Tottenham’s Midfield Revolution: De Zerbi’s New Signings
Roberto De Zerbi did not arrive at Tottenham to tinker. He came to tear up, rebuild and accelerate, and this summer window is already moving at his speed.
The back line went first. Marcos Senesi, Andy Robertson and Martin Dubravka walked through the door on free transfers from AFC Bournemouth, Liverpool and Burnley, while Jan Paul van Hecke was prised from Brighton & Hove Albion to stiffen the centre of defence. Four signings, four clear statements: Spurs would be harder, sharper, more secure.
Now the real surgery has begun.
With Mateus Fernandes joining from West Ham United and Sandro Tonali arriving from Newcastle United, Spurs have made their fifth and sixth signings of the summer – and detonated their central midfield in one go.
This is not squad padding. This is the core of De Zerbi-ball being dropped into north London.
From survival mode to De Zerbi-ball
De Zerbi’s first seven Premier League games as Spurs head coach were about survival, not style. He parked his grand ideas, dragged the club away from relegation trouble and banked the points.
That pause is over.
His Brighton & Hove Albion and Marseille sides were defined by one idea: “press-baiting”. Centre-backs and goalkeeper calmly played out from the back, inviting pressure, drawing opponents on like a trap being slowly set. Then, with one vertical pass or a sharp combination, they would spring forward and attack at pace, as if breaking from a deep counter.
It is possession football with teeth. Control married to chaos.
The data backs up the eye test. Opta’s graphic comparing De Zerbi’s 2022/23 Brighton to Ange Postecoglou’s 2023/24 Spurs shows both teams high on direct speed upfield and strong on passes per sequence. They could work the ball patiently, then suddenly rip through lines.
That is the football De Zerbi wants to restore at Tottenham: the adventurous, front-foot style Spurs flirted with under Postecoglou, but with an even more aggressive press and more rehearsed patterns in build-up.
To make it work, the double pivot in his favoured 4-2-3-1 has to be perfect. Energy. Aggression. Calm under pressure. The ability to take the ball in tight spaces, play one-touch combinations while being hunted, then, in an instant, punch passes through the lines.
At Brighton, he had Alexis Mac Allister and Moises Caicedo doing that job to an elite level. Now, in Fernandes and Tonali, he believes he has found the pair to echo that partnership in north London.
Why Fernandes and Tonali fit the blueprint
Look at the numbers from 2025/26 and the logic is blunt.
De Zerbi’s football demands relentless pressing and high turnovers – winning the ball back in advanced areas and turning that into immediate threat. Conor Gallagher became vital as an attacking midfielder late last season because of his ability to hunt and harry.
Tonali and Fernandes push that intensity deeper into midfield.
Across the league, players who sit in the top-right quadrant of the pressing metrics – high turnovers and ball recoveries – are the ones who live in the opposition’s half without the ball. Tonali and Fernandes sit in that territory, and they outstrip Spurs’ existing options in that regard.
On the ball, the contrast is just as stark. In metrics that marry final-third entries with passing accuracy, the two new signings again live among the league’s most influential midfielders.
- Per 90 minutes, Tonali completes 13.24 passes into the final third and 16.81 forward passes, with an open-play pass accuracy of 84.8%.
- Fernandes posts 10.30 final-third passes and 12.65 forward passes, with a sparkling 87.8% accuracy.
Compare that to Spurs’ regulars last season:
- Pape Sarr: 9.96 final-third passes, 10.55 forward passes, 84.4% accuracy
- Archie Gray: 6.57, 10.77, 82.7%
- Joao Palhinha: 5.53, 12.86, 81.8%
- Rodrigo Bentancur: 7.56, 11.70, 85.6%
Fernandes and Tonali don’t just edge them. They redefine the profile.
Then comes the telling benchmark. De Zerbi’s peak Brighton pair in 2022/23, Mac Allister and Caicedo, set the standard for this role. Mac Allister averaged 14.16 final-third passes, 14.16 forward passes, 87.0% accuracy and 0.90 possessions won in the final third per 90. Caicedo delivered 14.22, 15.62, 88.7% and 0.57.
Tonali’s 0.53 possessions won in the final third and Fernandes’s 0.51 put them in the same statistical neighbourhood. They do not quite reach the Brighton duo’s creative volume, but the shape of their output is strikingly similar.
These are not just upgrades on what Spurs had. They are signings tailored to a very specific idea of football.
Fernandes: the hidden No 10 in a double pivot
Fernandes arrives as the more creative of the two. His passing range is broad and bold: long diagonals, disguised through-balls, line-breaking dribbles that pull opponents out of shape.
He is closer to a No 10 in a deeper body.
The numbers underline it. Last season he created 32 chances and attempted 31 take-ons in the Premier League. Set that against Spurs’ central midfielders:
- Sarr: 11 chances created, 22 take-ons attempted
- Gray: 8 and 16
- Palhinha: 8 and 23
- Bentancur: 10 and 32
Fernandes operates on a different creative tier.
That came in a West Ham side that ultimately went down and often played cautiously, sitting deeper and attacking in fewer numbers. Drop that same player into a De Zerbi team that lives on the front foot, keeps the ball higher up and encourages risk, and the ceiling rises again.
In De Zerbi’s 4-2-3-1, Fernandes can act as the more advanced of the double pivot, stepping into the half-spaces, combining with the No 10 and wide players, and threading those final-third passes that the data highlights. He can help turn the “press-baiting” phase into the first cut through the opposition block.
Tonali: the destroyer who wants the ball
If Fernandes is the artist, Tonali is the enforcer with a playmaker’s brain.
His role in this Spurs side mirrors the Caicedo template. He will tackle, intercept and screen like Palhinha or Bentancur, but with a more proactive, forward-facing instinct once he wins the ball.
The statistics support that duality. Tonali’s 16.81 forward passes per 90 show a player who does not just recycle possession sideways. He looks up, plays through pressure and moves Spurs up the pitch with purpose.
Crucially, he also contributes to the high press. With 0.53 possessions won in the final third per 90, he stands alongside the league’s most aggressive ball-winners in advanced areas. That is exactly the profile De Zerbi leans on to keep opponents penned in and to sustain waves of attacks.
In practical terms, Tonali can sit as the deeper pivot when Spurs build from the back, dropping between or alongside the centre-backs, then stepping into midfield as the trap is sprung. When the ball is lost, he becomes the first line of resistance, snapping into duels and closing space before the opposition can breathe.
A midfield with De Zerbi’s personality
Strip away the charts and tables and one thing stands out: the personality of these signings.
Fernandes and Tonali carry a sense of urgency. They play forward. They press. They want the ball when it is hot.
That is De Zerbi on the touchline translated into the middle of the pitch.
Tottenham have rebuilt their defence, reshaped their midfield and re-armed their manager with the tools he needs for his brand of football. The structure is there now: a back line comfortable under pressure, a double pivot that can both invite the press and slice through it, and a system primed to flip from patient possession to direct incision in a heartbeat.
The question is no longer what De Zerbi wants Spurs to be. It is how quickly this new midfield can drag the club into that vision – and how far it can take them once it clicks.
