Roberto De Zerbi's Ambitious Rebuild at Tottenham Hotspur
Roberto De Zerbi did not arrive at Tottenham Hotspur to tinker. He came to rip things up and start again, and the scale of this summer’s rebuild shows it.
The defence went first. Marcos Senesi, Andy Robertson and Martin Dubravka all walked through the door on free transfers after leaving AFC Bournemouth, Liverpool and Burnley. Jan Paul van Hecke followed from Brighton & Hove Albion, another centre-back for a manager who builds his game from the back.
Now the surgery has reached the heart of the team.
Spurs have added their fifth and sixth signings of the window in one bold move, landing Mateus Fernandes from West Ham United and Sandro Tonali from Newcastle United. Two central midfielders, both high profile, both clearly handpicked for what De Zerbi wants this team to become.
He is wedded to 4-2-3-1. That double pivot is non-negotiable. With Tonali and Fernandes, he has effectively torn up his central midfield in one sweep.
Why? Because De Zerbi-ball demands a very specific type of player in that zone.
Press-baiting, gear changes and the De Zerbi blueprint
De Zerbi’s first seven Premier League matches at Spurs were about survival, not ideology. He parked the full tactical overhaul to get them away from danger. That was the pragmatic phase.
The next phase will look very different.
His Brighton & Hove Albion and Marseille sides were built on a striking blend: long spells of possession, aggressive high pressing and sudden, violent accelerations into direct football. The defining trick was “press-baiting” – inviting pressure by playing out in tight, rehearsed patterns, then slicing through the opposition once they over-commit.
The ball rolls along the back line, the midfielders drop short, the trap is set. Opponents step up. One pass breaks the line, and suddenly it looks like a counter-attack from nowhere.
Data backs up the stylistic link between De Zerbi at Brighton in 2022/23 and Ange Postecoglou’s Spurs in 2023/24. Both sides sat high on Opta’s measures for direct speed upfield and passes per sequence. They could zip forward with purpose, but also stitch together patient passing moves.
This is not the Thomas Frank era of more restrained football. It is a return to front-foot, high-risk, high-reward football closer to Postecoglou’s peak, but with De Zerbi’s more intricate build-up patterns.
To make that work, the two central midfielders must do almost everything. They have to press with ferocity, keep the ball under pressure with one-touch combinations, then punch vertical passes through the lines when the moment comes.
At Brighton, that role belonged to Alexis Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo, who have since become mainstays at Liverpool and Chelsea. In north London, Fernandes and Tonali inherit that responsibility.
Why Tonali and Fernandes fit the plan
Line them up against Spurs’ most-used central midfielders from 2025/26 and the logic of these signings becomes obvious.
De Zerbi’s football feeds on pressure high up the pitch. High turnovers – winning the ball in open play within 40 metres of the opposition goal – and ball recoveries are non-negotiable. That is why Conor Gallagher became such a key figure as an attacking midfielder late last season: he hunted the ball relentlessly.
Across the league, Tonali and Fernandes sit in the band of players who excel in those pressing metrics. They win it back, and they win it back in dangerous areas.
Then there is what they do once they have the ball.
On the metrics that matter to De Zerbi – final-third entries and passing accuracy – both new signings stand out. They complete more passes and more entries into the final third than most Premier League midfielders, and crucially, they outstrip Spurs’ existing options in those categories.
Per 90 minutes, Tonali completes 13.24 final-third passes and 16.81 forward passes, with an open-play pass accuracy of 84.8 per cent. Fernandes posts 10.30 final-third passes, 12.65 forward passes and an even sharper 87.8 per cent accuracy. They also win possession in the final third at 0.53 and 0.51 times per 90 respectively.
Compare that with Pape Matar Sarr (9.96 final-third passes, 10.55 forward passes, 84.4 per cent accuracy, 0.32 possessions won in the final third), Gray, Joao Palhinha and Rodrigo Bentancur, and the gap in output is clear. These are upgrades, not just alternatives.
The comparison that really matters, though, is with Mac Allister and Caicedo in De Zerbi’s best Brighton season. Mac Allister’s 14.16 final-third passes, 14.16 forward passes, 87.0 per cent accuracy and 0.90 possessions won in the final third, and Caicedo’s 14.22, 15.62, 88.7 per cent and 0.57 respectively, set the gold standard for this system.
Tonali and Fernandes do not quite match those numbers, but they sit in the same statistical neighbourhood. That is the point: De Zerbi has gone shopping for profiles he already knows can carry his demands.
Different tools, same engine
Within that double pivot, their roles will not be identical.
Fernandes is the more creative of the two. He can hit long, raking diagonals, thread clever through-balls or simply glide past a man with a line-breaking dribble. His game leans towards a No 10’s instincts, rather than the more functional style of the midfielders already at Spurs.
The chance-creation data underlines it. Last season, Fernandes created 32 chances and attempted 31 take-ons. Only Tonali, with 37 chances created and 48 take-ons, topped him in those categories among the central midfielders in this conversation. Sarr, Gray, Palhinha and Bentancur trail well behind.
That output came in a conservative West Ham side that went down. In a De Zerbi team that lives on the front foot, his numbers should climb.
Tonali, by contrast, is the Caicedo analogue. He will operate as the destroyer in that double pivot, a role Spurs fans know well from watching Palhinha and Bentancur. But Tonali brings a more proactive edge on the ball. He can step forward, pass through the lines and keep the tempo high, rather than simply breaking up play and recycling.
Between them, they give De Zerbi what he craves: one midfielder who can set the rhythm and open the game up, another who can shut it down and restart it with purpose.
A change of mood in midfield
Strip away the spreadsheets and the tactical diagrams and something else comes into focus.
Tonali and Fernandes fit the numbers, but they also fit the mood De Zerbi wants to create. There is urgency in the way they play, a forward thrust that mirrors the manager’s own touchline energy.
They do not hide from the ball when the press closes in. They demand it. They do not settle for safe passes when space appears. They drive into it.
For a club that has drifted between identities in recent years, this feels like a decisive step. Spurs are not just collecting names; they are constructing a midfield built to drag them back towards progressive, daring football.
Now comes the real test: can this rebuilt spine carry the weight of De Zerbi’s ambition?
