Savio just arrived to Tottenham Hotspur has a hyped up 85 million pound signing from Manchester City with a resume of putting Girona into La Liga title contention through the first half of the 2023/24 La Liga season as the best Player of the Season candidate in the Spanish top flight not on Real Madrid - the team that ran through both Spain and Europe to claim a dominant double that year behind Jude Bellingham, Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo Goes, and Toni Kroos.
But Savio has not yet played a full game for Tottenham through three Premier League fixtures and one League Cup game. He was brilliant off the bench against Charlton Athletic in the League Cup with a goal and an assist, but in his first start of the season against Nottingham Forest last weekend, the Brazilian international was pretty anonymous as Spurs sputtered to another goalless performance in the actual English top flight.
Roberto De Zerbi heeded the medical staff's warning with both key starters Destiny Udogie and Savio, keeping them to just 60 minutes in their first starts of the league season. Instead of feeling the heat of a terrible loss to Newcastle United, which was the follow up to an even worse loss to Brentford to open the Premier League season, RDZ played it as safe as possible.
Roberto De Zerbi is not pressuring players into playing
There seems to be a huge organizational change in handling player fitness, and while Savio is far from the only early example of this under the new manager, he is perhaps the most prominent, given his age, expected importance, long term value to the club, cost of the transfer, and, yes, the early pressure De Zerbi finds himself under after two terrible losses and a lack of goals scored.
Ange Postecoglou was criticized heavily for running players into the ground and for starting this whole injury crisis at Tottenham Hotspur, and Thomas Frank did not exactly change the culture around injuries either. It's not that Frank or even Big Ange are to blame for everything, but when players were being worn down thin by them and so few injury updates were given by Frank, in particular, who lacked any transparency, what De Zerbi has been doing is refreshing.
Tottenham 100 percent need Savio out there to create chances and help Spurs score goals, but they need him for the full 38 game Premier League season - and beyond. De Zerbi understands that aspect of management better than his predecessors.
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