Tottenham Hotspur manager Roberto De Zerbi made quite a few controversial decisions this offseason, including two at the very end with Richarlison and Mykhaylo Mudryk, that he now has to justify to the world with Spurs already sitting dead last in the Premier League after five Matchdays, somehow moving backwards in the table.
But that narrative belies the fact that Spurs have shown progress in terms of how they play - and it also neglects that a lot of the managers who started swiftly at Spurs like Nuno Espirito Santo, Ange Postecoglou, and even Thomas Frank last season ended up performing quite poorly.
Although Jan Paul van Hecke has started the season pretty well for Spurs, the club signing him for more than 50 million pounds from Brighton, knowing that they would then lose the promising Luka Vuskovic to the Seagulls, was the first big controversial decision made by Roberto De Zerbi.
Luka Vuskovic has been impressive for Brighton
Vuskovic was one of the best players in a Bundesliga that included Harry Kane, Michael Olise, Luis Diaz, and Yan Diomande, which is a really feather in the cap of the Croatian international. He didn't have the best World Cup, but he was a top five player in the German top flight and easily the best center back in the league in just his first season as a pro.
Now, Luka Vuskovic is quickly showing that he belongs in the Premier League, earning a 7.21 rating from WhoScored with Brighton looking a lot sharper than the Lilywhites to start the season.
The thing is, Vuskovic benefits greatly from the fact that he faces a lot less pressure at Brighton. Unlike Mathys Tel, Archie Gray, and Lucas Bergvall, who oftne find themselves under a lot of scrutiny, Vuskovic is playing with a manager who has been at Brighton longer, a team that has outperformed Spurs in the last two seasons, and a team with a more established identity and chemistry with less media scrutiny.
There is less pressure in terms of people almost wanting Vuskovic to fail in the English media, and he does not have to be someone who lifts a struggling giant up from the gutter. That's a lot of pressure on young players that fans don't think about enough when it comes to their own youngsters like Tel, Bergvall, and Gray, who have already found themselves under a lot of criticism this season.
Bergvall took some of that off with a good game against Liverpool, but Tel and Gray, despite being great last season, have been torn apart after five bad games. Because even though Spurs have been terrible these past couple of seasons, they have more expectations, and when they fall short, the young players don't get the same grace of less pressure than Vuskovic gets at a club like Brighton.
Add us as a preferred source on Google