Andy Robertson has called on Tottenham to stop carrying the weight of their past and stay composed if they are to rescue their season.
Spurs entered the three-week international break at the bottom of the Premier League after collecting just two points from their opening five matches.
That poor start has once again raised questions around Tottenham, despite a major summer rebuild designed to change the club’s fortunes.
The north London club invested £380m on 10 new players, but Roberto De Zerbi has yet to fully break the pattern of the previous two seasons, when Spurs struggled towards the wrong end of the Premier League table.
Robertson, however, believes there is enough determination within the squad to change the narrative.
The Scotland captain joined Tottenham after leaving Liverpool at the end of his contract and has quickly identified one issue he believes must be addressed: the psychological burden of what happened before.
“They have had a couple of really tough seasons in terms of finishing in the league,” the defender said on The Overlap’s Stick to Football podcast.
“They have now, to be fair, had to go in the market; they have spent a bit of money, but I do believe Tottenham are now starting a journey.
“Now, I don’t know how far that journey can go, nobody does, but the determination in that group is (there). You can see last season hurt them a lot, and maybe we are still guilty of carrying that weight of last season on our shoulders.
“And that is, I suppose, the message of the manager, first and foremost. And also that kind of falls on me, on the new players – we need to forget. We need to now try and get Tottenham back to where we believe they belong.
Robertson believes Tottenham’s performances already contain evidence that the team can compete, but their reactions to setbacks remain a problem.
“You just see certain moments, like the Liverpool game (3-1 Carabao Cup defeat on September 15), we played so well there in moments, and then you get a goal against you, and it is like (heads down).
“And then we go back to 2-1, and all of a sudden it’s chests out, and everyone’s wanting the ball – and we need that all the time.
“When we played Everton (0-0 draw on September 12), we dominated pretty much the whole game, but we started getting panicked near the end and we started rushing things.”
That contrast is what Robertson wants Tottenham to eliminate.
For the defender, confidence cannot disappear every time Spurs concede or face late pressure. The team must maintain the same belief and intensity regardless of the scoreline.
Robertson added: “I think we just need a little bit of luck, and we need a little bit more of forgetting about the past and (focusing on) how we need to move forward. I do think as the season goes and goes and goes, we will get better and better.”
With a heavily reshaped squad and a new manager at the helm, Tottenham now have an opportunity to build something different.
But Robertson knows that changing the club’s fortunes will require more than new signings. Spurs must also change how they respond when matches become difficult.
For now, the message from the experienced defender is simple: leave the past behind, stay calm and keep moving forward.
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