Roberto De Zerbi felt he had to ‘coach’ Mathys Tel how to play as a striker after he was spotted berating his player after Tottenham’s draw with Everton.
A miserable start to the campaign for Spurs continued on Saturday evening with the Toffees holding them to a goalless draw in north London.
Tottenham are still to win a game this season and failure to score tonight extends their goal drought to over six hours.
It is the first time the club have failed to score in their opening four league matches of the season.
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Dominic Solanke was ineffective up top with Tel brought onto replace him after the hour mark.
The change did little to inspire De Zerbi’s attack who mustered just two shots on goal.
Immediately after the final whistle, the Italian walked onto the pitch straight over to Tel, berating the former Bayern Munich starlet in a tense exchange. Tel stood with his arms on his hips.
Explaining the incident, De Zerbi said in his post-match press conference: ‘I was coaching him on the pitch. The body shape, he is a striker, the striker will play with his shoulder on the goal (side).
‘If we are playing with Maddison, Kudus and Savinho, he has to play as a striker. And the striker has to look at the goal, no? Or on the cross of Robertson.
‘Because he started as a striker. Now he is playing as a winger but he started his career as a striker. But I love Mathys as a player, as a guy. There is not a problem.’
Former Tottenham midfielder Jamie Redknapp meanwhile was scathing in his criticism of a ‘diabolical’ performance from the hosts.
‘After spending £300m, I didn’t think there would be a problem scoring goals,’ Redknapp said on Sky Sports.
‘I thought that they might struggle to win games, a few teething problems, but I thought with the players they’ve got in midfield…surely they have goals in this team.
‘To not score in the Premier League in six hours of football is absolutely diabolical, whatever way you look at it.
‘They defended better today, the centre-backs were better than what they had been. But there was just not enough. How can you not score in six hours of football?
‘They have not got the right balance in the team. ‘There are so many problems to solve in a game just to score a goal.’