Roberto De Zerbi conceded that Tottenham Hotspur still have a lot of work to do to become a cohesive team after making sweeping changes to their squad this summer.
Jan Paul Van Hecke, Marcos Senesi, Andy Robertson and Sandro Tonali all made their Tottenham debuts at the Gtech Community Stadium, and Spurs fans were excited as the club began a new era.
However, Brentford served the Lilywhites a massive reality check, smothering them in the first half as the away side struggled to gain a foothold in the game.
Keith Andrews ‘ men emerged with a deserved 3-0 win against an extremely disjointed Tottenham side, with De Zerbi cutting an extremely frustrated figure on the bench.
Roberto De Zerbi admits Tottenham squad is not at the required level physically yet
The workloads of many of the senior Spurs stars have been carefully managed across pre-season, and De Zerbi admitted that he knew the squad were not at the required level physically ahead of their Premier League opener.
The Italian insisted that this was to be expected at the start of the project, but conceded that Tottenham have to improve quickly.
Speaking after Spurs’ 3-0 loss, De Zerbi told Football.London: “For many reasons. I think we are not a team yet. For a lot of reasons. Yesterday in the press conference, when you asked me what is the target, we can fix the target when you become a team. Before becoming a team, we can’t say what we can do.
For sure, we are not at the right point in physical condition for a lot of reasons. For the players, they came late after the World Cup, because in Australia we couldn’t work in the right way for the trip, don’t take risk for a lot of things, but are not excuses. They are the normal situation when you are building a new project, a new process.
“I don’t want time, but we have to pass through these problems. I couldn’t lose confidence in my players. I believe in my players, I believe in my club, I believe in myself. I think we are working well, but in this moment. I knew after the Hoffenheim game, I said we are not in the right point, we are late for the start of the Premier League. But it’s a step, we have to improve quickly.”
De Zerbi admits Spurs were not strong enough in duels against Brentford
The Tottenham boss acknowledged that his players were not sharp enough or strong enough in winning duels across the 90 minutes in West London.
He explained that the players also needed some time to develop a connection with each other, given the big changes that have been made.
De Zerbi added: “Anyway, we could fight stronger than we did today. We lost too many duels, we made too many mistakes in the timing when we wanted to push the pressure higher. We arrived second for the second ball, we didn’t win one second ball, one duel, one tackle, and it’s tough. But if you analyse everything, you can find that we played with one [born in] 2007, one 2006.
“Now the focus and the target is to become a team. Because a team, you can’t become a team for the transfer market window, for the players, the new players, the paper, the player of the paper, no. You become a team with the players, they find the connection between them, they find the spirit, they find the soul, like I said yesterday, and it’s a process.”