Two points, three defeats and a friend speaking out: Tottenham are losing something more important than the league table

There is a sound that the scoreboard never tells. After the referee blows the final whistle, when the stadium lights begin to fade, the stands often release a sigh longer than the match itself. I have heard that sigh in different places around the world, and I am hearing it right now, in a very specific corner of England, where Tottenham are third from bottom with two points after five rounds.

I call that “empty football.” Not football without goals, but the space between the events people record: between the touch, between the coach’s shout, between the players’ eyes when they look at the electronic board. A match without spectators is not a match without sound; there are footsteps, the manager’s voice, and the sound of a frightened heart. But today, I want to talk about something even emptier than football: identity.

Tottenham began this season as a team that does not yet know who they are. The results after five matches cannot seriously be called a statistical crisis, but they are enough to force a debate about the coach’s future. Three defeats, two points, third from bottom. The sample is still small and thin, but the story has been written very loudly. The author of that story is not me. It is Lele Adani, a man who calls himself a friend and a great supporter of Roberto De Zerbi.

Adani spoke on X, the social network where media pressure usually starts before it reaches the pitch. He did not shout. He said something that seems polite: De Zerbi’s team have not managed to create an identity, performances are often drab and lack fluency. He concluded with three short words: “Work, a lot.” The news instantly became a story. But I, a man who has been sitting in stadiums for decades from Jakarta to distant rural corners, see something else here.

The first thing to put on the table is not two points or three defeats. The first thing is the identity of the critic. If Adani were an enemy, his words would be a declaration of war. But he is a close friend of De Zerbi, someone who understands the Italian coach’s philosophy better than most pundits. When a close friend says the team lacks identity, that is a signal. Not a signal of betrayal, but a signal of a concern that has been growing for a long time.

I have watched many matches involving De Zerbi’s teams. De Zerbismo, the name given to his philosophy, has always revolved around building from the back, accepting high risk in the first phase, baiting the opponent to press and then exploiting the space behind them. His full-backs often do not stay wide; they move inside to overload central areas. The ball is circulated with a slow, patient rhythm, as if the team were breathing. But breathing is not enough if no one knows why they are breathing.

In my analysis, what Adani pointed out is not a single tactical mistake. He did not say De Zerbi chose the wrong lineup, nor that he misplaced a player. He said the team has no identity. A team without identity cannot play the football De Zerbi wants, because his style is a language. To speak that language, players must share the same frame of reference, the same understanding of space, timing, and how to react when pressed.

My core insight is this: Adani’s criticism is a diagnosis of the system-gelling phase, not a verdict against De Zerbi’s football philosophy. When a new coach arrives at a new club, there is always a period when the strategist tries to impose ideas onto an unfinished picture. Players used to simple football must learn to face pressure right in front of their own goal. Defenders who never dared to play short passes suddenly become reluctant conductors. That process takes time, but elite football never has enough time.

What makes Tottenham’s story special is the mismatch between the club’s stature and their current league position. Tottenham are considered one of the big teams in the Premier League, a club whose revenue, facilities and brand are far above a relegation battle. When such a club falls near the bottom, pressure does not increase arithmetically; it increases exponentially. Fans are not disappointed only by two points; they are disappointed by the contradiction between what they believe about the club and what they are watching. That imbalance creates what I call expectation asymmetry.

But let us stop for a moment and look at what is missing from all this noisy commentary: data. There is no xG, no xGA, no PPDA, no pass completion rate, no process metric at all. All we have are results: two points in five matches, three defeats, and a vague description that the team lacks fluency. That means the debate is taking place on the ground of prejudice and emotion, not knowledge. In modern football, without process data, we are only looking at the symptoms without ever seeing the full diagnostic picture.

I am not saying two points in five matches is good. Let us call things by their true name: two points after five games is failure, there is no other way to say it. But five matches is a very small statistical sample, easily distorted after just one or two games. A team can play badly for five straight matches yet still have high expected-goal numbers; the reverse can also happen. If we only look at results, we are deceiving ourselves.

Tottenham’s story right now is not an internal crisis in the sense of a dressing-room explosion. There is no information about conflict between players and coach, no sign of a silent revolt. The only thing we have is the word of a friend saying the team has no identity. And the fact that that close friend chose to speak publicly is what truly deserves thought. If inside the club everything were calm, a close friend of the coach would not need to go on social media to talk about a lack of identity. He could speak directly. By choosing to say it in public, even gently, he suggests the issue has already been acknowledged at a deeper level than the public knows.

He may be buying time for De Zerbi. In football, criticism framed with respect usually buys more time than a direct attack. But it also creates a marker: if after the next two matches Tottenham still do not show a clear face, the story will change from “needs more time” to “time for change.” That is how warnings from the sweetest friends usually work in my profession.

I also want to talk about information noise. In the data we have, there is a detail that made me stop: Tottenham are described as third from bottom in the Premier League, but at the same time, a club named Coventry is mentioned as an upcoming opponent. Coventry are playing in the Championship. The appearance of that name next to a Premier League match suggests one of two possibilities: either this is a cup tie, or the original data is scrambled. If what we are relying on is uncertain, the story we tell must be even more humble.

This is where I want to use a story of my own. People measure football in gigantic numbers: hundreds of millions of euros for a contract, billions for sponsorship, thick balance sheets. But 222 million does not live in the balance sheet; it lives in the hearts of millions of people. I learned this years ago when I wrote about a huge transfer without writing about money. I wrote about a boy who once wore simple sandals on the beaches of his hometown. Football is never measured by paper numbers; it is measured by what remains in the hearts of fans after every number is forgotten.

With Tottenham, two points after five games will surely be forgotten if they find their identity again. But if they do not, those two points will become a marker in a longer story, about a big club losing itself in front of everyone. I do not want to romanticize failure. I do not want to turn two points into a beautiful tragedy. I only want to remind everyone that we are very early in the season, and every conclusion right now is a hasty one.

Football always needs a scapegoat. When a team plays badly, people look for someone to blame, and the coach is the easiest target. But if we read Adani’s words carefully, he is not telling De Zerbi to be sacked. He says the team need to work, a lot. Those are the words of a man who believes the problem is in the process, not in the person. That phrase may protect De Zerbi, but it can also become a blade if Tottenham keep sliding.

People remember the goal, but I write about the one who offered that goal to the world with a wrong touch. In Tottenham’s current story, the goal is not the most important thing. The most important thing is how the team handles the false touch called a slow start. If they treat it as part of the process, they can overcome it. If they treat it as proof that De Zerbi’s philosophy does not fit, then any result in the next two games will only intensify the debate.

Fulham and Coventry are not names with great media weight, but they become the only windows through which we can glimpse the immediate future. If Tottenham play with a clear face, if the ball moves faster, if the players move as though they have known each other forever, the story will change. If the team remain vague, these two games will become key pieces of evidence in a file called “identity.”

I want to end with a question. Is identity something that can be frozen in memory like a beautiful goal, or is it something that must be cultivated every day in quiet training sessions, where there are no spectators, no cameras, no analytical columns? Tottenham lack neither money nor talented players, nor a coach once praised across Europe. Tottenham lack the simplest thing in football: mutual understanding built from silent hours of work. Look at the next two matches not to search for goals; look for signs of an identity being reborn. All we need to do now is listen closely to a sigh that might turn into a song.