Tottenham Hotspur are having a nightmare start to the 2026/27 Premier League season despite apparently winning the summer transfer window with a host of dream signings like Omar Marmoush, Savio, Jan Paul van Hecke, Sandro Tonali, and Mateus Fernandes.
Most of those guys have not shown up, though, and Spurs are winless in five games to start the new season, sitting even with Fulham on two points but behind in goal difference. And Roberto De Zerbi is already feeling the heat, even though Spurs are beating their opponents in possession, shots, and xG - and even though he was the one who kept Spurs in the Premier League in the first place.
De Zerbi has made it clear that because of all this, fans should be blaming the players, and his most pointed remark in that direction was calling out his team for not listeing to instructions he apparently gave them repeatedly before they conceded an easy goal in their awful 3-2 loss to Aston Villa that has since confirmed them as the 20th out of 20 teams in the English top flight thus far.
Roberto De Zerbi is only defending his position
The Italian manager told reporters after the Villa game, via Arabic Spurs, "I don't know if some players lost their energy. But we conceded an unacceptable goal from a long ball from the goalkeeper. We knew before the match because Aston Villa plays long balls 86% more than last season. We talked about this in many meetings!"
That is far from the first time that Roberto De Zerbi has blamed his players this season in the press, but he is right to pass the blame onto them. If he did indeed highlight a clear, indicting statistic on how another team plays, hammered it all week, and the players still fell asleep at the wheel and screwed it all up, then they one thousand percent deserve to be called out for it. That is accountability, and it is something Tottenham Hotspur need to be asking from their manager to do and their players to follow after so many years of awful losing.
Spurs have generated progressive play and have the threat of making chances due to De Zerbi's tactics, but they are lacking the final ball or the goals because of the lack of quality of the players. And defensively, they are not listening to what De Zerbi is teaching them, so the manager is defending himself and making it clear, on the evidence, that the fans need to look elsewhere for the blame.