We asked our Tottenham reporters Alasdair Gold and Ryan Taylor to name the team they reckon De Zerbi could select to face Brentford on Saturday
Tottenham open their Premier League season on Saturday with a trip to Brentford and Roberto De Zerbi has plenty of selection decisions to make.
Spurs have so far brought in six new arrivals, all of them Premier League proven, to bolster De Zerbi's squad in the shape of Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes, Jan Paul van Hecke, Andy Robertson, Marcos Senesi and Martin Dubravka. The north London side will be without captain Cristian Romero, Guglielmo Vicario, Djed Spence and Radu Dragusin among those sold or loaned out this summer.
De Zerbi must decide on what his new-look Tottenham side will look like as they travel to the Gtech Community Stadium for a tough opening game to the competitive action. During the summer he has been without various players who have missed the pre-season matches as he's taken it cautiously with those who have had long-term injuries in recent years.
We asked our Spurs correspondents Alasdair Gold and Ryan Taylor to name the starting XI that they reckon the Italian could select to face Brentford on Saturday evening. Here's what they came up with:
FOLLOW OUR TOTTENHAM FB PAGE! Latest Spurs news, analysis and much more via our dedicated Facebook page
Alasdair Gold - Tottenham Hotspur correspondent
De Zerbi will provide an update on Micky van de Ven at his press conference on Friday with the Dutchman signing a big new contract with the club but in a summer in which he hasn't been spotted training in any of the sessions watched by the media, let alone played a single minute if any pre-season game.
That means Van Hecke and Senesi are likely to make their competitive Spurs debuts together while Andy Robertson should do the same on the left as Destiny Udogie has not played a minute in pre-season either.
At right-back, Pedro Porro will have been back in training for 10 days or so after his World Cup-winning exploits. Archie Gray has been deputising for him in pre-season and captaining the side and De Zerbi must decide whether Porro, who is a machine, is ready to start on Saturday or holds him until the midweek Carabao Cup game against Charlton.
The same decision comes for whoever should start alongside Sandro Tonali, with Mateus Fernandes, Rodrigo Bentancur and Lucas Bergvall, with the Swede having played more minutes in pre-season than the Uruguayan and Portuguese, although the £85million man has got plenty of minutes in the past two weekends to top up his legs.
In the front three, unless Spurs can push through a deal for either or both of Savinho and Omar Marmoush before Friday's 12pm registration deadline and miraculously sort work permits that quickly, with both fit after having played through most of Manchester City's pre-season, it will likely be the same attack that started against Hoffenheim last Saturday with Conor Gallagher in behind.
Gold's Tottenham XI: Kinsky; Gray, Van Hecke, Senesi, Robertson; Bergvall, Tonali; Moore, Gallagher, Tel; Richarlison.
Ryan Taylor - Football reporter