What Roberto De Zerbi said on Tottenham training pitch was terrifying but will unlock Spurs

Here are the five things we spotted during the new Tottenham head coach's first training session at Hotspur Way on Friday

Roberto De Zerbi got to work on the Hotspur Way training pitches after meeting his Tottenham players for the first time on Friday.

The Italian agreed a five-year deal with Spurs this week and is looking to save them from relegation from the Premier League before building a better version of the team from next season onwards. With his work permit secured, De Zerbi was able to begin getting his philosophy across to his players at the Enfield training complex on Friday.

The new head coach has nine days to get his ideas into the team ahead of their return to Premier League action on April 12 at Sunderland before De Zerbi's old team Brighton come to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on April 18.

football.london understands that the Spurs players went home with rave reviews of the 46-year-old's first day of training, one at the session telling close friends that it was "outstanding" and numerous others bringing glowing reports back about the level of the work.

Here are five things we noticed from the club's extended video of the outdoor work between De Zerbi and his Tottenham players.

What they did

After putting in some gym work, De Zerbi took a mixture of first teamers and a sprinkling of academy players out on the grass at Hotspur Way.

While none of his new coaching staff were on show in the video, the Italian was in the middle of everything as a noisy presence, giving feedback and coaching instructions throughout the session which comprised of a physical warm-up, passing rondos, an end-to-end possession drill and finally a competitive six-a-side match with three teams.

Who he paid attention to

Obviously we only saw a snapshot of the session but while coming out on to the pitches in Enfield, De Zerbi made a point of heading over to Lucas Bergvall, putting an arm around the young Swede and having a prolonged chat with him at different parts of the pitch.

The new Spurs boss also had a chat with Mathys Tel in one moment during a rondo, which seemed to be about where to look and move his head before passing or turning.

To complete the trio of 20-year-olds, the name 'Archie' was rarely far from De Zerbi's lips as he spoke on the pitch and constantly namechecked Archie Gray.

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What De Zerbi said

You could hear snippets of what De Zerbi was telling his players and it all pointed towards what his version of Tottenham Hotspur will eventually be.

During one rondo he said: "One or two touch. With two touch it is impossible to lose the ball because we are five to pass against two. Enjoy, enjoy but you have to move. Enjoy with the ball.

"A lot of teams now they come man to man. Man to man you need to pass the ball. It's important, one touch, two touch."

What he said later will terrify some Spurs fans who don't like their team playing out from the back under pressure but it will unlock a Tottenham team that has looked scared to play football this season, under a new head coach whose whole philosophy is about baiting the press.

"Keep the ball, keep the ball. Attract the pressure. Attract the pressure," said the Italian. "The speed of the ball possession, the opponent decides our speed. When they are coming in front, we need to be faster in moving the ball, giving angles, giving solutions."

Assist for Richarlison

De Zerbi used to be a number 10 as a player back in Serie A and he showed a lovely touch when restarting one of the six-a-side matches with a pinpoint dragged backheel into the part of Richarlison who buried his shot into the bottom left corner of the net.

With complaints from the other team, the head coach said loudly: "Hey I'm the same with anybody!"

With his next restart he made sure there was no favouritism by booting the ball high up into the air. Richarlison ran in to challenge for it but it was Joao Palhinha who won the ball and headed it to Tel and the young Frenchman arrowed a shot into the net to win the game for his side.

Missing players

We can only go on what we were shown in the training video and photos from Friday's session but out on the pitches there appeared to be no sign of captain Cristian Romero, who was one of the last back from international duty so may have been recovering after his journey back across the world.

Pape Matar Sarr missed Senegal's second game with a shoulder problem and could not be spotted and neither could Pedro Porro after his international duty with Spain.

There were no returning players from injury on show in the footage of training as of yet, including Guglielmo Vicario as he recovers from his hernia surgery.

De Zerbi will be hoping he gets some of those in the treatment room back into full training before the trip to Sunderland next weekend.