Tottenham Faces Challenge Without Key Full-Backs Against Everton
Tottenham fans arrived at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium expecting a reaction. Instead, the first jolt came before a ball had even been kicked.
No Pedro Porro. No Destiny Udogie.
Two names usually inked into the team sheet were missing entirely from the squad for the visit of Everton, ripping out both of Spurs’ first-choice full-backs and immediately changing the feel of the afternoon.
De Zerbi plays it safe
Roberto De Zerbi had flagged the danger 24 hours earlier. The Italian did not hide behind vague “knocks” or “late fitness tests”. He spelt it out.
“Porro felt a small muscular problem, we have to see tomorrow if he’s available or not but in this moment I don’t want to take any risks. The same [with] Udogie,” he said on Friday.
Those minor muscular issues became major selection calls. De Zerbi chose caution, not gamble, and the team sheet told the story.
Porro’s workload has been heavy and relentless. The manager pointed directly to the defender’s international commitments.
“Porro and Udogie are similar players because one, Pedro played a World Cup, a long World Cup and we already knew after the World Cup it could be a difficult management for him,” De Zerbi explained. Tottenham have been riding his energy for months; now they are paying the price in careful minutes.
Udogie’s situation is even more fragile. Spurs know his history. Last season in North London was chopped up by repeated setbacks, the rhythm of his campaign constantly broken.
“For Udogie, last season [he] suffered many injuries, he played 60 minutes in Nottingham and we have to manage also Destiny in the best way we can,” De Zerbi added.
Sixty minutes at Nottingham Forest, then the brakes. This was not a risk the manager was prepared to take again in August.
A squad asked to prove its depth
Losing both full-backs in one hit would expose most squads. De Zerbi has spent the summer insisting this one is built to absorb shocks, and one of his marquee arrivals has been happy to echo that message.
Matheus Fernandes, the £85m midfielder signed from West Ham after shining in East London, has walked into a dressing room under pressure but not short on belief. Results have not come in the opening games, but his conviction in the project has not shifted.
“I believe that I can be a much better player than I was last season,” the Portugal international said. “If you look at the squad, it's a big team with big players, important players, players with experience, players with a lot of quality. So, when you play with better players, I think you play better. So, I believe that I can be much better.”
His decision to choose Tottenham over interest from Manchester United underlined his faith in De Zerbi’s vision and in the level around him. Days like this, with key men missing, are exactly when that depth is supposed to show.
Gray and Robertson thrown into the spotlight
With Porro and Udogie sidelined, the tactical picture changed in an instant. The responsibility shifted to Archie Gray on one flank and Andy Robertson on the other, two very different profiles asked to deliver the same mix of defensive control and attacking thrust.
For Gray, this was another sharp turn in a fast-moving early career. The teenager arrived from Leeds United with a reputation for versatility, and De Zerbi has already used him across multiple roles. Handling Everton’s physical wide players, though, posed a fresh and very specific examination of his maturity and positioning.
Robertson, by contrast, knows this terrain. The Scotland international has lived through title races and Champions League nights, and his task was as much about mimicry as leadership. De Zerbi needed him to mirror the inverted movements and overlapping surges that make Udogie such a weapon in the final third, while still locking down his side defensively.
The absence of Porro and Udogie stripped Spurs of two of their most aggressive outlets. It also handed Gray and Robertson a clear message: this system does not pause for injuries. It demands the same intensity, the same width, the same courage on the ball, whoever pulls on the shirt.
Tottenham’s season will not be defined by one team sheet in August. But on afternoons like this, with first-choice full-backs in the stands and a new core being tested, you start to see whether De Zerbi’s project has the resilience to last the distance.
