Pedro Porro Returns as Spurs Seek Attacking Click Against Villa
Pedro Porro will be back in the Tottenham squad for Saturday’s lunchtime clash with Aston Villa, with Roberto De Zerbi insisting his misfiring side are close to snapping out of their early-season funk.
The Spanish full-back, a World Cup winner, has missed Spurs’ last two matches with what the club described as a muscular issue. He sat out the Premier League stalemate before watching Tuesday night’s 3-1 Carabao Cup third-round defeat at Liverpool from the sidelines.
De Zerbi, though, drew one clear positive from Anfield: Porro will be ready for Villa in north London.
Tottenham are still hunting their first league goal of the campaign, an uncomfortable statistic for a coach who preaches front-foot football and overloads in the final third. The wait is starting to grate outside the camp. Inside it, De Zerbi is doubling down.
“I believe in my players, I have a big confidence, a big opinion of my players,” he said. “And when we arrive to find the click, to win a game, I think we enjoy with these players.”
That “click” is supposed to come from an avalanche of attacking talent, and De Zerbi is finally starting to see some of it return.
Mohammed Kudus made his first Tottenham start at Anfield since a long-term quad injury suffered in January. The Ghanaian’s comeback has clearly lifted his manager, who sees him as a central piece in several different systems.
“Kudus is another (who is) great news for us, because he can play also as a number 10,” De Zerbi said. “We can play with Savio, Kudus, (Dominic) Solanke and (Omar) Marmoush.”
That is before he even gets to the midfielders and full-backs De Zerbi happily throws forward. His description of Spurs as capable of playing with “eight attackers” was not a throwaway line. It was a statement of intent.
The same aggressive thinking shapes his view on James Maddison, another of his potential game-changers still working back to full sharpness.
Maddison has not started a match since May 2025 after suffering a cruciate ligament tear, a brutal injury that stalled his momentum. This season he has been eased in with three substitute appearances while also dealing with a shoulder fracture.
“Maddison is for sure a different player, a special player,” De Zerbi said. “But he has to be fit, he has to be in the right physical condition, because the Premier League intensity, even tonight, is incredible. And then we can play with eight attackers.”
Porro back, Kudus starting, Maddison edging closer, and a manager determined to cram as many forwards on the pitch as the league’s intensity will allow. The goals have not arrived yet. Villa will test whether De Zerbi’s attacking vision finally bursts into life or whether the wait for that elusive “click” drags on into another week.
