At 00:30 CEST on September 16, Tottenham Hotspur will play an away match against Liverpool in the EFL Cup third round. After the media embargo was lifted, the off-the-record portion of Tottenham Hotspur manager Enzo De Zerbi's pre-match press conference was made public. This article covers the latter part of that content.

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Last season, when the team faced confidence issues, it seemed you enjoyed hosting dinners or having team activities with drinks to ease players' tension. Are you using the same strategy now? Do you hope players won't feel too pressured or worried in their hearts?

Last week I went out to dinner with all the players.

Was there food on the table?

Yes. There was water, and there was beer. Yes.

Was it still that restaurant in Mayfair?

Yes.

What is the core intention behind doing this? Is it to help players completely relax and feel comfortable?

Not entirely. Perhaps I may not be sufficiently objective when evaluating my players, but my thoughts on them could be completely different from what you in the media think. I believe they are all very good players. We are currently building a new project and creating a completely new team. If the team doesn't score and doesn't win, I will gladly take responsibility.

But I will never change my faith and assessment of these players. Whether they win and score or don't score, I will not change my attitude toward them and the respect I owe them. If we want to change the difficulties of the past two or three seasons, at this point we must show stronger inner strength, firmly believe in our daily training, believe in the players' qualities and abilities, and believe in the decision I made a month ago. Otherwise, we will inevitably fall into an endless cycle of constant change. We can keep changing players, keep changing coaches, change things back and forth, but ultimately there will be no real change.

Instead, we must remain clear-headed, maintain a humble attitude, work with proper professionalism, each of us bravely take our own responsibility, firmly face difficulties and move forward, stay focused, keep training, keep fighting, and believe in ourselves without wavering. Because I genuinely believe in my players, I hope they believe in themselves just as firmly as I believe in them.

We've discussed how to reduce the psychological burden on players and create a good environment to help them score and improve performance. I'd like to know specifically what you can do on the training ground to improve players' finishing quality and their ability to execute in the final attacking phase.

I've previously emphasized the importance of video analysis. In modern football, video analysis is crucial. What you see on the pitch and what you see on video footage are completely different. Video helps us execute our overall tactical cooperation better. But beyond team tactics, specialized individual training is also essential. For example, through professional individual training we can improve assist quality, refine crossing points, and enhance the ability to attack from the forward position.

For example, Andrew Robertson's positioning in that area was actually part of our pre-match tactical plan. If you watched that match carefully or remember the details: Johnson was on the right, Andrew Robertson moved further forward, Sandro Tonali spread wider, and Maddison roamed in the half-space. Johnson may have been slightly confused by the movement at that time, right?

But when Andrew Robertson delivered the cross, the way and position of our scramble toward goal was actually incorrect. The forward's movement, the opposite winger's follow-up, and the two midfielders' half-space penetration did not meet requirements. They must penetrate decisively into the penalty area. Perhaps the first cross won't lead directly to a goal, but with good positioning they can fight for the second ball, or react quickly to regain possession when they lose the ball in that area. Whether near the penalty area or in the attacking third of the pitch.

We must show stronger attacking aggression. Sometimes we can score through direct combinations, but more often we need to create chances through sustained pressure. When we lose possession in attack, we must react immediately and positively to win the ball back and score in that moment.

Roberto, one last question about the international break. What do you think about the timing of this international break?

I have enough difficult issues to deal with right now that I don't have the energy to worry about the international break. I really don't know. We can only move forward one step at a time. It may be good. If there's a break every month that disrupts the league rhythm, that would be worse. But we'll have to wait and see what the specific situation is.

Do you have a specific training plan for the players who will stay at the club?

I want to wait until each national team's final squad list is confirmed. Yes, and then we will prepare... We've prepared two different training plans and will organize everything properly.

I'm curious. Is it harder to build a new project at a club like Tottenham Hotspur, where expectations and interest are very high not just in results but also in tactical football style? Does it feel like an additional heavy burden because there's always enormous pressure to play beautifully and score many goals?

No, no, listen to me. I am very happy to be working at Tottenham Hotspur, and I am incredibly proud to be managing here. I am experiencing and going through all of this with great passion and doing my best. This is completely normal and an unavoidable part of building any new project. It is unfair and wrong to blindly compare the present with the past.

If you list the names of major Premier League teams over the past decade, they invested huge sums and replaced many players, but these changes never happen overnight or immediately. Change requires sufficient time. Sometimes you might think it will go smoothly at first, and sometimes the momentum might be stronger later, but all of this is a very regular plan, a regular project, and a regular development process.

If I may ask, who pays for these lavish dinners each time?

Of course I do. I'm the manager of this team! I'm older than the players, and having dinner with them is an honor and a pleasure for me.

If you keep treating everyone to meals, you'll spend all your bonuses...

Ha, yes, but I just need to save on cigarettes. Everything else is fine.

Let's talk about something a bit more serious. You've mentioned extensive work on video analysis, practical training, and tactical analysis, which I completely understand. So do strikers typically do additional shooting drills? Do you have a traditional supplementary training program?

Of course we do. Do you think we actually do this? We've always done it, and we've always had special training sessions.

So every day after training, you'll do an extra hour of shooting practice?

We've done it before, and the same was true before the match against Everton on Saturday. I don't need to say much about this. It's because the players themselves genuinely want to train more and put in more effort. It's never a case of the manager forcing them. It's not that the manager comes over and orders "everyone train an extra 30 minutes." No, the players themselves desperately want to stay and train more. The players are eager to improve themselves, and because they acutely feel the pain of recent losses and not scoring, they want more than anyone to change the current situation through extra training.

AI 번역.

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