It was a case of new manager but familiar story for Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday as they slumped to a 1-0 defeat at Sunderland in what was Roberto De Zerbi‘s first game in charge.
After the disastrous caretaker spell of Igor Tudor, Spurs stepped up their interest in the Italian coach – whom had been a target to take the job permanently in the summer – this season, to save the club from relegation.
But, after slipping into the Premier League‘s bottom three on Friday night, courtesy of West Ham’s thumping 4-0 win over Wolves, Spurs could not make their way out of it as they lost at the Stadium of Light on Sunday.
With six games to go, Tottenham find themselves in all sorts of bother, two points adrift of safety now and with their survival no longer in their own hands.
The Spurs squad do not have a great deal of time to get used to the Italian’s methods in N17, they need results and quickly if they are to avoid relegation from the English top flight for the first time since 1977.
What De Zerbi can do, however, is make different choices when it comes to his starting lineup – albeit dealing with the horrid injury crisis that he inherited that may only get longer after Cristian Romero trudged off the pitch in tears on Sunday.
Frontman Has Failed To Shine For Spurs All Season
Action Images via Reuters/Andrew Couldridge
There are a couple of players that should not pull on the Tottenham shirt again.
The first of those is Randal Kolo Muani. The Frenchman has endured a difficult campaign in north London and De Zerbi even mentioned his poor season in his first press conference ahead of the game with Sunderland.
“Kolo Muani I know he is not playing a great season, but he is a good player,” he admitted. The new boss took the ‘good player’ part of that instead of the ‘not playing a great season’ angle to hand Kolo Muani a start against the Black Cats and while he showed a bit of attacking intent – which is more than can be said for Dominic Solanke on the day – he hardly set the world alight.
Too often he lost the ball when in promising positions, or when a pass was on, and far too often he threw himself to the ground when staying on his feet would have been a better option.
Kolo Muani has never really shown this season that he is up for the fight and has come in for criticism from the Spurs fanbase.
Only on loan from Paris Saint-Germain, what desire does he need to have? He knows he will be elsewhere come next season.
Mathys Tel has shown more in recent weeks – and in the 30 minutes after he came on for this countryman on Sunday – to deserve a sgtart in the final six games.
Tottenham Midfielder Made Things Worse When He Came On
The other player in a similar position is Joao Palhinha.
Now the Portuguese is not one that you can accuse of lacking fight, his whole game is built around winning tackles, making interceptions and battling the opposition.
And he is a leader, too. But while Spurs were hardly free-flowing against Sunderland, they were much more placid and stagnant in the final 30 minutes, after Sunderland went a goal up and De Zerbi made changes, than they were beforehand.
Taking off Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall – admittedly the Swede was playing in the wrong position – for Palhinha and Pape Matar Sarr was a huge mistake.
Palhinha is another who has oft been criticised by supporters this season for being too pragmatic, too defensive in a Thomas Frank system and, like Kolo Muani, is only on loan this season.
He will return to Bayern Munich in the summer, although there could be talk of a permanent move to Spurs when the transfer window opens, but it is not a move that makes any sense under De Zerbi now and why he should also not pull the shirt on again.
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Spurs bypassed Archie Gray during their defeat to Sunderland on Sunday afternoon