Tottenham were comfortably second best on Saturday as they fell to a 3-0 defeat against Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Goals from Keane Lewis-Potter, Vitaly Janelt and Michael Kayode put the Lilywhites to the sword after a disastrous display.
Roberto De Zerbi’s side were missing key players, but they never really got going across the pitch, which was a worrying sign.
And now, Tim Sherwood has criticised the Italian as Tottenham crumbled on opening day despite their summer spending spree.
Tim Sherwood says De Zerbi has no excuses at Tottenham
“It’s difficult to give the criticism to the hierarchy and the club because they have brought the players in for him,” said Sherwood on Sky Sports.
“They have done the business very early so they could avoid this happening on the first day of the season.
“He has had plenty of time to work with them, and the players he wanted out, they have done that and have sold them cheaply. So the buck stops with the manager – and the players, by the way.
“I saw nothing. And to come out after the game and say: ‘We were outfought’. Wow, outfought? At any level, you cannot be outfought. I thought that is what he was all about.
“I like him as a manager, he did wonderfully for Tottenham at the back end of last season and he has absolutely bullied the club to make these signings, and pay over the top for a load of them.
“The non-negotiables are running hard, fighting, winning second balls, winning your headers, and they didn’t do any of that (against Brentford).
“Forget about the structure, forget about the pretty patterns which De Zerbi is meant to bring to this club. He is known for passion, his desire, and his team should mirror that and they showed nothing of the sort, it was really poor.”
To be honest, Tottenham were without at least five or six guaranteed starters yesterday as the likes of Pedro Porro, Destiny Udogie, Mateus Fernandes, Micky van de Ven, James Maddison and Mohammed Kudus were either benched or left out.
Once they all return to the team and the likes of Savinho and Omar Marmoush are added, we’ll have a clearer picture of how far the team has come along under De Zerbi.
Sherwood isn’t entirely wrong, but it’s just been one game, so fans and pundits need to manage their expectations and try not to go overboard with the criticism.
