“We are lucky to have Sandro with us.” Roberto De Zerbi said that as he pushed back on any rush to judge Sandro Tonali, who has been in England for only a short time and is already carrying the weight of Tottenham's club-record £100million fee. He said the pressure has eased and that the midfielder should be assessed over a longer run, not a slow start.
De Zerbi's defence of Tonali
De Zerbi's point was simple enough to follow without dressing it up. Tonali has made four Premier League appearances this season and carries a 6.7 season rating, which fits the idea of a steady start rather than a player sinking under the fee.
The head coach also stressed the role he thinks Tonali can play. “He can play in both situations because his physical characteristics are to play box to box but he started his career as a playmaker,” De Zerbi said. He then went further: “He is good enough with the ball, he is good enough without the ball. He is a complete midfielder.”
That is the useful part of the case for him. Tonali looked revitalised even as Spurs failed to score for the fourth league game running against Everton last weekend, and De Zerbi's reading is that the wider judgement should come later.
Tottenham's midfield before Aston Villa
The broader team update is mixed. Pedro Porro, Tonali and James Maddison are all available to play, but De Zerbi made clear that Maddison has only been working with the squad for the last 10 or 15 days and still needs to get into better condition.
Dejan Kulusevski has also returned to first-team training ahead of Tottenham vs Aston Villa, after a complicated knee injury suffered in Tottenham’s defeat to Crystal Palace in May 2025. De Zerbi's message on Tonali sits alongside that wider return-to-fitness picture, with several players just getting back into the frame.
Tonali will return from a knock in time to face Aston Villa on Saturday, and that is the date Tottenham now have to work around.
Written by Jack Mercer with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →
