Alan Shearer has offered a pointed appraisal of Roberto De Zerbi after Tottenham Hotspur again failed to pick up a Premier League win.
Spurs go into the three-week international break inside the relegation zone, winless after five league games. The start is a worrying one for a side that only just avoided the drop last season.
De Zerbi took over late last campaign with the task of steering the club clear of relegation. Having done that, he was expected to lead a summer rebuild. Tottenham backed him heavily, bringing in several new players, some of them big names, so hopes were high heading into this season.
The results haven’t matched the spending. Tottenham needed five league games to score their first goal, which Conor Gallagher netted in Saturday’s 3-2 home loss to Aston Villa. That defeat left them still without a win and added to the pressure on their manager.
Shearer’s verdict
Questions are mounting over whether De Zerbi can turn things around quickly. Former France international Christophe Dugarry had already criticised him after the poor start, which also included a League Cup exit to Liverpool.
Speaking on the BBC, Newcastle great Shearer noted that six of the players who started against Villa were De Zerbi’s own signings. He said the team looks fragile and weak, and that this is now the manager’s problem to fix.
Shearer also pointed to Tottenham’s record after conceding first: they haven’t won any of their last 48 such matches. In his view, that shows what the team is at the moment, and changing it falls to De Zerbi.
What comes next
With so many of the starters arriving under his watch, De Zerbi will be expected to find answers, especially for how the side reacts when games go against them. He has stayed calm publicly and still believes he can fix things. The international break gives him time to review his tactics, identify weaknesses and work on solutions.
Even so, with Spurs still winless and in the bottom three, the pressure isn’t going away. De Zerbi must turn an expensively assembled squad into a consistent team, and supporters will be hoping for a strong response when the league resumes.
