Roberto De Zerbi has come under fire from former Tottenham manager and player Tim Sherwood, saying the buck stops with him after huge investment in his squad.
Spurs started the Premier League season in nightmare fashion as they were hammered 3-0 at Brentford in their opening game of the campaign.
There was plenty of optimism among the fanbase after big-money signings over the summer and more new arrivals expected.
£100 million was spent on Sandro Tonali from Newcastle, £85m on Mateus Fernandes from West Ham and £52m on Jan Paul van Hecke from Brighton.
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High profile free transfers were also secured, with Andy Robertson and Marcos Senesi coming in, while Savinho and Omar Marmoush are also expected to come in from Manchester City before the window closes.
There was not much to be positive about on the field at the weekend, though, and Sherwood could not believe how little De Zerbi was getting out of his new-look squad.
While Tottenham’s owners have faced criticism in the past, he feels the manager must face the music now.
‘It’s difficult to give the criticism to the hierarchy and the club because they have brought the players in for him [De Zerbi] and they have done the business very early so they could avoid this happening on the first day of the season,’ Sherwood told Sky Sports.
‘He has had plenty of time to work with them, and the players he wanted out, they have done that and have sold them cheaply. So the buck stops with the manager — and the players, by the way.
‘I saw nothing. And to come out after the game and say: “We were outfought.” Wow, outfought? At any level, you cannot be outfought. I thought that is what he was all about.’
Sherwood, who played 118 times for Tottenham and managed them in 2013/14, is generally a fan of the Italian, which left him shocked by what he saw against the Bees.
‘I like him as a manager, he did wonderfully for Tottenham at the back end of last season and he has absolutely bullied the club to make these signings, and pay over the top for a load of them,’ said the 57-year-old.
‘The non-negotiables are running hard, fighting, winning second balls, winning your headers, and they didn’t do any of that [against Brentford].
‘Forget about the structure, forget about the pretty patterns which De Zerbi is meant to bring to this club. He is known for passion, his desire, and his team should mirror that and they showed nothing of the sort, it was really poor.’
De Zerbi was critical of his players after the heavy loss, saying they are yet to become a team and did not fight enough against a side which clearly did not lack in that department.
‘We are not a team yet for a lot of reasons,’ he said. ‘Before you become a team you can’t say what you can do. We are not in the right physical condition for a lot of reasons. Some players came back late from the World Cup. In Australia we don’t work in the right way but it is not excuses. It is a normal situation when building a new project.
‘I don’t want time but we have to pass through these problems. I cannot lose confidence in my players. I believe in my players, my club, myself. We are working well. We have to improve quickly. We could fight stronger than we did today. We lost too many duels today. We arrived second in the second balls. We didn’t win one second ball, one duel, one tackle.’
