Roberto De Zerbi advised to lie to his Tottenham squad in last-ditch effort to beat the drop

2 hours ago 28

Two pundits have now declared that Roberto De Zerbi has no choice but to lie to his Tottenham squad about his true feelings after they fell to a 1-0 loss to Sunderland.

Igor Tudor did not shy away from publicly admitting that Tottenham have a lot of problems, but the new Spurs head coach has taken a different approach after losing his first game in charge.

Roberto De Zerbi insisted that Tottenham did not deserve to lose against Sunderland and were unlucky not to emerge with a point from the Stadium of Light.

The Spurs boss also insisted that he is positive about Spurs’ survival chances, suggesting that the Lilywhites have enough quality to stay up.

Pundits say Roberto De Zerbi has no choice but to lie to the Tottenham squad

However, former Arsenal winger Perry Groves and talkSPORT presenter Sam Matterface believe that the Italian has no choice but to remain positive, as he will not want the players’ confidence to drain further.

The pair agreed that the 46-year-old has to tell his squad that he believes in them, even if he has doubts over their character.

Groves told talkSPORT: “Confidence just sort of drains away and Roberto De Zerbi, he’ll probably be positive about his players after the game. Because even if he doesn’t believe it, even if he’s doubting a few of the Spurs players’ characters, he’s got to make them think that he believes in them.”

Sam Matterface then interjected with: “He’s got to lie to them,” to which Groves replied: “Exactly, 100 per cent.”

Matterface then added: “And try and tell them that they can get out of it because the evidence of your eyes says they can’t. The statistics tell you they can’t. They need to win football matches; they don’t win football matches.”

Spurs star admits he is ‘devastated’ after Sunderland loss

Micky van de Ven admitted that he and his teammates are devastated after the loss to Sunderland, insisting that the Lilywhites did not deliver a bad performance at the Stadium of Light.

The Dutchman confessed that nothing seems to be going Tottenham’s way after Cristian Romero went off with an injury in the second half.

It thus appears that De Zerbi faces a massive challenge to get his players up for the final six games of the season, as the Lilywhites stare at the prospect of relegation for the first time in nearly 50 years.