Tottenham Hotspur boss Nuno Espirito Santo has made it clear that he has been told that his side needs to play attractive football.
Nuno finds himself under huge pressure at Tottenham despite only being appointed over the summer.
Sunday’s absolutely terrible 3-1 defeat at North London rivals Arsenal would put any Tottenham manager under intense scrutiny.
Add in 3-0 defeats to other London neighbours Crystal Palace and Chelsea, and Nuno can’t really argue with the criticism.
Nuno acknowledges attacking demands
Nuno was never really an attack-minded manager at Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The input of exciting players like Ruben Neves, Adama Traore, Diogo Jota and Raul Jimenez maybe left some thinking that Nuno was expansive.
That wasn’t really the case, and Tottenham have been functional without being particularly exciting so far this season.
Nuno has now told Football.London that he has been told of the desire for attractive football at Tottenham.
Nuno added that he is trying to get to that stage with Tottenham, believing it isn’t always possible to play that way.
“I have been told and everybody knows. It’s football. Everybody wants to play good, everybody wants to play offensive, everybody wants to score,” said Nuno. “This is what we chase. Sometimes it’s not possible but we’re aware that this is what we want to do. But it takes a building process to achieve it. And we’re trying,” he added.
Tottenham’ dismal attacking play under Nuno
The numbers look pretty bad for Nuno at Tottenham.
Tottenham have managed just four goals in six league games. Just two of them, both by Son Heung-min, came from open play.
Son has scored every Tottenham league goal this season except for Dele Alli’s penalty against Wolves.
When it comes to xG this season, Tottenham are second-bottom. The only team below them is struggling Norwich City.
Harry Kane has managed just four shots on target this season. In no game has he managed more than one.
Only two Tottenham players have managed more than five key passes in the Premier League this season – Son and Sergio Reguilon on seven and six respectively.
This just isn’t good enough, and Nuno needs to find a way to get Tottenham firing and creating in order to ease the pressure on his job.
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