De Zerbi, Alonso In ‘Impossible Position’ – Smith 

Rory Smith, of The Observer, believes Tottenham manager Roberto De Zerbi and Chelsea boss Xabi Alonso are in an “impossible position” this season.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, Smith said the two managers need time to build coherent teams after their clubs’ heavy transfer activity. De Zerbi and Alonso took charge in the spring and oversaw a lot of activity in the transfer window, with Chelsea and Tottenham ending the summer as the second and third highest spenders respectively.

“We’re kind of asking them to do something impossible,” Smith said.

“The Premier League spends July and August pumping three-and-a-half billion pounds around Europe to buy all of these players and then on 1 September it’s like ‘right, we want to see coherent football teams immediately’. It doesn’t work like that.

“Football’s about connections and relationships and understanding and the reason none of those teams have any is because they’re constantly full of new players. It seems really obvious.

“It strikes me the managers are in an impossible position because as soon as the results don’t come, the easy thing to do is sack them, but the real problem is we’re asking them to build coherent sides instantly out of all of these random resources.”

Smith said the changes to their squads are why De Zerbi and Alonso need time to develop coherence, and that the pressure for immediate results makes their task especially difficult.