Why Tottenham fans will be particularly worried about Tonali after shambolic display vs Brentford | OneFootball

Tottenham Hotspur suffered a crushing defeat in their opening Premier League game against Brentford following a despicable performance.

Spurs were thoroughly swept aside by their city counterparts, and alarm bells will be ringing that this could be another difficult campaign ahead.

Several Tottenham players played below par. Lucas Bergvall was hooked following a first-half horror show while captain Archie Gray never looked comfortable at the back.

However, the more frustrating performance of the day came from £100 million signing Sandro Tonali, who never quite managed to give Spurs a hold in the game.

The Italian international star was ‘utterly outshone and overpowered by Brentford’s record buy Mamadou Sangare.’

The Spurs record signing made just one defensive contribution and won only 2/4 of his ground duels.

Many suspected Tottenham had overspent when they shelled out that huge amount to buy Tonali, and this first match will only encourage that notion.

For Tonali, this is where the concerns become particularly serious. He is not some inexperienced youngster being thrown into the deep end.

He is Tottenham’s experienced, big-money signing, brought in for a huge fee to provide leadership, quality and control in the biggest moments.

Instead, when Spurs needed him to stand up and be counted, he was largely anonymous.

Being outplayed by Sangare, a player costing significantly less, only made the performance harder to digest.

Tonali needed to impose himself on the game, win battles and give Tottenham some authority in midfield. He did none of those things consistently.

One poor performance does not define a player, but the manner of this display is a very worrying sign. Spurs invested heavily in Tonali precisely for games like this.

He must respond quickly, because Tottenham cannot afford their marquee signing to disappear when the pressure is on them to find their footing after the heavy summer outlay.