Tottenham’s Roberto De Zerbi has made an interesting admission regarding how the Premier League has changed since he first took over as Brighton’s boss back in 2022.The Italian was known for his revolutionary style when he first arrived in England, with Pep Guardiola naming De Zerbi as one of the most influential managers of the last 20 years.His Brighton team were known for a free-flowing brand of football and the way they progressed the ball quickly through the central areas, but we have not seen much evidence of that from this Spurs side this season.The Lilywhites have found it difficult to create chances and are one of just three teams yet to score a single goal so far this term.Credit: @thefrederikkejensen / InstagramTottenham boss Roberto De Zerbi admits Premier League has changed massively in last four yearsThe Italian has now confessed that this is not the same Premier League that he walked into four years ago, with teams playing with higher intensity and physicality.De Zerbi suggested that the competition has become harder for possession-based teams, with duels and winning second balls having an increasingly bigger say in results.When asked about the change he has seen in the competition, De Zerbi told Football.London: “I think the Premier League in the last three or four years, if you compare to my time in Brighton, is for sure higher intensity, higher physicality, higher duels. If you watch the game in Nottingham, it was a bad game, no football, like duels, like second balls, more for them because we tried to play. We played 47 minutes in effective time of play.“The same in Brentford, the intensity of the game is higher than with the ball. More or less, it is the same because you can’t find many teams in possession play so nice because it’s tough to play against this intensity, this defensive phase, it’s not easy. The Premier League is totally different to Serie A, Ligue 1, La Liga, different intensity, different physical structure of the players. But we have to adapt for sure. Anyway, we can play better than Nottingham.”De Zerbi admits he has had to adapt his methodsThe 46-year-old suggested that the quality of play in possession is worse than it was when he first arrived, but that is down to players having less time and space on the ball.He admitted that one cannot dogmatically stick to one style of play and not react to the changes that have happened in the competition.De Zerbi added: “The intensity and physicality of the Premier League now – in terms of quality of the play, it’s worse now than three years ago. But not for one team; in general. Not because the players or coaches are not good enough, [it’s] because it’s very tough. You have no space, time, you have more duels, compared to three or four seasons ago.“You have to adapt your idea. For example, now, many teams defend man-to-man higher. Here, you have [three] decisions: try to go out and it’s not easy, or you have to fight for the second ball, or prepare something different to compete man-to-man higher, not close to their goal. The football is going in this direction, especially in Premier League and in Champions League when you play against top, top teams: Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain. This is the level.”READ MORE: Tottenham and Arsenal blow as manager ‘completely shuts the door’ on Saudi signingThe post Premier League is ‘worse’ now and Tottenham must adapt to ‘bad football’ style, says De Zerbi appeared first on Spurs Web.