Tottenham Hotspur already had a day of reckoning on their first Matchday of the 2026/27 Premier League season, as they were completely decimated 3-0 by Brentford. In every sense, Spurs were made to look like a second rate side at the Gtech Stadium, with the Brentford faithful deriding their rivals with chants about, who else, Thomas Frank.
Not one single player can be pinpointed as the problem because almost everyone was the problem, but attacking midfielder Conor Gallagher definitely did not do himself any favors with yet another dreadful performance in the middle of the park for Spurs.
Roberto De Zerbi was forced to start Gallagher at the No. 10 position with James Maddison still working his way back to full fitness, as the former Leicester City man has not been able to start since his torn ACL at the end of the 2024/25 campaign.
Conor Gallagher is too lacking to be Tottenham's No. 10
De Zerbi has been a fan of Gallagher's since arriving at Tottenham Hotspur, but he may have to change his views on the former Chelsea and Atletico Madrid man after how woeful he looked in this match.
Tottenham immediately improved at the half when Lucas Bergvall and Conor Gallagher came off for Mateus Fernandes and Rodrigo Bentancur, and while Bergvall was the worst of the two, he is also a 20 year old still learning the job. Gallagher is a 40 million euro signing who broke Spurs wage structure last winter and is supposed to be stablizing the team, not standing out as one of their biggest liabilities whenever he is on the pitch.
The Lilywhites got better performances out of Gallagher during the Premier League relegation battle last season under Roberto De Zerbi, and, again, the Italian manager has always spoken glowingly of him. And Spurs did sign Gallagher for his leaderhip.
That is all well and good, but in terms of his actual quality as a playmaker, Gallagher is lacking. Maybe he can come in as a rotational 8 when the others are out, but he is deep in the rotation. And when it comes to playin him as a 10, it is obvious, as Brentford exposed, that he just does not have the creativity and quality to start for Spurs in this position. Spurs are not going to be able to do enough offensively to win games with him in the lineup, and De Zerbi is about to solidify that realization with his decision making going forward.
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