Roberto De Zerbi has said that his current Tottenham squad are more fragile than any team he has managed in his career.
Spurs will now spend the next three weeks rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table, which is not a situation many would have foreseen after their summer window.
| Position | Team | Played MP | Won W | Drawn D | Lost L | For GF | Against GA | Diff GD | Points Pts |
| 18 |  CoventryCoventry | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 10 | -9 | 3 |
| 19 |  FulhamFulham | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 8 | -3 | 2 |
| 20 |  TottenhamTottenham | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 8 | -6 | 2 |
De Zerbi is a man under a lot of pressure after being backed with many of his top targets in the summer, and that pressure is now starting to tell.
| Incomings | |
| Andrew Robertson | Free |
| Marcos Senesi | Free |
| Martin Dubravka | Free |
| Jan Paul van Hecke | £52m |
| Mateus Fernandes | £85m |
| Sandro Tonali | £100m |
| Savinho | £85m |
| Omar Marmoush | £60m |
| Tosin Adarabioyo | £12m |
| Mykhailo Mudryk | Loan |
| Total spent | £394m |
| Outgoings | |
| Luka Vuskovic | £50m |
| Will Lankshear | £20m |
| Radu Dragusin | £21m |
| Alejo Veliz | £7.7m |
| Alfie Devine | £6m |
| Tynan Thompson | £8m |
| Manor Solomon | £7m |
| Cristian Romero | £34.1m |
| Ashley Phillips | £20m |
| Djed Spence | £30m |
| Kevin Danso | £25m |
| Pape Matar Sarr | £25.6m |
| Total received | £254.8m |
| Tottenham’s net spend | £139.2m |
He saw his side lose yet again at home on Saturday, which means that they have only won once at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium since the start of the calendar year.
Roberto De Zerbi says he has not seen a team as mentally fragile as this Tottenham side
The Tottenham head coach puts the team’s poor results down to a mentality issue rather than one of skill or quality.
He admitted that Spurs have made it a habit of starting the game so well and yet conceding goals in crucial moments, which he feels is indicative of the team’s fragility.
Speaking after his side’s 3-2 loss to Villa, De Zerbi said (via talkSPORT): “It’s a mental aspect for sure, but they have the right mentality. They work very well, they are good players. It’s difficult to explain because, in my career, 14 years as a coach, I’ve never seen one team like us. So fragile, so inconsistent.
“You’re good, or you’re bad. You can’t be very good in the first 30, 40 minutes, and then concede like this in this way. “It’s tough to accept for me. Listen, I’m a coach, but I do not have all the answers…for your question, I have no answer.
“I can say what I think, what I’ve seen today and I saw my team in the first half play very well, we had chances to score. We didn’t score and then we conceded the first goal…we have to stay closer and stay stronger, more compact. In the second half, after Kudus’ goal, I don’t know if the players lost energy…now we have to explain another defeat.”
De Zerbi points to a leadership void at Spurs
The Tottenham boss has seen the same script repeat several times this season, and he now believes that it could be down to poor communication or leadership on the pitch.
The Italian admitted that he and his coaching staff have to immediately identify solutions to arrest the team’s slide.
De Zerbi added: “Maybe the communication between the players [is the problem], maybe the leaders have to be stronger. We need leaders to drive and lead the team…I don’t know, I want to speak with the players when I stay with them. With Newcastle it was the same, in Liverpool it was the same, with Everton it was the same…we have to find the solutions.”