Roberto De Zerbi has launched an astonishing rant against the negativity surrounding Tottenham's injury crisis, calling it 'rubbish' as his team fights for Premier League survival. The Spurs boss began his press conference ahead of Sunday's crucial trip to Aston Villa with a passionate four-minute monologue dismissing concerns over his squad's depleted state.
De Zerbi's Passionate Defence
Tottenham sit just two points above the relegation zone, with West Ham in 17th place. Despite ending a 16-game winless run with a vital 1-0 victory over Wolves last weekend, the result came at a heavy cost. Xavi Simons suffered a serious knee injury, and Dominic Solanke was forced off with a hamstring problem, leaving Spurs with 10 first-team players unavailable.
However, De Zerbi refused to dwell on the negatives. 'Listen, I want to be clear one time,' he said. 'The most important challenge now is to silence the voice inside of us, inside of the players, inside of the staff and inside of the fans. This voice can produce negative thoughts.'
He added: 'The voice says, we are unlucky, we have too many injuries, we lost Xavi Simons and he was the last two games one of the best players... our medical staff is not good enough and the pitch of the stadium is not good, the pitch of the training ground is not good, it is impossible to win two or three games in a row because we have not won too many games in 2026. I think it is all negative things. And it is rubbish.'
Quality in the Squad
De Zerbi insisted his team has enough quality to compete. 'If Solanke and Xavi are injured, we can play with Kolo Muani, Mathys Tel, Richarlison and I think they are not worse players. They are different as characters, but are very good players. We have Pedro Porro, we have Udogie, we have Micky van de Ven, we have Bentancur, we have Palhinha, we have Gallagher and Gallagher two! For that all these things and I have not too much to listen and to hear these negative things.'
He also called for a fighting spirit: 'We have to die on the pitch and to die on the pitch we have to lose the game. Before we lose the game we have to play, we have to fight and we have two points less than West Ham but West Ham have to play difficult games as well like us.'
'The losers cry. The losers think negative. I don't want people close to me crying or to think in a different way to me. We are good enough to win the games, and we are good enough to stay up.'
