Steven Gerrard names Spurs’ transfer mistake after Aston Villa defeat

Steven Gerrard believes Spurs will finish outside of the Premier League top four after their failure to sign a new striker in the summer transfer window.

Roberto De Zerbi’s side are still searching for their first win in the Premier League this season after they were beaten 3-2 at home to Aston Villa on Saturday.

Spurs spent £302 million in the summer window with Sandro Tonali, Mateus Fernandes, Savio and Jan Paul van Hecke among the club’s big-money signings.

But Gerrard feels that Spurs missed out on signing a leading goal scorer to provide competition for Dominic Solanke and says fans should now be ‘concerned’ for their season.

‘They’ve fixed some areas,’ Gerrard told TNT Sports after Spurs’ defeat to Villa.

‘I would say the midfield, the engine room stronger with Tonali and Fernandez, Bentancur. That looks a strong midfield for me. And you’ve got Connor Gallagher who probably could have started today. I thought his performance at Anfield, he maybe should have started today. So, I don’t think midfield’s a big problem.

‘They’re a little bit weak and a little bit flaky at the back. They’re conceding too many goals.

‘Just a straight long ball down the field. If your two centre-backs can’t deal with that, you’re going to have problems. So that needs to be fixed.

‘And I think Spurs have improved in certain areas. But going forward, which is the big problem, the lack of goals, they haven’t got a poacher. They haven’t got a goal scorer.

‘And I say that respectfully because they’ve got good players in the front line. They’ve got exciting players in the front line. But who’s going to get you 20 goals?

‘So the recruitment and who’ve decided to go for these certain type of players, they’ve got to look at each other and go, ‘we haven’t gone out and got a 20-goal-a-season man’.

‘And if you haven’t got that and you’re conceding goals at the back, it might be time to get concerned if you’re a Spurs fan again because there’s two things. You either keep clean sheets, which keeps you in a safe place in this table, or you have phenomenal goal scorers in your team, like Harry Kane’s done for many years here. They score the amount of goals that keep you up the top. If you’re shaky at the back and you haven’t got that poacher… watch out.’

Asked if he agrees with De Zerbi’s claim that Spurs can finish in the top four this season, Gerrard replied: ‘Not on the evidence of today.

‘That’s disagree and I respect him a lot. I think he’s a elite top coach, but I think he’s playing games there to maybe put a bit of pressure on to Spurs.’

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