Tottenham Hotspur are back to believing they can stay up in the Premier League under new manager Roberto De Zerbi, who has pulled the Lilywhites back out of the bottom three. Their 2-1 win over now Europa League Final side Aston Villa was a perfect example of how far Spurs have come since the days of Thomas Frank when he began their embarrassing winless streak.
So many players have benefited from De Zerbi coaching the team, though the benefits are not univeral. Here are the 4 biggest winners and two losers, for balance sake, in the early reign of the Italian manager.
Winner: CM Conor Gallagher
There has been no bigger winner thus far than winter signing Conor Gallagher, who has gone from a flop of epic proportions to arguably Tottenham's best player and a driving force behind the club's improved play. Under De Zerbi, he looks like the star he was for Crystal Palace.
Winner: CM Rodrigo Bentancur
And Rodrigo Bentancur has been just as good in that deeper lying role, playing with a confidence and quality that we have not seen since his Juventus days. Like Gallagher, Bentancur looks totally transformed as a footballer under De Zerbi.
Loser: CM Lucas Bergvall
Lucas Bergvall is one of the biggest Tottenham stars of the future, but he has been in poor form lately, even before RDZ's arrival. De Zerbi has thus discarded Bergvall, who still did not impress even when he did play limited minutes.
Winner: RB Pedro Porro
Although Pedro Porro has been gassed this season and not at his level as a supposed top right back, the Spanish international has quietly shown signs of turning it around under Roberto De Zerbi with excellent defensive work and better ball progression down that flank.
Winner: GK Antonin Kinsky
Guglielmo Vicario may never get a start again before leaving Tottenham for the Italian top flight, because Antonin Kinsky has been tremendous. Now, his strong work in goal and ability to avoid mistakes is entirely down to him and not necessarily coaching, but credit to De Zerbi for believing in him and for recognizing what Thomas Frank and Igor Tudor did not about his quality on the ball.
Loser: LW Mathys Tel
The last loser is Mathys Tel. Like the other young players at Tottenham, De Zerbi actually does seem to be high on Tel - and maybe even more so than the others, since he did try to sign him for Marseille back in the day. Tel changed the game off the bench against Wolves, but it has been disappointing to see De Zerbi pick inferior players over him in the actual starting XI.
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