tight central spaces that De Zerbi demands. The 20-year-old looks like he's understood the brief. Pedro Porro, who played a more central possession role for Spain during their World Cup win this summer, should bring natural tendencies that suit this system far better once he's fully up to speed.

On the left flank, Destiny Udogie showed against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup exactly the kind of runs De Zerbi wants from his wide players, diagonal charges to the back post, timed to arrive just as space opens up. Those runs created crossing positions against a stretched Liverpool shape. The blueprint is there.

Savio is a different conversation. Left-footed on the right wing, he's better getting to the byline than cutting the ball back, which limits what Spurs can do from the right side in terms of delivering dangerous crosses. At Marseille, De Zerbi had right-sided players who were comfortable with cutbacks on their stronger foot, and that was a key part of how moves were finished off. It's a detail that matters.

James Maddison Is The Missing Piece

The return of James Maddison from a shoulder injury could be significant, and it's worth factoring into any Tottenham bets in the coming weeks. He's exactly the type of player built for the spaces De Zerbi wants to exploit between the lines. His ability to receive under pressure, turn and play forward is genuinely rare, and it's a profile the current Spurs midfield has been missing.

With Maddison fit and Porro finding his rhythm, the two players most naturally suited to this system will both be available at the same time. The goals, we think, follow shortly after.

Our Call

Tottenham's zero goals tally has pushed their odds in several markets and created some genuine value for anyone paying attention to the underlying picture. We're not in the business of blind loyalty to big clubs, but this isn't a broken team. It's a well-resourced squad learning a complex system at pace, and the signs of that system working are already visible in their build-up play.

Backing Tottenham to score first or backing them on the Asian handicap in the next couple of home matches could be smart before the market corrects itself. The goals are coming. The only question is whether you're on before they arrive.