Sandro Tonali emblematic of Tottenham 'frustration' Joe Hart highlighted on MOTD
Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Sandro Tonali had a disappointing outing against his former club Newcastle United on Saturday.
The Italy international swapped St James' Park for the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in a big-money move earlier in the summer.
Spurs forked out a reported £100million fee to sign the former AC Milan midfielder as part of an extensive summer recruitment drive.
Tonali did not have to wait long to play against his former club, but he and his Spurs team-mates completely flopped in a 2-0 defeat.
It marked another disappointing Premier League performance in the early stages of this campaign, following the 3-0 opening-day defeat at Brentford.
And Tonali was emblematic of the "frustration" Joe Hart highlighted when analysing Tottenham's defeat on Match of the Day.
What did Joe Hart say about Tottenham after Newcastle defeat?
There was plenty to dislike as Tottenham were beaten 2-0 by Newcastle on Saturday.
Anthony Elanga particularly gave Spurs a hard time, and he opened the scoring for the visitors just after the hour.
Yoane Wissa doubled the lead in the 72nd minute, and Tottenham never looked like making a fist of it from there.
Tottenham have brought in eight players so far this window, and Joe Hart said the disjointed performance is what will really be irking Roberto De Zerbi and Spurs supporters.
The former England goalkeeper said live on Match of the Day: "There was no doubt when Roberto De Zerbi came in it was about keeping them up, he kept it simple.
"And he's been given a warchest this summer, very unlike Tottenham Hotspur. And I like a lot of their signings, five of them starting today, you look at Tonali, anyone in the Premier League would take him.
"But I think when you look at what Matthias Jaissle's done at Newcastle in a lot less time, that's where the frustration is going to come.
"Because that understanding, and you've got to have understanding with that amount of change, we're only two games in but to see Newcastle flowing like they did today, everyone playing the same tune, getting the best out of players who were there previously, there's going to be continued frustration and the Premier League waits for no one."
What were Sandro Tonali's stats in Tottenham vs Newcastle?
Frustration barely covers it from the perspective of Tottenham, it was just utterly abject.
And Tonali, unfortunately, was emblematic of how disjointed Tottenham were and, as Hart said, the Premier League will not wait for this Spurs side to find some fluency.
Tonali was brought in to help control the tempo and dictate the play, but against Newcastle his pass accuracy was down at 81 per cent, which fell to 76 per cent in the opposition half.
He did make two key passes and create one big chance, but his expected assists metric was just 0.02.
Defensively, he did make one interception and won two of three ground duels, but he was also dribbled past on one occasion.
The truth is, though, he just did not do anywhere near enough to impose himself on the game or dictate the middle of the park.
And losing that midfield battle was a big part of why Spurs were beaten by the Magpies.