A simple change has helped Roberto De Zerbi overturn the ills of Thomas Frank at Tottenham

Thomas Frank sent Tottenham Hotspur on a descent into the abyss that interim manager Igor Tudor was unable to slow at all, but in the last few weeks, new manager Roberto De Zerbi has finally started to give Spurs supporters the feeling that there is light at the end of the tunnel.

With back to back wins over Wolves and Aston Villa after previously riding a streak of 15 Premier League games without a single victory, Spurs are out of the bottom three. Though they are still locked in a tight relegation fight with rivals West Ham United while the likes of Nottingham Forest and Leeds United start ot pull clear, Spurs no longer look totally helpless.

There were so many issues with Frank during his time as Tottenham manager, but perhaps the most frustrating was how many players had regressed under the Danish manager. Aside from newcomer Mohammed Kudus, there was not a single player in the squad who was performing better under Frank than they were before Frank.

Roberto De Zerbi has the motivation down

Conor Gallagher has been one of the biggest benefactors of Roberto De Zerbi joining Tottenham, and he spoke about a small change De Zerbi has made in terms of man management that has been crucial to getting the most out of the former Chelsea and Crystal Palace midfielder - as well as his teammates.

He said, via Football.London's Alasdair Gold, "He just reminds me of when I was at my best. He said that second season at Chelsea, when I had a really good season, he just reminded me of that player, he wants me to be like that again and to not forget how good I can be. He's done that with a lot of the lads. It's as simple as that, just trying to remind us of what we were when we were at our best."

Although there were misgivings about De Zerbi when he initially took the Tottenham Hotspur job, one of the biggest positives that was immediately kicked around was RDZ's charisma and ability to bring that hunger out of players. So many of his former players have spoken about this in the past, including even famed storyteller Kevin Prince-Boateng all the way back when they were in RDZ's early Sassuolo days together.

De Zerbi has turned Gallagher back into a real force in English football, and the Atletico Madrid signing has been a driving force to Spurs winning. Pedro Porro, Rodrigo Bentancur, and others have also improved markedly already under De Zerbi, and all it took was positive reenforcement and actually having a player's back, using the old David Goggins psychological trick of reminding people that they have cookies in their cookie jar; that there are things they have done in the past that they can use to derive strength from within during adversity, reminders that they have already been great before.

Click here to read article