With Tottenham Hotspur still searching for their first Premier League win and goal of the season, we have graded all 23 players De Zerbi has used across the opening four games.
Tottenham Hotspur have made an underwhelming start to the new Premier League season, remaining without a win and without a single goal after four matches – the first time in the club’s history that has happened.
There are, however, signs of improvement. Tottenham started the campaign with two straight defeats before following those results up with two draws and two clean sheets.
The football has also been very good to watch at times, for example, during the opening 20 minutes against Everton at the weekend, when Spurs were playing with a tempo that could easily have produced three points had they maintained it for longer.
23 players have featured across those four Premier League matches, so now is as good a time as any to go through their report cards, ranked by minutes played.
1. Antonin Kinsky
- Minutes played: 360
Antonin Kinsky had a difficult start to life as Tottenham’s first-choice goalkeeper, making a costly error that led directly to a goal against Brentford on the opening weekend. He then did not have a single save to make in the following defeat to Newcastle United.
The Czech goalkeeper did, however, redeem himself with back-to-back clean sheets against Nottingham Forest and Everton. He barely had anything to do against Forest, making just one save, but had a far busier afternoon against Everton, producing 3 big saves to keep Spurs in the game, although one of those came after giving the ball away himself.
- Grade: C-
2. Jan Paul Van Hecke
- Minutes played: 360
Jan Paul Van Hecke is the only outfield Tottenham player to have played every minute so far, and the £52m summer signing has arguably been one of Spurs’ better performers.
The Dutch international looks perfectly suited to De Zerbi’s approach of building from the back, given he leads Tottenham for line-breaking passes per 90 (23.8) – a figure that is also second-highest in the entire Premier League, with only Declan Rice ahead of him (24.4).
He was arguably Tottenham’s player of the match against Everton and has played a major role in the consecutive clean sheets. His aerial ability remains the one obvious concern, though.
- Grade: B+
3. Sandro Tonali
- Minutes played: 345
A lot of the discussion around Sandro Tonali’s performances is inevitably influenced by the £100m price tag hanging over him, and while he has not produced the kind of displays you would expect from a player costing that much, he has actually been pretty decent.
Tottenham needed a midfielder who can carry the ball, move it forward quickly and pick out passes with elite vision, and nobody in the squad has done those things better than the Italian so far.
Look at almost any of Tottenham’s running or sprinting statistics, and Tonali is near the top. No Spurs player has covered more ground this season either (43.1km).
- Grade: B-
4. Rodrigo Bentancur
- Minutes played: 288
In a summer where Tottenham spent £185m on midfield reinforcements, few would have expected Rodrigo Bentancur to emerge as the best midfielder in the squad. In fact, he has arguably been the best Spurs player, full stop.
Bentancur has been central to De Zerbi’s build-up play, particularly when Tottenham come under pressure, and he makes it look so easy. He leads Tottenham for defensive contributions per 90 (13.4) and features in the podium of almost every other defensive per-90 metric for the club.
- Grade: A
5. Andrew Robertson
- Minutes played: 277
Andrew Robertson has featured in almost all of Tottenham’s matches so far, partly because Destiny Udogie has been working his way back to full fitness since the summer. And there really have not been many complaints about the veteran full-back.
The Liverpool legend has done exactly what has been required of him – supporting attacks, providing width and putting crosses into the box.
The main concern surrounding his arrival was whether he had lost too much pace, but he is actually the third-fastest player in the Tottenham squad behind Savio and Omar Marmoush.
- Grade: C+
6. Micky Van de Ven
- Minutes played: 270
Micky Van de Ven has been as solid as ever at the back alongside Jan Paul Van Hecke, with Tottenham conceding just two goals across the three matches in which the new captain has featured.
He has bailed Tottenham out when defending counters on several occasions with his incredible recovery pace. Strangely, he also currently leads Spurs for xG (0.6). That probably says more about Tottenham’s attack than it does about Van de Ven.
- Grade: B+
7. Mathys Tel
- Minutes played: 259
Roberto De Zerbi summed up Mathys Tel’s performances so far rather perfectly when he said the Frenchman ‘makes too many wrong decisions’ in the final third.
Tel has repeatedly let promising Tottenham attacks break down and has also been guilty of giving the ball away cheaply. Unless those issues improve, he could find himself struggling to convince De Zerbi that he deserves regular minutes.
- Grade: D-
8. Omar Marmoush
- Minutes played: 251
Omar Marmoush has started every game since joining Tottenham earlier this month and has shown plenty of encouraging signs, with his passing, chance creation and link-up play.
The biggest problem is that he has yet to come close to doing the job Spurs brought him in to do: scoring goals. That is inevitably what a striker will ultimately be judged on, and Marmoush needs to start producing in front of goal.
- Grade: C+
9. Archie Gray
- Minutes played: 239
Archie Gray has featured in three of Tottenham’s four Premier League games, but unfortunately for him, all of those appearances have come at the position he doesn’t prefer playing – right-back.
I came across this statistic the other day: Gray started 11 Premier League games at right back, and Spurs did not win any of them. And when the sample size is that large, you can’t simply dismiss it as coincidence. Something clearly is not working, even if Gray himself has rarely looked like the problem.
He is a natural defensive midfielder, backed up by the fact that he leads the squad for most interceptions per 90 (1.5), so hopefully De Zerbi finds more opportunities to use him there.
- Grade: C+
10. Mateus Fernandes
- Minutes played: 205
Mateus Fernandes carried his excellent form from last season into Tottenham and was arguably Spurs’ best player in the defeat to Newcastle United.
