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Tottenham Hotspur Fixtures and Results
Brentford vs Tottenham Hotspur
Tottenham Hotspur’s head coach is addressing journalists following the opening-day Premier League loss at Brentford on Saturday.
Roberto De Zerbi is conducting his media duties after Tottenham began their Premier League season with a 3-0 reverse at Brentford.
The home side broke the deadlock in the 12th minute when Mamadou Sangare was released into the penalty area with room to spare and found Keane Lewis-Potter with even more space to slot the ball into the net. Vitaly Janelt then doubled Brentford’s advantage. After some ineffective hold-up play from Richarlison, followed by another weak contribution from Bergvall, the ball was presented to Mathias Jensen and Antonin Kinsky could only push his effort straight to Janelt for a simple finish.
De Zerbi introduced Fernandes and Rodrigo Bentancur at the interval in place of Bergvall and Conor Gallagher, but within four minutes Brentford had a third goal. Tottenham’s disappointing start to the season continued as Kinsky kept out Sangare’s effort through a crowd of players, but the rebound dropped for Michael Kayode to turn into the top corner.
Shortly afterwards, Brentford were awarded a spot-kick when Bentancur felled Kevin Schade inside the area, but they received a rare reprieve when Igor Thiago’s penalty struck the left post and bounced to safety.
Our Tottenham correspondent Alasdair Gold is among those posing questions to De Zerbi following the defeat. Continue scrolling for his latest updates from the press conference at the Gtech Community Stadium.
The Italian acknowledged his side lacked physical readiness but revealed this had been anticipated beforehand. He stated they were unprepared to compete in aerial and ground challenges, noting numerous timing errors in their pressing, particularly involving Mikey Moore. He pointed out they arrived too late too often and lost excessive battles to genuinely challenge Brentford.
He expressed regret over the result, acknowledging improvements were necessary in physical conditioning and tactical organisation. While many new faces were present, he stressed this was merely the first competitive fixture and part of their development process. With numerous unfamiliar players, he had known they required unity and a distinctive playing identity to gel as a collective. He believed the character was evident but the competitive edge was missing.
Regarding the failure to engage in physical battles, he maintained faith in his squad. He explained that during the opening period particularly, they failed to occupy correct positions to apply pressure effectively. Analysing the contest reveals the sheer volume of duels they lost in the first half when momentum shifted Brentford’s way.
He admitted their display was poor and they had not competed adequately. He rejected suggestions this stemmed from forgetting the previous campaign, asserting these individuals possess strong character and values. However, they simply surrendered too many individual contests.
When asked about potential alterations to the starting eleven in the coming weeks, he responded that the primary eleven should have been capable of competing acceptably under those circumstances. He had not lost faith in his squad and those involved. Work and refinement were essential, along with better analysis to identify areas requiring development.
On specific improvement priorities, he emphasised the need for thorough game analysis. He cautioned against dismantling everything given the quality of their training, though physical conditioning varied across the squad since several players began their season later than others.
He was reluctant to offer excuses but stressed continuous improvement was necessary. They needed to discover the right mentality to compete, which was absent on this occasion. He had certainly expected more. This particular outcome had not been anticipated, though he had been aware of the difficulties they would encounter.