Tottenham Faces Challenges with Porro and Udogie Absences
Tottenham fans walked into the stadium expecting tweaks, not a shock. Then the team sheets dropped. No Pedro Porro. No Destiny Udogie. Not even on the bench.
For a side built on aggressive, front-foot full-backs, it was a jolt.
Both had started the drab 0-0 at Nottingham Forest a week earlier. Both had seemed central to how Roberto De Zerbi wants this Spurs team to play. Their sudden disappearance from the squad against Everton immediately set tongues wagging around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
De Zerbi had warned this might happen. On Friday, he laid out the risk in blunt terms.
“Porro felt a small muscular problem, we have to see tomorrow if he’s available or not but in this moment I don’t want to take any risks. The same [with] Udogie,” he said, making it clear that caution would trump short-term need.
De Zerbi manages the load
This wasn’t a mystery injury crisis sprung overnight. De Zerbi has been open about the physical strain on his full-backs, especially Porro.
“Porro and Udogie are similar players because one, Pedro played a World Cup, a long World Cup and we already knew after the World Cup it could be a difficult management for him,” he explained. The message was obvious: the meter has been running on Porro’s legs for a long time, and Spurs are determined not to burn him out in September.
Udogie’s case is just as sensitive. His talent is unquestioned; his availability hasn’t been.
“For Udogie, last season [he] suffered many injuries, he played 60 minutes in Nottingham and we have to manage also Destiny in the best way we can,” De Zerbi added.
Tottenham know what a season looks like when Udogie is constantly in and out of the side. They don’t want a repeat. Not in a campaign that is supposed to show the full version of De Zerbi’s football, not a patched-up one.
New faces, same demands
With the usual full-backs out, the plan didn’t change. The personnel did.
The responsibility fell on Archie Gray and Andy Robertson, two players at very different stages of their careers but thrown into the same unforgiving spotlight.
Gray, still a teenager, has already carried the weight of expectation since his move from Leeds United. He has been used everywhere — midfield, full-back, hybrid roles — but dealing with Everton’s physical, direct wide players is a different kind of examination. This isn’t just about neat passing angles. It’s about duels, decision-making, and not blinking when the ball is launched into your channel.
On the opposite flank, Robertson knows this script. Years of high-intensity Premier League football have hardened him to it. Yet the brief at Spurs is specific. He was asked to mirror Udogie’s influence: step inside, link play, then explode on the overlap. Those inverted movements, the late surges into the final third, are a key part of how Tottenham stretch and disorganise teams.
The question wasn’t whether Robertson could defend. It was whether he could slip into a role tailored so closely to Udogie’s profile and still give Spurs the same rhythm.
Fernandes buys into the project
All of this played out against a backdrop of early-season frustration. No wins from the opening matches, a new manager with big ideas, and a fanbase waiting to see it all click.
In the middle of it stands Matheus Fernandes, the £85m summer signing, insisting the project is worth the wait.
The Portuguese midfielder arrived from West Ham after a standout spell in East London and turned down interest from Manchester United to join De Zerbi’s rebuild. Asked why he chose Spurs, he pointed straight at the man in the dugout and the environment around him.
“I believe that I can be a much better player than I was last season,” Fernandes said. “If you look at the squad, it's a big team with big players, important players, players with experience, players with a lot of quality. So, when you play with better players, I think you play better. So, I believe that I can be much better.”
It’s an answer that fits the mood of the club: a belief that the ceiling is higher than what anyone has seen so far.
A test of depth and conviction
Losing both first-choice full-backs on the same afternoon would expose any squad. For Tottenham, whose structure leans heavily on adventurous wide defenders, it becomes a stress test of the entire system.
Can Gray cope with the physicality and intensity of Premier League wing play while still offering composure on the ball? Can Robertson reproduce Udogie’s blend of control and chaos in the final third? Can Fernandes grow into the dominant figure his price tag suggests while the team around him is still settling?
De Zerbi has chosen the long view with Porro and Udogie. No shortcuts, no gambles with muscle problems that could snowball into months on the sidelines.
The price of that caution is paid in the here and now, in games like this. The reward, if Tottenham’s depth holds and the new faces rise to the standard, might be seen in the spring — when legs are heavy, stakes are higher, and those early decisions on player management could define what this season actually becomes.
