Football Italia summed it up in the headline of its player ratings: Sandro Tonali was in “Tottenham form” at the Stadio Olimpico on Friday night. It was not meant as a compliment.
The Italian midfielder was picked out by Tuttosport in a hard round of ratings for the Azzurri, marked 5.5 out of ten and described as looking “like a fish out of water” in the middle of the pitch, with too many technical errors for a player of his level.
Quotidiano Sport was no kinder, handing Tonali a 5 and writing that his light flickered on and off through the match while Italy failed to put a passing game together, short on clarity and forward runs and struggling even when he had to defend.
Mancini’s return begins with jeers
Belgium had settled the match by the 69th minute. Mika Godts opened the scoring in the 20th minute after Alessandro Romano’s misplaced pass was intercepted, and Dodi Lukébakio curled in a second from outside the box to seal a first competitive win over Italy since 1972.
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Sections of the home crowd booed the team off, and the Goal.com report noted that Mancini, three years after leaving the Italy job for Saudi Arabia, cut a frustrated figure on the touchline through a first half in which Belgium looked the more dangerous side.
The Azzurri travel to Turkey on Monday for their second Nations League Group A1 fixture.
£100m signing already under scrutiny
Tonali arrived at Tottenham in a club-record £100m deal from Newcastle this summer, a fee that took Spurs past £300m in outlay across the window.
Return on the investment has yet to arrive. Roberto De Zerbi’s side sit bottom of the Premier League with two points and two goals from five games, a start that includes defeats to Brentford, Aston Villa and Newcastle by an aggregate of 8-2.
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De Zerbi’s own verdict after the loss at Villa Park was blunt.
“In my 14 years as a coach, I’ve never seen a team like us, so fragile and inconsistent.”
That is the backdrop Tonali carried into Rome, and by Saturday morning the Italian sports press had drawn its own line between the two.
Spurs return to league action away to Leeds United after the international break.
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