Tottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi did not mince words after his side suffered a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Brentford in the opening match of the Premier League season. The Italian coach described the defeat as a clear sign that his heavily overhauled squad is still "not a team yet" despite a summer that saw the club splash more than £300 million on new signings, including the pending arrivals of Manchester City duo Savinho and Omar Marmoush.
De Zerbi also acknowledged that his players lacked the necessary fight and intensity, attributing part of the shortfall to the fact that many of them arrived late after the World Cup and missed crucial pre‑season preparation during the club's Australian tour. In the post‑match press conference De Zerbi explained, "We are not a team yet for a lot of reasons.
Until we become a team we cannot set realistic targets or know exactly what we are capable of." He went on to say that the squad was not at the optimal physical level, noting that the players' late return from international duty meant they could not train properly before the season opener. "We are not in the right point in physical condition for a lot of reasons," he said, adding that the club had taken a cautious approach to risk‑taking during the pre‑season. De Zerbi was quick to stress that these issues are not excuses but rather the normal growing pains of a new project.
"When you are building a new process you have to go through these problems," he said. "I believe in my players, I believe in the club and I believe in myself.
After the Hoffenheim game last week we already knew we were a little behind schedule, but it is a step and we have to improve quickly." The manager highlighted specific shortcomings in the Brentford match: Spurs lost too many individual duels, failed to win any second balls, and made tactical errors when trying to press higher up the pitch. "We could have fought harder than we did today," he admitted. "We lost too many duels, we made too many mistakes in timing when we wanted to push the pressure higher. We arrived second on the second ball; we didn't win one second ball, one duel, one tackle, and it's tough." He then turned to the broader task of forging a genuine team identity.
"Now the focus and the target is to become a team. You can't become a team through the transfer market alone – the player on paper is not enough.
You become a team when the players find a connection, a spirit and a soul together. It's a process," De Zerzi said. Former Brighton manager Graham Potter, who took charge of Spurs this summer, echoed similar sentiments.
He said the team must develop both a "soul" and a distinct style of play before they can be considered dangerous opponents. "We didn't show the soul today, and we didn't show the quality of the play with the ball and without the ball," he observed.
"When we find these two conditions, I think we can become dangerous for everyone. Until we reach these conditions, we have to suffer, and maybe this defeat will make us stronger." Sky Sports analyst Jamie Redknapp was less charitable, describing Tottenham as a "team of strangers" lacking the chemistry needed to compete at the highest level. He pointed out that the defensive partnership between Jan Paul Van Hecke and Marcos Senesi had not yet gelled, and he questioned the creative spark of the midfield, particularly the role of Conor Gallagher. "I never really liked the look of the team when I saw the XI.
I don't like Gallagher in the 10, I wondered where the creativity was going to be," Redknapp said. "The hope for Tottenham is that they won't be the same side in six weeks, but there were so many disappointing factors today.
All the fundamentals you need to win a match, they didn't do." The match itself featured a soft second goal for Brentford after a sequence that began with Lucas Bergvall's pass to Mathias Jensen, whose shot was saved, allowing Vitaly Janelt to tap in the rebound. Tottenham substituted Bergvall at half‑time for veteran Rodrigo Bentancur, a move De Zerbi later defended, saying he knew the 20‑year‑old would struggle with Brentford's physicality but felt Bentancur was not fit enough to start. "Lucas Bergvall didn't play badly today, even if I substituted him at half‑time," De Zerbi explained. "In the next two years he will not lose that ball in that moment of the game." De Zerbi also outlined the massive turnover in the defensive line: last season's back four of Pedro Porro, Kevin Danso, Micky van de Ven and Destiny Udogie had been replaced by Archie Gray, JP Van Hecke, Marcos Senesi and Andy Robertson.
In midfield, the pair of Bentancur and Joao Palhinha gave way to Bergvall and the newly signed Tonali, with Bentancur missing out due to his late arrival in pre‑season. "We are working on a new project, and the plan is to build something good for the club. Even if we are suffering defeat, it is part of the process," De Zerbi said. A notable moment from the game was the appointment of 20‑year‑old Archie Gray as Spurs' youngest ever captain in a competitive fixture, stepping in for the absent new skipper Micky van de Ven.
Gray, who was deployed at right‑back because Pedro Porro was still recovering from his World Cup duties, admitted the team lacked fight. "We lost too many duels. They just outfought us all over the park.
We need to watch it back: that's the main thing we need to do better," he told Sky Sports. "For the fans, they were incredible, and to let them down like that in the first game, there are no words for it." Looking ahead, Tottenham will try to bounce back in the Carabao Cup second round on Wednesday when they host Championship side Charlton Athletic, before taking on Newcastle United in their next Premier League fixture on Saturday. De Zerbi remains cautiously optimistic, insisting that while time is needed to forge a cohesive unit, the squad is already showing signs of improvement beyond what the opening defeat suggested. In summary, the 3-0 loss to Brentford has laid bare the challenges facing a Tottenham side that has undergone a wholesale transformation.
The manager, players, and pundits all agree that the club must develop a shared identity, improve physical conditioning, and learn to win the simple battles that define football matches. Only then can the Spurs hope to translate their massive financial outlay into on‑field success.