Although Roberto De Zerbi has been in the Premier League before as a manager after a successful spell at Brighton that ended in another implosion behind the scenes, it is still valid to call his first match in charge of Tottenham Hotspur a rude awakening of sorts.
Spurs hired De Zerbi to turn around a club floundering in the relegation battle, and after Sunday's 1-0 loss to Sunderland, the Lilywhites find themselves officially in the relegation zone now, failing to respond to West Ham United's scintillating 4-0 win over Wolves.
De Zerbi has to be getting some serious stick from Spurs supporters, because even though it was only his first game and an adjustment period is needed, the club looked no better than how they did under Igor Tudor before him. Worse yet, the personnel decisions De Zerbi made were shocking.
Randal Kolo Muani was not so good after all
In particular, De Zerbi entrusted Conor Gallagher and Randal Kolo Muani with starts against Sunderland when there were a couple of much better options like Mathys Tel and Xavi Simons (among other switches he could have made).
Before the match against Sunderland, Roberto De Zerbi had praised Gallagher to the surprise of many fans, and he also had some kind words to say about Kolo Muani, even though he did actually admit that the striker is not having a good season by any means.
Perhaps it was hubris and De Zerbi wanted to prove that he is right about these guys being good footballers or perhaps he genuinely thought he could get the most out of him in his first game in charge, but whatever it was, both Conor Gallagher and Randal Kolo Muani were horrendous against the Black Cats this past weekend.
Now, they were far from the only culprits in the shutout loss, but they were both at the bottom of the barrel. Gallagher did what he has done all half season long for Spurs since coming from Atletico Madrid in January. He was overrun in midfield, did not provide any of the ball winning or progression that was advertised, and was a huge creative black hole, especially in comparison to the player who should have started for him in Xavi Simons.
Meanwhile, Kolo Muani was part of a clown show trio of strikers, and he only doesn't get even more stick because Dominic Solanke was somehow miles worse. De Zerbi entrusted these two players against basic logic to start, and it blew up in his face. He may not be as willing to give them a chance next weekend when he tries to exact some revenge on Brighton.