Tottenham Hotspur's Premier League campaign began with an unwelcome reality check as they were beaten 3-0 away at Brentford, a result that exposed the scale of the rebuilding job facing head coach Roberto De Zerbi.
Despite a summer of significant investment in the squad, Spurs were second best throughout, unable to cope with Brentford's relentless pressing and physical intensity. The visitors trailed 3-0 inside 49 minutes, with the display marked by disorganised defending and a lack of cohesion in midfield and attack.
De Zerbi fielded a starting XI containing four debutants, while £85 million recruit Mateus Fernandes was introduced from the bench. Among those making their first appearance was Jan Paul van Hecke, one of five players handed a debut on the day. At the back, 20-year-old Archie Gray was named Spurs' youngest-ever captain but was deployed at right-back, a position unfamiliar to him, as part of a defensive unit that had never played together before.
In midfield, the pairing of Lucas Bergvall and Sandro Tonali struggled to contain the gaps that opened up, while further forward the attacking line was overpowered by Brentford's intensity throughout the contest.
Speaking after the match, De Zerbi was candid about the shortcomings on display, pointing to the disjointed nature of his squad rather than shying away from the scale of the challenge ahead. "I think we are not a team yet, for a lot of reasons," he said in his post-match press conference. "Yesterday (last Friday) in the press conference, when you asked me what is the target, we can fix the target when you become a team. Before becoming a team, we can't say what we can do."
The Italian coach also referenced a disrupted pre-season as a contributing factor to his side's lack of physical readiness, suggesting that the group had not yet had sufficient time to build the fitness base or tactical understanding required to compete at the level demanded by the Premier League.
De Zerbi was clear that assembling a cohesive squad cannot happen simply through recruitment in the transfer market, but requires time on the training ground and matches together. "You can't become a team for the transfer market window," he explained. "You become a team with the players. They find the connection between them, they find the spirit, they find the soul."
Part of the difficulty stems from a number of Spurs players returning late following World Cup commitments, while De Zerbi also chose to protect the fitness of key figures including James Maddison, Dominic Solanke, Destiny Udogie and Fernandes by easing them into the campaign. As a result, the starting XI that lined up at Brentford is unlikely to be repeated in its entirety anytime soon, with further squad rotation and tactical adjustments expected in the coming weeks.
Despite the heavy nature of the defeat, there is no sense of alarm within the club. Successive 17th-place finishes in the Premier League have already tempered expectations of an instant transformation, and De Zerbi has stressed that patience will be required as his players adapt to new systems and each other.
Notably, Spurs can draw encouragement from Brentford's own recent history. The Bees themselves were 3-0 down at half-time against Nottingham Forest on the opening weekend of last season, only to recover and enjoy a strong campaign thereafter. It is a precedent De Zerbi and his players will hope to emulate as they look to move past a difficult start and build the identity their head coach insists is still a work in progress.
Based on reporting from Standard Football.