Roberto De Zerbi has made a confident statement about the quality that Tottenham have at their disposal after being humbled by Brentford on the opening day of the season.
The game at the Gtech Community Stadium saw two sides at very different stages of their respective projects go up against each other.
While the Brentford players knew exactly what was expected of them in Keith Andrew’s system, Tottenham looked extremely disjointed and incoherent, which was perhaps to be expected from a team which featured four debutants.
The away side struggled to match the Bees’ intensity, with the West London club handing De Zerbi’s men a massive reality check about life in the Premier League by hammering them 3-0.
Roberto De Zerbi admits Tottenham have to ‘suffer’ before they find their soul
The Spurs boss admitted that the performance and the result yesterday was a wake-up call for the whole club.
While De Zerbi is confident that Tottenham will be a dangerous side when they become a cohesive unit, he conceded that they may have to suffer at the start of the season before reaching that stage.
When asked if the 3-0 loss was useful in ensuring the Tottenham players kept their feet on the ground, the 46-year-old told Football.London: “Yes, but before this game yesterday, I told you, when you asked me about the target, about the happiness for this transfer market window, I said, first of all, we have to become a team.
“And to become a team, in my home, there are two big conditions. The soul and the style of play. And today, we didn’t show the soul, and we didn’t show the quality of the play.
“With the ball and without the ball. When we find these two conditions, I think we can become dangerous for everyone, every team. Until we don’t arrive, we don’t reach these conditions, we have to suffer. And today, I think it’s important for us, this defeat, because maybe we woke up stronger than we thought, maybe.”
De Zerbi insists Spurs are better than what they showed against Brentford
The Tottenham head coach insisted that his side are much better than what they showed in their season opener, and challenged his players to show their quality in their upcoming games.
However, he reiterated that Spurs need time to gel into a team and insisted that they will learn from the mistakes they made at the Gtech Community Stadium.
When asked how long he expects it to take for the team to find their rhythm and whether they could do so before their trip to Newcastle next week, De Zerbi said: “We need time, but I think we are much better than we showed today. So from Wednesday we can show our qualities, and we can show who we are.
“But anyway, even if we win on Wednesday or next Saturday, we need time to become a team. Because to become a team we need time. We need time, we have to analyse the situation, we have to understand the situation. The improvement we have to do, every one of us, because we lose and we win together.”