Roberto De Zerbi says there is nothing more that Mathys Tel can do to stake a claim for minutes, as he admits he is unlikely to make wholesale changes to his starting lineup between now and the end of the season.
Tel has started just nine Premier League games this season despite Spurs suffering a number of injuries out wide.
Mohammed Kudus has been ruled out of Spurs’ remaining games after suffering a setback in his recovery from a serious quad injury, while Wilson Odobert sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury against Newcastle in February.
With Spurs deciding to sanction the departure of Brennan Johnson in January, and Dejan Kulusevski yet to feature this season, Tel is the only fit natural winger in De Zerbi’s squad.
De Zerbi tried to sign Tel while he was manager at Marseille, yet the Frenchman has been limited to just 61 minutes off the bench in his first two games in charge.
Asked what Tel had to do to force a claim for more minutes, De Zerbi admitted that while he admired the 20-year-old, he did not want to make too many changes to his starting lineup so close to the end of the season.
“Nothing more (he can do to get minutes), because I'm happy for him,” De Zerbi said in his pre-Wolves press conference.
“He has a great attitude, he has great qualities, he's very young. Kolo Muani, he has much experience, but we'll see in the next game.
“Maybe he can start in the first eleven, but I don't like to change too many players, one game, one game.
“Especially now, we have to find the connection between the players. They have to be able to communicate inside of the pitch.”
Despite naturally being a striker, De Zerbi seems to prefer Kolo Muani’s experience over Tel on the right wing, even after a succession of indifferent performances.
Kolo Muani himself has said he prefers to play through the middle rather than on the wing.
De Zerbi, though, insists that Kolo Muani is capable of excelling on the right wing, even though he has found the back of the net just once in the Premier League this season.
“If I play with Kolo Muani as right winger, it’s because he has played in that position. If you go to YouTube, and you go to Kolo Muani Eintracht Frankfurt, you can see he played very well in that position, and he scored a lot of goals in that position,” De Zerbi added, while acknowledging that both Kolo Muani and Tel could improve ahead of the final five games of the season.
“Kolo Muani, in the second half (against Brighton), in the second part of the game, Mathys Tel, all can play better.
“But (it is) not (that they) can play better because they are playing badly, but because they have a big, big talent, and I want to see all this talent on the pitch.”
