RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Roberto De Zerbi won't have experienced many surprise disappointments as shocking and gloomy as Tottenham Hotpur's Week 1 loss to Brentford in the Premier League.
How much of the hope instilled in Tottenham Hotspur supporters during a busy, spend-happy summer was destroyed by 90 flummoxing minutes in Brentford on Saturday, when Spurs went down early to their organized hosts and never really found any footing?
MORE — Brentford vs Tottenham Hotspur recap, video highlights
De Zerbi will have to shoulder plenty of the blame, for sure, as his starting midfield never found its footing and his eyebrow-raising decision to keep both James Maddison and Mateus Fernandes on the bench looked worse and worse as the first half stretched toward the break. Spurs' wayward play turned to bleak as Lucas Bergvall made poor decisions on both of Brentford's first-half goals.
Young midfielder Archie Gray was the captain on the day — the youngest ever to pull on the band for Spurs — and had a straight-forward review of the game, one that mimicked his coach's feelings.
"We lost too many duels — they just out-fought us all over the park," Gray said. "They just out-fought us. For some reason, some days in football a team will out fight another team. There's not really words for it. ... I don't think there are any excuses to be honest. We'll all look ourselves in the mirror. It wasn't good enough."
Bergvall was removed at the break along with Conor Gallagher in favor of Mateus Fernandes and Rodrigo Bentancur, while another surprise young starter in Mikey Moore put two glorious chances within reach of Brentford keeper Caoimhin Kelleher before giving way to Maddison.
Spurs' spending has fueled hopes of a top-five run but the North Londoners' Week 1 performance against a well-drilled, little-changed Brentford will remind many how much time it often takes for a team to come together.
Roberto De Zerbi reaction — What did Tottenham Hotspur boss say after brutal debut blowout?
What went wrong? "We suffered physicality but we knew before the game yet we were not ready to fight in the duels. We made a lot of mistakes in the timing in the pressure with Mikey Moore in the left center, we arrived too many times late, I'm sorry for that. I'm sorry for the defeat. We have to improve in the physical condition and the organization. There were many new players and it's the first game, a part of our journey. We knew before the game, we had a lot of new players to become a team. We needed soul. Today, there was the soul but we didn't fight in the right way for the difference of duels because Brentford is one of the most important teams in the Premier League in terms of duels. Fair game."
"I believe in my players. It was a game especially in the first half in one direction. We were not in the right position to make the high pressure. If you analyze the game, you can see how many duels we lost in the first half. The way of the game went in the direction of Brentford."
"We didn't play well. We didn't fight in the right way. We didn't remember the last season because all of these players are good people and people with value and memory but we lost too many duels. One of the best qualities is 1v1 the man-to-man, the want to win the duel."
How many personnel changes will we see over the coming weeks? "The first 11 was able to compete normally if the game went in this way. Now we can say a lot of things but I don't lose confidence in my players or as people. We have to work. We have to work. We have to improve and better analyze the game to find improvement."
"We can't destroy everything because we are working well. We are improving the physical condition of the players. It's not at the same point for all players, as some started the season late like Senesi, Bergvall, a lot of players but I don't want excuses, I want to focus on the improvement we need to do. The first thing is to find the right spirit to fight."
Did you see this performance coming? "I didn't expect this result but I knew the problems we could find today, especially in the duels."
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