Roberto De Zerbi said that Tottenham are undercooked and lacking fight after they slumped to a 3-0 defeat at Brentford.
Spurs' expensive summer rebuild was shaken to its foundations by rampant Brentford on an alarming opening day for De Zerbi.
The new-look side showed the same old flaws as goals from Keane Lewis-Potter, Vitaly Janelt and Michael Kayode saw them deservedly beaten.
Roberto De Zerbi's first full season in charge of Spurs begins with a defeat. Getty De Zerbi, parachuted in to save Spurs from relegation last season, said: "For many reasons I think we are not [a] team yet. We are not at the right point in physical condition.
"But no excuse. When you are building a new project I don't want time, but we have to pass through these problems.
"I believe in my players, my club and myself. I think we are working well but we are late for the start of the Premier League.
"It's a step we have to improve quickly. We could fight stronger than we did today and we lost too many duels.
"The target is to become [a] team. To find the spirit, the soul, is a process."
Spurs, who gave debuts to five players, look set to top the £300 million ($351m) mark on new faces this summer once they complete deals for Savinho and Omar Marmoush.
But it was Brentford's marquee signing Mamadou Sangare, at the comparably reasonable price of £41m ($56m), who provided the early dividends as the catalyst for a superb Brentford win.
"It's pretty impressive on a lot of fronts. You never truly know from preseason what you're going to get," Brentford coach Keith Andrews said.
"But it felt like we were in a good spot and we produced a pretty good performance."
Brentford beat a host of clubs to the services of Sangare, who set up two goals and looks like a ready-made Premier League star.
"More of the same from him, hopefully," Andrews said. "It's been nice working with him, and the club deserves a lot of credit for getting that deal done because he could have gone elsewhere.
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"He adds to an already quality midfield that we have. I really enjoyed his performance today.