De Zerbi: Tonali was like ‘two players’ in Crystal Palace win

Roberto De Zerbi hailed an “unbelievable” Sandro Tonali performance in Tottenham’s 2-0 win over Crystal Palace, saying the midfielder was like having “two players” on the pitch.

Tonali impressed at the heart of the Spurs midfield as De Zerbi’s side continued their recent improvement by making it three wins in a row thanks to goals from Archie Gray and Jan Paul van Hecke.

“Tonali today was unbelievable, incredible,” De Zerbi said.

“We played with two players more. Tonali was double.”

The Spurs boss was also pleased with the progress being made by several other members of his squad.

“We are improving with Gray, Robertson, the two centre-backs played very well with the demand of the game, Mateus Fernandes another very good performance,” he said.

“Marmoush, Solanke, did very well especially when we lost the ball. Kudus, Mathys Tel, very well, they are improving and the team is improving.”

De Zerbi believes Tottenham are now playing with greater maturity and cohesion following a difficult start to the season.

“We showed we are a mature team with clear ideas,” he said.

“We didn’t concede counter-attacks, maybe just one in the second half, we created many, many chances.

“If we want to follow perfection, we have to be more nasty. But this is an individual thing, because if I am number nine or number ten, I want to score.

“I think even before the international break, we were playing well.

“Maybe not 90 minutes but in many parts of the games we played very well. We didn’t score, okay, we concede stupid goals and then we lost energy, speed, the right union between the players.

“If we compare Tottenham before the international break and Tottenham after, now we are playing as a team.

“And before the national break, we were playing as very good players but not as a team.”

The Spurs boss also warned his players not to forget how quickly their situation has changed, however.

“I said to the players, we can’t forget where we have been two weeks ago,” he said.

“Two weeks ago, before the Coventry game, we were last in the table. And we can’t forget.

“This is the crucial aspect for this team, and then playing with freedom, with enjoyment, but we can’t forget where we were two weeks ago.”