Home / Football / Premier League News Five Tottenham players who could thrive under Roberto De Zerbi Discover which Tottenham stars will benefit from their new incoming head coach Roberto De Zerbi Written by Mitch Fretton Last Update: March 31, 2026 03:34:23 pm BST 6 min read Tottenham have had a season that nobody connected with the club will want to revisit. Three managers, a relegation battle that has dragged on for months, and a dressing room that has at various points looked short of confidence and belief. Igor Tudors 44-day reign produced zero Premier League wins and left the club in 17th, staring down the barrel of a first relegation since 1977.Into that environment steps Roberto De Zerbi. The 46-year-old Italian has agreed to sign a five-year contract at Spurs, reversing an earlier decision to wait until the summer before returning to management after leaving Marseille in February. It is a significant appointment, and a bold one given the circumstances. De Zerbi builds teams with genuine tactical identity possession-based, aggressive in pressing, demanding of technical quality from every position on the pitch. Whether seven games is enough time to implement any of that is a legitimate question. But if Spurs do survive, and De Zerbi gets a full pre-season to work with his squad, there are players already in the building who should benefit enormously from his methods.We take a look at five Spurs stars most likely to hit the ground running under their new manager.Table of Contents1 1. Cristian Romero2 2. Destiny Udogie3 3. Xavi Simons4 4. Mathys Tel5 5. Dominic Solanke1. Cristian RomeroIf there is one player whose personality and playing style screams Roberto De Zerbi, it is Cristian Romero. The Argentine captain is aggressive, confrontational, uncompromising and completely allergic to the idea of sitting back. Those are precisely the qualities De Zerbi prizes in his defenders. At Brighton, his centre-backs were expected to carry the ball forward under pressure and to set the tone for how the team operated without it. Romero can do all of those things, and he can do them at the highest level.This season has been undermined by the chaos around him rather than any decline in his own standards. Under a manager who understands him and builds a system that plays to his strengths, Romero has the potential to be one of the best defenders in the Premier League again. He is exactly the kind of captain De Zerbi will want leading the charge.2. Destiny Udogie3C01H57 Reading, UK. 19th July, 2025. Andre Garcia of Reading and Destiny Udogie of Tottenham Hotspur during the Reading vs Tottenham Hotspur Pre Season Friendly match at the Select Car Leasing Stadium, Reading. Picture credit should read: Paul Terry/Sportimage Credit: Sportimage Ltd/Alamy Live NewsDe Zerbis full-backs at Brighton were not traditional wide defenders. They were attacking threats, expected to arrive late into the box, to pin back opposition wingers and to contribute directly to the teams goalscoring efforts. Pervis Estupinan was the model dynamic, physical, constantly threatening. Destiny Udogie fits that profile to a tee.The Italian left-back has raw physical gifts that most clubs in the Premier League would love to have. He is powerful in transition, capable of driving forward with the ball and difficult to contain when he gets up a head of steam. The problem has been that no manager this season has found a consistent system that gets the best out of him. Still only 22, Udogie could very quickly emerge as one of the most effective full-backs in the squad under De Zerbis supervision.3. Xavi SimonsXavi Simons arrived at Tottenham in the summer with enormous expectations and has, by any honest assessment, been used poorly. A player of his technical quality and creative intelligence was always going to struggle in a team that has spent most of the season without any shape or structure. He has shown enough in brief, bright moments including two goals against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League to suggest the talent is there. He just needs an environment that allows him to express it consistently.De Zerbi builds his systems around technical midfielders and attackers who can play in tight spaces, receive the ball under pressure and make quick decisions. That is Xavi Simons. With a clear role and a manager who understands how to position and protect a player of his profile, the Dutch international could finally show Spurs supporters what they had hoped to see when he signed.4. Mathys TelMathys Tel has been one of the genuine bright spots of an otherwise grim season. The 20-year-old Frenchman has shown his pace, directness and an instinct for the big occasion. His performance against Atletico Madrid was a reminder of what he is capable of when given the licence and confidence. He has been coming into his own in recent weeks, and the arrival of De Zerbi could represent the perfect moment for him to make that step permanent.De Zerbi has a strong track record of developing young attacking players. At Brighton, Leandro Trossard, Kaoru Mitoma and Evan Ferguson all made significant strides under his management. Tel has many of the same raw ingredients: the athleticism, the willingness to run in behind and the technical quality to exploit space at pace. A full pre-season with De Zerbis coaching staff, and a system built around his strengths, could make all the difference.5. Dominic SolankeSolankes most recent season at Spurs has been a frustrating one. Goals have dried up, confidence has fluctuated with the performances of the team around him, and he has not been able to recapture the form that made him such an attractive proposition when he signed from Bournemouth. Some of that is circumstantial; it is hard to lead the line effectively when the team behind you is disorganised and lacking in creativity. Some of it has simply been down to his constant injuries.De Zerbi tends to get goals out of his strikers. At Brighton, Danny Welbeck rediscovered himself under his management. The system creates clear chances, with the pressing structure forcing turnovers in dangerous areas and the full-backs providing crossing options that good centre-forwards can exploit. Solankes movement and ability to hold the ball up make him well-suited to that kind of play. If De Zerbi can restore some belief and give him a system to thrive in, the goals will follow. Topics: Roberto De Zerbi Tottenham Hotspur F.C. Follow us: Mitch Fretton Mitch is a freelance sports journalist with experience working for LiveScore, GOAL and Colchester United. He has experience working from both his desk at home and in the press box at games covering the Champions League and international football. Read more from Mitch Fretton
