Fernandes Hooked at Halftime as Tottenham's Winless Start Continues

The £85m summer signing from West Ham was withdrawn after 45 minutes against Aston Villa and criticized by manager Roberto De Zerbi.

Mateus Fernandes was replaced at the interval of Tottenham's Premier League home fixture with Aston Villa on Saturday, a match Spurs went on to lose. Manager Roberto De Zerbi was blunt afterward, telling reporters he did not like what he saw from the Portuguese midfielder.

Tottenham paid £85m to bring Fernandes in from West Ham during the summer window, seeing off reported interest from Manchester United. The club wanted a creative influence after struggling for invention in central midfield the previous season, a campaign in which Fernandes impressed even as West Ham went down.

Rather than stationing Fernandes deeper to build play, De Zerbi has used him as a number 10. In the Villa game, Rodrigo Bentancur and Sandro Tonali formed the double pivot, though neither is regarded as a deep-lying playmaker.

Tonali arrived from Newcastle for £100m, Tottenham's priciest addition of the window, and was drawn by the chance to work with fellow Italian De Zerbi. His strengths lie in winning the ball back in his own half and carrying it forward rather than creating as a passer.

Spurs have now gone five league matches without a victory. Despite flashes of attractive soccer, the loss to Villa pointed to wider problems within the squad, with Fernandes so far adding to the list of concerns rather than solving them.