De Zerbi Breaks Silence After Tottenham’s Humiliating Brentford Defeat

Roberto De Zerbi has insisted that he is neither angry nor frustrated with his Tottenham Hotspur players despite their disappointing 3-0 defeat to Brentford in their opening Premier League fixture.

Spurs endured a nightmare start to the new campaign as they were comfortably beaten by the Bees, leaving De Zerbi’s side at the bottom of the Premier League table after the first round of matches.

Keane Lewis-Potter opened the scoring before Vitaly Janelt doubled Brentford’s advantage, while Michael Kayode added a third to complete a miserable afternoon for Tottenham. The victory was particularly significant for Brentford, who had not beaten Spurs at home since 1948.

De Zerbi, who is beginning his first full season in charge of Tottenham, cut a visibly disappointed figure on the touchline as his team struggled to impose themselves on the game.

What De Zerbi said after Tottenham’s defeat

Despite the severity of the result, De Zerbi refused to react angrily when questioned about Tottenham’s performance.

Speaking to talkSPORT after the final whistle, the Italian manager was asked by Ian Abrahams whether he felt frustrated or angry with his players.

De Zerbi simply replied: “No, nothing.”

He then explained that his attention was already on finding solutions and improving the team.

“Not frustrated or angry, I’m thinking a lot, what I can do to quickly improve the team. In that way, I have my focus,” De Zerbi said.

The Tottenham boss acknowledged that his players may need more time to develop into the kind of team he wants them to become.

He added: “To become a team, maybe we need more time, to fight stronger, to be stronger in the duels.”

Spurs performance sparks major concerns

While De Zerbi maintained a calm approach, Tottenham’s performance drew strong criticism from talkSPORT host Rory Jennings.

With the season only beginning, Spurs still have 37 Premier League fixtures remaining to turn their fortunes around. However, Jennings was particularly unimpressed by what he witnessed at the Gtech Community Stadium.

Tottenham managed only four shots on target from nine attempts and recorded just 18 touches inside Brentford’s penalty area, underlining their lack of attacking threat.

Jennings claimed that the display ranked among the worst Tottenham performances he could remember from the past 18 months.

“I’m not even talking in hyperbole here, when I think about Tottenham over the last 18 months,” Jennings said.

He continued by describing the Brentford performance as potentially the worst, or at least comparable with some of the poorest displays Spurs have produced under previous managers.

“The performance that we have just watched at Brentford is possibly the worst, or on par, with some of the dreadful performances I have seen from Tottenham under previous managers. What is going on?” he added.

Jennings also questioned why Tottenham had failed to produce a stronger performance despite what he regarded as an impressive summer transfer window.

De Zerbi had the latter stages of the previous campaign to assess his squad, while Tottenham subsequently invested heavily in new players.

Jennings admitted that, despite his lack of affection for the club, he believed Spurs had conducted an excellent transfer window.

He highlighted the arrival of Sandro Tonali as a major statement signing and praised the capture of Mateus Fernandes, while also pointing to the additions of Jan Paul Van Hecke, Marcos Senesi and Andy Robertson.

According to Jennings, Tottenham appeared to have addressed several important areas of the squad, making their performance against Brentford even more difficult to understand.

He ultimately described it as one of the worst Tottenham performances he had witnessed in recent memory.

Tottenham expected to spend even more

Four of Tottenham’s six summer arrivals were handed starts against Brentford, but the club could still add further reinforcements before the transfer window closes.

Spurs are reportedly close to completing an £85 million deal for Manchester City winger Savinho, while they are also in discussions with City regarding Omar Marmoush.

If those deals are completed, Tottenham’s spending could move beyond the £350 million mark this summer.

However, De Zerbi will now be focused on getting an immediate response from his players.

Tottenham have the opportunity to bounce back when they face Charlton Athletic in the second round of the Carabao Cup on Wednesday before returning to Premier League action against Newcastle next weekend.

After such a disappointing opening day, the pressure will be on De Zerbi and his players to show that the Brentford defeat was simply a bad afternoon rather than an indication of deeper problems within the team.