sports | Anything But Penalties

Spurs managed to make their way through three managerial appointments over the course of the 2025/2026 season. From turgid Thomas Frank ball, to Igor Tudor’s baffling reign, finally settling on saviour Roberto De Zerbi. Our eyes, and the results, told us that we finally ended up with the only competent candidate, but how do the top level stats look?

Note: I got the following from the excellent: https://understat.com/ which allows you to filter by dates.

Also Note: we don’t have great sample sizes, apart from for Frank, but it’s still interesting to compare.

Results

As expected De Zerbi’s record is the best. He makes it into the top half of the table during the his stint for the final seven games. Interestingly, it looks like this had more to do with a tightening up of the defence, rather than an increased scoring rate.

Expected goals

Goals are rare events, and as such, expected goals can often give a clearer picture of true form, especially when the sample size is small.

This matches more closely to my experience of watching these three versions of Tottenham. Tudor was the worst, but interestingly still not quite in the bottom three for the period he was in charge. Burnley, Wolves and Newcastle! had a worse expected points haul over those five games.

Frank was bad. Maybe not relegation bad, but the team were trending in that direction. The expected goals column makes more sense than the goals figure in the table above. On xG De Zerbi’s attack was more productive. Again it’s an even starker contrast for xGA (expected goals against). And Frank told us he was concentrating on building the defence first!

Conclusion

These number back up the general narrative among Spurs fans that Frank’s team was bad, Tudor’s team even worse, while De Zerbi had an immediate impact. Given that of the three, Frank was supposed to know the league, had time in preseason, two transfers windows, and (for at least part of the time) more fit players available to him, the numbers look particularly damning.

Do these stats back up the differences between the three managers? Are you happy we ended up with De Zerbi?

And breath. Finally Spurs are safe from the threat of relegation after making supporters sweat until the final moments of the final game. It feels so cathartic, especially as everything now resets. We begin next season level with everyone else. It almost feels like cheating.

Big changes are clearly necessary, but who should stay and who should go?

The Board

Spurs problems begins at the top. Vinai Venkatesham should be the first to fall on his sword. The amateurish decisions, from the failure to take the initiative when Frank was clearly not performing, to the Tudor debacle, were a lesson in how not to run a football club. Vinai has to go.

Recruitment

Second out the door should be Lange. While we have recruited some promising young players, squad building has been appalling. The balance of the team from the overindexing on youthful potential, to the lack of balance in midfield has shown a lack of high level planning. The fact that we failed to address these problems in January, in the middle of an injury crisis was at best negligent. He is a good scout, not a director of football.

Players

We clearly need more technical ability, especially in midfield. Despite the return of James Maddison, we need younger creative midfielders, to replace the surplass of hard working box-to-box players.

Depending on who we can sign and who the manager feels fits his system, we will clearly need wholesale changes. This is as much about balance as any individual but I would definitely look to move on:

Dragusin – zero technical ability, why did we sign him?
Bissouma – checked out a while ago.
Muani – showed nothing on loan, and was replaced by a defender in the final game.
Palhinha – full of effort and scored some key goals but his lack of technical ability will hold us back.
Richarlison – still scores goals, but the injuries have taken a toll.
Sarr – we just have too many similar midfielders.
Vicario – Kinsky’s excellent end of season performances showed up the Italian’s flaws with the ball and at crosses.

On top of this It remains to be seen what happens to our two starting centre backs, we need a backup to Kudus, a reliable starter up front, and we need to swap one or two more of our midfield options for different profiles.

Despite all this, I think we have the key appointment right. Roberto De Zerbi’s impact saved us from relegation. I think he has the personality and philosophy to turn Spurs around, he has certainly earned the right to try.

Who do you think should stay and who should be immediately shown the door?