Under-pressure Tottenham Hotspur boss Roberto De Zerbi has made a strange claim about the club having ‘maybe the best’ players in one position in the Premier League side, despite his side sitting bottom of the table heading into the international break.
Saturday’s 3-2 home defeat to Aston Villa made it no wins from five league outings so far this season, with only two points on the board, in what has been a joint record-worst start to a Premier League campaign.
As a result, the pressure is starting to grow on De Zerbi, who saved the club from the drop when he was appointed on a five-year contract with seven games of last season remaining.
More than £300million was spent on revamping an under-performing squad, but you would not think it, given the level of performances early in the campaign.
The Tottenham boss has been warned by pundits that Spurs will expect a return on their heavy investment, but the Italian refuses to doubt the quality he has at his disposal.
Indeed, De Zerbi insists that his opinion on the squad he has at his disposal has not changed, despite Tottenham scoring only twice and conceding eight goals in their five outings to date.
De Zerbi even thinks that one position group is ‘maybe the best in the Premier League’, commenting after the Villa defeat: “Even though we are not scoring, I cannot change my opinion of the players.
“Marmoush is a fantastic player. Savio is a fantastic player. Solanke when Solanke is fit is a very good player.
“Maddison, Kudus, Gallagher and Mateus [Fernandes] with different characteristics, all four of these players are very good.
“We have maybe the best full-backs in the Premier League. Robertson, Udogie and Pedro Porro. Five centre-backs, the qualities of the players, I cannot say anything different.”
Despite the woeful start to the season, De Zerbi refuses to rip up his plans and start again, adding: “Sometimes you have to change everything and sometimes you have to improve what you already are doing, and sometimes you have to stay calm.
“We are working to improve what we are doing to be better, but also we have to stay calm because I know we have two points, but for our performances we could have had more than two points.”
De Zerbi blamed for Tottenham ‘fragility and weakness’
Meanwhile, BBC Sport pundit Alan Shearer has detailed the “fragility and weakness” of the Tottenham side, explaining why De Zerbi is to blame for their shortfalls.
Speaking on Match of the Day after the Villa defeat, the legendary England striker said: “He’s signed six of those players who started today.
“There’s definitely a fragility and weakness about them. In the last 48 games, when they’ve gone behind, they’ve failed to win any of them.
“That tells you what and who they are at this moment in time and it’s his job to change that. That looks very difficult. It’s incredible.
“He’s signed six of the ones who started today, so it’s up to him to change it.”
Despite some murmurings that De Zerbi is now under significant pressure to keep his job, our sources indicate that is not currently the case and that he will be given time to get things right in north London.
Spurs head to Manchester United following the international break, with both De Zerbi and Red Devils boss Michael Carrick in need of wins to get their respective seasons back on track.