The only other Premier League game he has started was the draw against Everton, although he was surprisingly used as the number 10. That experiment failed to bring out the best in him, but he can hardly be blamed for looking subdued in an unfamiliar role.
De Zerbi will surely have picked up on that quickly and is unlikely to repeat it.
- Grade: B
11. Pedro Porro
- Minutes played: 180
The World Cup winner has started just two Premier League matches this season, against Newcastle United and Nottingham Forest, as he continues to build back to full fitness following a lengthy summer break.
In the Newcastle game, De Zerbi used him as a right winger because of the lack of options in that position at the time but that didn’t work out.
Against Forest, Porro returned to his natural right-back role and was solid, but his performance in the earlier match still weighs him down here.
- Grade: C+
12. Savio
- Minutes played: 151
Savio has also started just two league games, but the £85m summer signing has been a delight to watch in both, especially during the opening 20 minutes against Everton.
The problem, as with both of his appearances so far, is that his influence has faded as the games have gone on and he has seen less of the ball.
Savio has already created more chances than any other Spurs player (5), so the quality is clearly there. Tottenham just need someone to provide the finishing at the other end.
- Grade: B+
13. Conor Gallagher
- Minutes played: 128
Conor Gallagher has featured in only two of Tottenham’s four Premier League matches and was left on the bench for the other two.
He was taken off at half time against Brentford after a disappointing opening 45 minutes, making way for Mateus Fernandes. He then started ahead of Fernandes against Nottingham Forest because De Zerbi said ‘Gallagher knows that game better’, but his performance did little to justify that decision.
Two appearances have produced two subpar displays.
- Grade: D-
14. Dominic Solanke
- Minutes played: 106
Dominic Solanke came off the bench against Brentford and Newcastle United before making his first league start for Tottenham since April in the weekend’s draw with Everton.
He has been almost non-existent in all three appearances. Solanke needs to get himself into better positions more consistently because chances have been arriving, but he is very rarely in the right place to take them.
For Tottenham to start scoring goals, the 29-year-old has to improve his positioning and awareness inside the penalty area first.
- Grade: D-
15. Mikey Moore
- Minutes played: 90
Mikey Moore is now on loan with Bundesliga side FC Koln, but he still made two appearances for Tottenham at the start of the season, starting against Brentford before coming off the bench against Newcastle United.
He did find himself on the end of some promising goalscoring opportunities in the former match, although the pressure appeared to get the better of him. It would be harsh to grade a 19-year-old too heavily from such a small sample, but he still leads Tottenham for shots on target per 90 (3) and xG per 90 (0.4).
- Grade: C
16. Marcos Senesi
- Minutes played: 90
Marcos Senesi has played just once this season, starting against Brentford on the opening weekend, and he was one of Tottenham’s better players that day.
The Argentine recorded the most defensive contributions (16) in the match but was then left out of the following games after Van de Ven returned to full fitness.
Hopefully De Zerbi can get more creative with his options at the back because a player of Senesi’s quality should not be spending such a long period on the bench.
- Grade: B
17. Destiny Udogie
- Minutes played: 87
Destiny Udogie is still working his way back to full fitness and has therefore managed only two substitute appearances and one start in the Premier League this season.
He looked decent in his start against Nottingham Forest, but could not produce anything particularly meaningful in that match or his other two appearances. Given his fitness situation, there is still time for him to improve.
- Grade: C
18.Mohammed Kudus
- Minutes played: 78
Mohammed Kudus is still working his way back to full fitness after missing much of the year with a hamstring injury and has managed only three brief substitute appearances so far.
Understandably, he looks short of his spark at the moment, given that he is not taking the ball forward with the same aggression we saw at his best last season.
But that should improve as his fitness comes back. De Zerbi revealed last week that Kudus is close to starting matches, and that should be a much better point at which to properly judge him.
- Grade: D+
19. Lucas Bergvall
- Minutes played: 72
Lucas Bergvall squandered his starting opportunity on the opening weekend against Brentford, when he was very poor on the ball and one of his giveaways eventually led to a Brentford goal.
He was substituted at half time that day and did not feature again until the weekend’s draw with Everton, when he came off the bench and looked significantly better. He also came closest to scoring Tottenham’s first Premier League goal of the season, only for Jordan Pickford to produce an incredible late save.
- Grade: D
20. Richarlison
- Minutes played: 68
Richarlison was eventually left out of Tottenham’s registered Premier League squad after a complicated summer transfer saga, but he did start the opening-day defeat to Brentford.
Unfortunately, it was a disappointing performance from the Brazilian, who failed to make much of an impact before being taken out of the side.
- Grade: F
21. James Maddison
- Minutes played: 35
James Maddison suffered a shoulder injury during Tottenham’s opening-day defeat to Brentford after coming on as a substitute, and he did not return until the weekend’s draw with Everton, when he once again appeared late in the game.
There were encouraging signs in his involvement both on and off the ball, but 35 minutes of football is simply too small a sample size to make a fair judgement on where Maddison is physically or technically right now.
- Grade: U (ungraded)
22. Mykhailo Mudryk
- Minutes played: 16
Having not made a competitive appearance since November 2024, Mykhailo Mudryk finally returned to competitive action as a late substitute against Nottingham Forest, where he barely saw the ball.
He unfortunately picked up a ‘stupid’ ankle injury the following week, which is expected to keep him out for up to eight weeks.
- Grade: U (ungraded)
23. Tosin Adarabioyo
- Minutes played: 5
Tosin Adarabioyo has played just five minutes of football this season, coming on against Everton at the weekend, where he still managed 11 touches off the ball.
- Grade: U (ungraded)