De Zerbi Defends Tonali Amid Spurs' Struggles
Roberto De Zerbi refused to turn Sandro Tonali into the scapegoat, even as the £100m midfielder trudged off to mocking cheers from the away end and another Tottenham defeat settled over north London.
Tonali, Spurs’ first-ever nine-figure signing, cut a lost figure in the 2-0 home loss to Newcastle. Rested in midweek against Charlton to sharpen his fitness, he returned to the Premier League stage looking anything but ready. He was slow to react in the buildup to Anthony Elanga’s opener, caught in the eye of the storm as Newcastle seized control, and was hooked on 75 minutes to a soundtrack of schadenfreude from the travelling support.
De Zerbi would not bite.
“No, I love Sandro Tonali,” he said afterwards, emotion cracking through the usual managerial armour. “Today is the day where my emotion for my players is bigger than the other days because we are building together the club, Vinai (Venkatesham), Johan Lange, the owners, me and they (the players) are like our children. So, this day is so sad. We are all of us very disappointed for the result, but I love my players more today than the next win we will make. I believe more than the Brentford game of our project, I believe in our players.”
It was a striking response on a bleak afternoon. Spurs are two games into the new Premier League season, two games beaten, and already the questions are circling around a squad that has cost a fortune but still looks brittle when the wind changes direction.
Tonali’s situation only adds to the intrigue. He played in pre-season against Chelsea, Getafe and Hoffenheim, yet still looks short of sharpness. The mystery around his conditioning refuses to clear. De Zerbi did not hide from that reality, but he doubled down on the Italian’s importance.
He talked about a group still coming together, about key pieces only just being pushed onto the board.
“I think (Omar) Marmoush for the first game played very well,” he said. “It was the first game for Micky van de Ven and Pedro Porro, they came late and they are crucial for this team, after the World Cup, after two injuries. Sandro Tonali is another crucial player. He is not in the right condition, in the best condition yet, maybe physically.”
The problem for De Zerbi runs deeper than one undercooked midfielder. Tottenham simply do not cope when they are punched in the mouth.
Under the Italian, they have lost every match in which they concede first. That pattern stretches back before his arrival. You have to rewind almost two years, to November 2024, to find the last time Spurs went 1-0 down in the Premier League and still found a way to win. That is not a blip. It is a fault line.
As soon as Elanga struck, the fragility surfaced again. Heads dropped. Passes grew safe, then sloppy. The stadium felt it.
“After the goal we conceded, I think we lost the confidence. The reaction was not good enough,” De Zerbi admitted. “Not the reaction I want to see on the pitch and I said immediately after the end of the game, to the players, because when you are building something new, it’s tough, there are problems.”
Those problems are now framed by expectation and expense. Spurs have spent heavily to reshape the squad and hand De Zerbi the tools he demanded. Two straight defeats have not bought him much patience outside the dressing room. Inside it, he is clinging to a different currency.
He spoke about family. About players as “children” to be protected, not paraded in front of the firing squad. About a culture that has to be grown, not imported.
“You can’t buy winning mentality in the transfer market,” he said, the line hanging in the air like an accusation and a warning.
The message was clear. The price tag on Tonali will not change the pace of his integration. The size of the summer outlay will not shortcut the psychological rebuild. De Zerbi is staking his reputation on the idea that this group can be hardened, that the soft underbelly Spurs have worn for years can finally be stripped away.
For now, though, the evidence is harsh. A record signing still searching for his legs. A team that unravels as soon as it falls behind. A manager demanding time at a club that has rarely granted it.
How long will Tottenham wait for the mentality they cannot buy?
