Tottenham head to Old Trafford on Saturday 10 October without Pedro Porro and face a squad reshaped by both injuries and summer departures. Roberto De Zerbi will send a depleted team, yes, but not the structurally broken one the opening fixtures suggested. The international break has clarified what's actually missing and what still works. Now he has to rebuild around it.
Start with what's confirmed out. Porro is sidelined with a muscle injury expected to keep him out for around a month—the most precise tactical wound. Xavi Simons (ACL, out until spring), Kulusevski (knee, no return date), and Odobert (ACL, similarly long-term) are all confirmed long-term absences. Mudryk is also sidelined with an ankle injury, not expected back until around 19 October. But Tonali is fit. De Zerbi declared him available before the Villa game, and the Italian federation called him up for international duty. That changes the midfield picture entirely.
The bigger structural shift is the departures. Pape Matar Sarr left for Juventus on loan in early September. That means the midfield won't have Sarr at all—a player who had fallen down the pecking order after Tonali and Fernandes arrived. His absence doesn't upend the midfield shape so much as it clarifies it. With Tonali fit and Conor Gallagher expected to start alongside him, Spurs have a functioning midfield base, even if neither player is operating in the role De Zerbi originally envisioned.
Porro's injury at right-back is real. But with Tonali available, the midfield can actually function. The reshuffle is about workability, not collapse.
Here's the tactical reality. De Zerbi's 2-3-2-3 in possession—the build-up shape that made Brighton arresting—depends on specific profiles. The full-back on the right (Porro) steps into the midfield line, creating a three-against-the-press in central areas. Without him, that's almost certainly Archie Gray. Gray is disciplined and intelligent, but he's a natural midfielder, not a wingback. His comfort zone is receiving in central areas and playing forward. The timing of when to step up into midfield, when to press, when to hold and recover—that's a specific ask. He can approximate it. He won't replicate Porro's carrying threat into the final third.
That shifts attacking pressure onto the right-forward position. The available options—Kudus, Savio, Tel, Marmoush—will have to come inside more aggressively, giving Gray a simpler out-ball rather than asking him to initiate. It's a workaround, not a solution. But it's workable.
Tonali as a fit anchor matters. He was signed for £92.5m as a midfielder who could function as both defender of space and connector—winning the ball, yes, but also intelligent enough to be a build-up option when the defenders step up. With him in the squad, Spurs have a functioning base layer. The midfield won't be what De Zerbi built it to be. But it won't be a collection of reserves either.
Gallagher alongside Tonali gives energy in transition and intensity in the press. Neither is a pure creative outlet—that's the role Fernandes, fit and captaining Portugal's under-21s this break, is meant to provide, whether he starts or comes off the bench. But Tonali and Gallagher form a coherent unit. Without Tonali, this midfield would have been genuinely fragile. With him, it's compromised but operational.
The defence is another story. Van de Ven and Van Hecke are both fit and on international duty, with Senesi the recognised backup. The real issue is that this isn't the defensive structure De Zerbi recruited for. Romero's departure to Atlético Madrid in August meant the centre-back depth took a hit before the season began. Spurs aren't in crisis at the back, but they're thinner than ideal, and set pieces become a genuine threat rather than just a tactical concern.
Manchester United will look to press high this weekend, and they will test all of this immediately. Gray will be pressed hard on the right. Tonali and Gallagher sitting deep means fewer progressive outlets in buildup. The compression of ambition is real.
But here's what's changed from panic to pragmatism: the squad has a functioning base. Tonali is in it. The midfield can anchor and connect. The right-back slot is a workaround, not a catastrophe. De Zerbi will make it work because he has to.
The verdict: depleted, yes. Compromised at right-back, certainly. But not the half-a-first-choice-XI breakdown it might have looked weeks ago. The question now is whether a Spurs side without a win from five matches can actually compete at Old Trafford looking this thin. That's not about the tactics anymore. It's about whether the football is there at all.