Roberto De Zerbi: Tottenham need to ‘unblock ourselves’ if we want to win games

Roberto De Zerbi called for calm after Tottenham’s run without a Premier League goal extended to four matches and insisted once they “unblock ourselves” the wins will follow.

Spurs played out a second consecutive 0-0 draw after a bright start at home to Everton failed to translate into clear-cut chances, and instead David Moyes’ visitors could have claimed all three points after two second-half openings.

After Tottenham signed 10 players and committed more than £380million on transfer fees this summer, a tally of two points, two draws and two defeats after four league matches is underwhelming, but De Zerbi urged his squad to “ignore social media” and again reiterated they were “late” to start the season.

“I said we started this season late in many, many reasons and too late. Many players at the World Cup, many injuries, many problems in Australia,” De Zerbi said.

“There is a word in Italian (sbloccarsi) that literally translates as if we unblock ourselves. I think the team is extremely strong and we can score goals. We can win games.

“A mental block because four games, no wins, (without) any goals scored. It is tough also for the players because they are human and they are very good guys.

“And I asked them to follow me because if last season I was positive, I can’t understand why I cannot be the same this season.

“We speak about the Premier League, it’s four games. I think the people and the fans, I think they already understood if I take an excuse or not.

“I came last season when the s*** was like this (head high), you know? S***, I repeat and I’ve always been, not positive, but realistic.

“Now I explained, I’m sorry for the results, but it’s not immediate, no? Not the improvement, not immediate to make a team.

“Today we played as a team. We didn’t score, we didn’t win, but today and Nottingham (Forest), I think we played as a team. And I can’t say nothing as an attitude, as a behaviour of the players.

“I said to stay calm, maybe to not lose the confidence because we are not scoring, we are not winning. Stay calm, improve, work hard and individually try to understand where is the improvement.”

Four months after Tottenham beat Everton on the final day to secure survival and deny David Moyes’ men European qualification, the Toffees boss was happy to earn a first point at Spurs since 2020.

Moyes said: “Was I happy with the performance? No, not really. I wanted much more from the team, but I told them about coming here and we’ve not had a great record.

“It was only a couple of months ago we were probably stopped from getting to Europe by not winning here. I generally felt we had to come here and show a bit more, be resilient and tough.

“Tottenham were so good for 20 minutes, put us under so much pressure and we found it difficult to escape but we were worthy (of a point).”