De Zerbi Backs the Ref Over Bogle — Then Blames Spurs' Second-Half Hunger, Not VAR, for Leeds Loss

Roberto De Zerbi could have turned Elland Road into a refereeing inquest. Jayden Bogle stayed on after a first-half challenge that forced Mathys Tel off with a bad ankle injury, Noah Okafor scored the only goal in the 79th minute, and Tottenham's three-game winning run was gone. Instead, the Spurs head coach pointed the finger at his own dressing room.

"First half, we played well. In the second half, no, we deserved to lose the game," De Zerbi told TNT Sports afterward. "We lost all duels in the second half, we didn't play like we can." He went further: Tottenham "didn't play like a top team" and lacked "the right spirit, the right character, the right physicality in the duels."

That framing is the real story of Leeds United 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur — not another generic VAR outrage cycle. De Zerbi has already drawn a bright line between what he will criticize and what he will not.

Asked specifically about Bogle's challenge on Tel, De Zerbi told TNT: "I didn't see. I can't say nothing." Pressed on whether John Brooks should have gone to the monitor himself, he refused the bait.

"I have big confidence in the referee, nothing changes if he goes to watch the clip or not," he said. "I think there was VAR and if they didn't take the right decision, I don't know but I have confidence. We have to keep our eyes on the performance where we can improve."

BBC Match of the Day heard the same stance with one sharper detail. De Zerbi said he "was surprised on the yellow card for Pedro Porro because it was clear," then added on the potential red for Bogle: "I couldn't say. We have full confidence in the referee and VAR."

That Porro contrast matters. Spurs felt a clear yellow was given to their own fullback while Bogle escaped without a card after Video Assistant Referee Tony Harrington confirmed Brooks' no-red call and labeled the challenge "reckless" — the caution threshold under the Laws of the Game, which VAR cannot upgrade on its own. We broke down that wording and Leeds' set-piece edge in our match report on Bogle, Tel and the xG gap. De Zerbi's post-match answer deliberately leaves that fight to others.

The performance lecture came with a medical warning. Tel "has a bad injury on his ankle, but I don't know how long [he will be out] yet," De Zerbi told the BBC. The France winger tried to play on for several minutes before Dominic Solanke replaced him late in the first half.

Tottenham already entered the international break thin in attack. If Tel's absence stretches, De Zerbi loses another option right when the October form that had Spurs talking about Europe — a conversation he had already tried to cool before kickoff — hits its first hard stop of November.

De Zerbi could not fully explain the collapse. "I don't know," he said when asked why the halves looked so different. On TNT he argued the spaces were still there after the break; on the BBC he said Spurs "didn't show the hunger we need for these types of big games" despite knowing Leeds' intensity in advance. "Many games like this can be a problem for us."

Leeds, for their part, earned the right to force that problem. Daniel Farke's side took the points with Okafor's first involvement after a double change, ending a winless league run and lifting Leeds into the top half while Tottenham dropped to the middle of the table on 12 points.

The temptation after a call like Bogle's is to write the afternoon as a robbery. De Zerbi's own words shut that door. He backed the officials, flagged Tel's ankle as unfinished business, and made the second-half hunger the charge sheet — the same week Premier League VAR debates already shaped Everton's three reviews against Coventry. Spurs can argue consistency all they want. Their coach just argued character instead.