Mohammed Kudus and 5 questions Roberto De Zerbi will answer at first Tottenham press conference

The new Tottenham head coach will be speaking to the media on Friday and he will have plenty of topics to discuss after his appointment

Roberto De Zerbi will hold his first press conference as Tottenham Hotspur head coach on Friday afternoon and he will face plenty of questions.

The Italian will step into the dugout on Sunday for the first time as Spurs boss when the north London side make the trip to Sunderland with the aim of recording their first Premier League victory in 2026. First though the 46-year-old must take a different seat in the press conference room at Hotspur Way on Friday afternoon before he sets out on the task of keeping the club in the Premier League through their final seven matches of the campaign.

De Zerbi will be speaking to the media at 1.30pm on Friday and football.london will be bringing you a live blog from the press conference, a full transcript afterwards with everything the new man said in the main broadcast section and also what he said in the embargoed section for the daily newspapers.

Here are five main topics that will likely form the core of the questions put to the Italian at Tottenham's Enfield-based training complex.

Kudus and injuries

One of the key foundations for De Zerbi's chances of succeeding in the coming seven games could be to get some of the club's big players back in action again after months spent in the treatment room.

Spurs still have nine players out injured, if we're including Pape Matar Sarr, who picked up a shoulder injury on international duty with Senegal.

Before his exit, Igor Tudor had indicated that Mohammed Kudus, Rodrigo Bentancur and James Maddison were all closing in on returns to full training with the squad during or just after the long three-week break between Premier League fixtures for the north London outfit.

However, football.london reported on Thursday that Kudus has had a setback just as he was about to return from his quad tendon injury suffered in January. The extent is unknown but there have been suggestions of surgery being required and that could rule the Ghana star out of the remainder of the season and the World Cup this summer.

De Zerbi will be asked about Kudus, the progress of goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario after his hernia surgery last month as well as Bentancur and Maddison. There's no point asking the new man yet exactly why Tottenham get so many injuries and re-injuries but that will be question no doubt as the months go on.

Coaching staff

There was something a little different about the announcement of De Zerbi's backroom staff this week in that only two members of his normal group joined him on this occasion. Usually at least seven of his trusted coaches follow him from club to club but on this occasion only Marcattilio Marcattilii and Marcello Quinto have joined as fitness coach and senior professional development phase coach respectively.

Bruno Saltor and Andreas Georgson remain at Spurs as De Zerbi's assistant coaches, Cameron Campbell as individual development coach and Fabian Otte as the goalkeeping coach. They will all continue to be supported by Stuart Lewis and Dean Brill as the link for the young academy players stepping up to the first team.

De Zerbi will be asked why so few of his usual coaches have joined him and whether more are likely to arrive in the summer during a bigger coaching shake-up.

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Mason Greenwood and the Spurs fans

This is a subject that will be broached at the press conference because De Zerbi's defence of controversial footballer Mason Greenwood during their time together at Marseille caused a number of Spurs fan groups to rally against his appointment.

Supporter groups Women of the Lane, Proud Lilywhites and Spurs Reach all released statements with a 'No to De Zerbi' campaign and the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters' Trust made their feelings on the 46-year-old clear. It came from him describing Greenwood as a "good guy" that had paid a "heavy price" and added: “It saddens me what happened in his life, because I know a totally different person than the one who was described."

Ex-Manchester United forward Greenwood was charged in October 2022 with one count of attempted rape, one count of controlling and coercive behaviour and one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm over allegations relating to a young women after images and videos were posted online. The Crown Prosecution Service dropped the charges in February 2023 owing to a “combination of the withdrawal of key witnesses” and due to “no realistic prospect of conviction”.

De Zerbi was asked about the subject in his club interview last week and said: "I have never wanted to downplay the issue of violence against women or violence against anyone more broadly. In my life, I have always stood up for those who are more vulnerable (people from underserved communities/protected characteristics), more fragile, I’ve consistently fought and taken a stand to be on the side of those who are most at risk.

"Those of you who know me well, will know that I am not the kind of person who makes compromises to win more games or to win an extra title. I am sorry if I offended anyone's feeling with this subject matter – I have a daughter and I’m very sensitive to these things, and I always have been. I hope that over time people will get to know me better and will understand that at that moment I didn’t mean to take a stance at that time."

Will he compromise his tactics?

As with most Tottenham managerial appointments, the new head coach brings a very different style to their predecessor and that means De Zerbi has just seven matches to implement his ways before it's too late for the relegation-threatened club.

"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," said the Italian.

"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."

Like Tudor before him, De Zerbi appeared to be initially saying that the main thing is results right now rather than the style of football but footage of his training sessions suggest he's trying to get the Spurs stars playing his way, including baiting the press and getting defenders to play the ball out from the back.

The new boss is likely to be quizzed on whether he will need to compromise his style for now before bringing his full methods in for next season.

Why now and will he stick around?

Another question to be asked is what made De Zerbi change his mind of waiting until the summer rather than taking on this huge situation right now with just seven games to go and Spurs potentially in the bottom three when he takes his first game on Sunday afternoon?

Was it just the mega money as one of the Premier League's top earning managers or did he get more guarantees about his power within the club going forward? Or did he simply believe he can keep Tottenham up and use this is a pre-season of sorts to hit the ground running next season?

Another question is the five-year contract for a man who spends on average around 18 months at clubs. Does De Zerbi truly believe that he will be in charge of Tottenham for years to come? We'll find out his thoughts on that and plenty more at Friday's press conference at Hotspur Way.