Roberto De Zerbi will be scratching his head as Italian media reacts to Sandro Tonali performance vs Turkiye
Sandro Tonali has had a hugely underwhelming start to life at Tottenham Hotspur.
Spurs agreed a £100million deal to bring the central midfielder to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium from Newcastle United.
Thus far, though, the 26-year-old has struggled to get it going in a Tottenham shirt.
In fairness, Tonali is not the only one. Tottenham headed into the international break with just two points from five games and rock-bottom of the Premier League.
However, on the international stage it was a completely different story for Tonali as Italy hammered Turkiye 4-1 in Bursa on Monday.
And Spurs manager Roberto De Zerbi will be scratching his head a little at the rave reviews Tonali received.
What did the Italian media say about Tottenham ace Sandro Tonali?
Tonali was brought in by De Zerbi to be a player who dictates the tempo, and sets the tone of Spurs' play.
Thus far, he has yet to see that at all from the former AC Milan midfielder, who has just looked completely off the space.
But Tonali was hugely impressive in Italy's Nations League clash, which saw Italy rebound from an opening defeat to Belgium.
Sky Sport Italia, in their player ratings, gave Tonali a 7/10 and waxed lyrical over his performance, writing: "A high-profile match, he dictated the tempo.
"He won countless balls and almost always made the right choices to restart the game. He even came close to scoring, hitting the post."
Corriere dello Sport went one better, giving Tonali an 8/10 and adding: "Halfway between a metronome and a traffic policeman: he sets the tempo, waves his arms to indicate rhythms and passages, and participates in any action painted in blue."
Football Italia wrote that Tonali displayed "strong leadership", while Gazzetta dello Sport noted wrote that he "stood out".
What did the stats say about Sandro Tonali?
Certainly those reviews do not sound like the player De Zerbi has been watching toil in a Tottenham shirt.
He will hope that this performance can be a springboard to an upturn in fortunes for Tonali in North London.
Against Turkiye, Tonali displayed the sort of performance that Tottenham fans want from him.
Tonali made one key pass, had a pass accuracy of 91 per cent, which only dropped to 87 per cent in the opposition half.
He made six clearances and had three recoveries defensively, to help out at the back as well.
Tonali had a total carrying distance of 128.7 metres, while he almost scored when hitting the post.
It's evident Tonali has to give more to Spurs, but hopefully he can gain some confidence away with his national team to help Tottenham's flagging campaign.