Roberto De Zerbi didn’t hide behind the Jayden Bogle decision. After Tottenham’s 1-0 defeat at Leeds, he said his side deserved to lose, apologised for the second half and admitted his players showed no personality.
Noah Okafor’s 79th-minute winner at Elland Road ended a run of three straight league wins, and it came after a first half in which Spurs looked the better side. What happened in between is what De Zerbi wanted to talk about.
He spoke to TNT Sports, BBC Match of the Day and the written press, and the message was the same each time: this one was on Tottenham, not the officials.
‘We deserved to lose the game’
Roberto De Zerbi described it as two games in one. He felt Spurs were alive before the break and created two or three clear chances without suffering anything. Then it all changed.
“In the second half, I don’t know why, but we suffered too much, and we deserved to lose the game. We didn’t win any duel; we didn’t win any one-to-one; there was space to play, and we didn’t take the right decision, take the right position; we didn’t show personality; we didn’t show what we are, who we are,” De Zerbi said in his press conference.
He added that honesty was the only way forward: “If you are honest to analyse honestly our behaviour in the second half, I think we can become a top team.”
An apology to the Spurs fans
Speaking to TNT Sports straight after the final whistle, he went further. “I’m sorry for the result, but first of all I’m sorry for the performance in the second half. We didn’t play like a top team, we played without the right spirit, the right character, the right physicality in the duels,” he said.
"I'm sorry for the result. I'm sorry for the performance in the second half"
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Roberto De Zerbi apologises following Tottenham Hotspur's defeat to Leeds United 💭
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What surprised him most was that Spurs knew exactly what was coming. “My players worked very well this week. We spoke all week, all days, about the intensity, about the type of game we would have found in this stadium, the atmosphere we would have found in this stadium,” he said.
What did De Zerbi say about the Bogle challenge?
Late in the first half, Bogle caught Mathys Tel on the back of the ankle with his studs. Referee John Brooks gave a foul but no card, and after a review of around four minutes, the VAR Tony Harrington confirmed there was no red. Brooks was never sent to the monitor, so Bogle escaped without even a booking. We went through the incident in our Leeds 1-0 Tottenham match report.
De Zerbi wouldn’t be drawn on the tackle itself. “I have big confidence in the referee. Nothing changes if he goes to the monitor. If they didn’t take the right decision I don’t know. We have to keep the eyes on the performance where can improve,” he said.
The Pedro Porro booking he couldn’t accept
What he did question was the yellow card for Pedro Porro early in the second half, which came at the same moment De Zerbi was booked himself. He called it “incredible” given what had happened before the break.
“I was surprised because in the same position, in the same position in the second half, two different fouls, two yellow cards for Pedro Porro. It’s not possible,” he said in his press conference. “I don’t know if it was a red card or not on Mathys but for sure Pedro Porro, yellow card. And why am I telling like this, because the parameter of the referee was not good enough, I think, for this situation.”
Tottenham are understood to be writing to Pro Ref, the referees’ body, to ask why Bogle was not sent off.
Van de Ven: the referee should have looked himself
Club captain Micky van de Ven was less diplomatic than his manager. “When I saw the impact from the side, I knew straight away. I went to the referee and said, ‘This is a hard challenge.’ I think it says enough that they’re going to check it. So when the VAR needs so long to check it, you can always call the ref to have a look by himself,” he said after the game.
Is Mathys Tel’s injury serious?
Tel tried to play on but was replaced by Dominic Solanke two minutes before half-time. De Zerbi didn’t sound hopeful. “Bad injury and now we have to make the medical check, and the next day we will know what is the problem,” he said.
So there’s no timeline yet. The international break at least gives Spurs two weeks before their next league game.
Why did James Maddison stay on the bench?
With Spurs chasing an equaliser, De Zerbi turned to Luca Williams-Barnett for the last few minutes instead of James Maddison. He explained that Maddison simply wasn’t ready for more.
“Maddison started to work with the group on Thursday. Yes, Thursday, but no total training. Today and yesterday he worked just one day, one day and a half. It could be a solution, yes, but at that moment I thought Kudus was too tired. And in that position, Luca, in one-to-one, the speed is better than James. But in the future, James, when James is fit, we already know he plays, no?” he said.
It was another sign of how much De Zerbi trusts the 18-year-old, who he told reporters on Friday had been close to a first start at Stamford Bridge.
‘I didn’t see the same Micky van de Ven’
De Zerbi said the day was part of the learning for his young players, naming Mateus Fernandes, Archie Gray and Tel. But he didn’t spare the senior men either. “Today I didn’t see the same Micky van de Ven, the same Sandro Tonali, the same Kudus,” he said, before adding: “My players are good people and good players. If you are good as a man, you understand your mistakes, and you can improve quickly.”
De Zerbi’s honesty is the right call
We like that De Zerbi went this way. He had an easy excuse in the Bogle decision and chose not to take it, because the second half was poor whatever happened to Tel. Leeds won the duels, and Spurs didn’t respond.
His line that Spurs “are not ready yet to be consistent for many games in a row” is the honest read after a three-game winning run. The test now is whether that message lands over the break, with Tel’s scan the first thing to watch.
