Player Watch - Tanguy Ndombele

[HedgieSpur]

Another point for me...Tanguy surely would be a better 10 than what we currently have? (or is it that he couldn't be any worse lol)

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Jose and Tanguy had a frank discussion in recent weeks where the air was cleared. There are no issues between the two now. There was at first though.

Thanks for sharing mate and very interesting. It seems now that the issue is can Ndombele get himself fit, is he willing to put in the effort and is he actually happy at Spurs and in England or does he miss France, his entourage keep putting stories out to the papers about him wanting to leave and either that is a tactic to try and get Jose to play him (which won't work) or he is genuinely angling for a move back which might be the right thing for all parties if he really just isn't adapting well to England and Spurs then lets get PSG to give us £50m for him and Jose can use that to buy some players who want to come and play for him. If he can get fit and is willing to put in the effort and play to his potential then he can be a hell of a player for us and for Jose so lets see...

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

We're going through a period where Jose is trying to make our defence more solid to build a foundation for the team. In a tough game last night where we had to grind out a solid defensive display and limit Everton's chances, it was notable to see the players that Jose trusts to work hard when not in possession. Many of us are grumbling about Sissoko and even Moura's play when on the ball, but my god they both put a shift in yesterday. Moura was chasing down opposition defenders/midfielders like a mad man. If we were comfortably cruising at 2-0 up then Jose would have felt a bit more comfortable to bring on subs like Tanguy, however with the game on a knife-edge protecting a single goal's advantage you have to be more pragmatic in your selections/subs.

Some might say "We should be more adventurous", "We should be pushing to score more goals, not just trying not to concede" which I understand, but when you've come off a game against Sheffield a few days ago in which we were atrocious defensively in conceding 3 goals, you need to adapt and not be naive. Jose tried to have a more attacking line up against Sheffield and look how that worked out for us.

Anyway, the games are coming thick and fast, and with Bournemouth on Thursday I'm sure we will see Tanguy get time on the pitch. We have to be patient to see the best of Tanguy.

1000% this, you know your football

 

[SUIYHA]

Starting to feel like the Rebrov situation under Hoddle. And quite frankly it's annoying the hell out of me. We're barely creating a chance so let's start picking our best passer of the ball - plenty of attacking players getting picked ahead of him that aren't justifying their existence at the moment.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Another point for me...Tanguy surely would be a better 10 than what we currently have? (or is it that he couldn't be any worse lol)

Don't think he's a better 10 than GLC or Dele mate. He would be goof further up but he's not really a 10.
Think he's best as a 6/8. He's a Mezella type of player, would work in a 2 in a 4-2-3-1 with the other being a true DM or he could work in a 4-3-3 in a slightly advanced RCM role.

 

[Havre]

Starting to feel like the Rebrov situation under Hoddle. And quite frankly it's annoying the hell out of me. We're barely creating a chance so let's start picking our best passer of the ball - plenty of attacking players getting picked ahead of him that aren't justifying their existence at the moment.

Except Hoddle was right with Rebrov?

 

[punkisback]

Ok I can see that, I certainly wouldn't use those words! By all accounts he is quite shy and unassuming. Advisors may be better I agree there, the reason I use entourage is because I'm pretty sure that is what the french media quoted as a source before (and I would include agents in that too, quite often these days players have family/friends involved in their management, we seem to try and win favour of players parents quite often, Son being a key example). My point being to try and not accuse him personally of being the one leaking things.

No of course, I was not trying to insinuate or put intent behind words you had written at all. It's more the case to me that some words have different meaning and sometimes when things are said repeatedly it seems to become the truth. Like the lies about Lamela during his injury or the "ITK" that some guy had posted about Ndombele's "Ghetto attitude". Entourage can easily segue into crew, posse, etc; his quiet persona can easily segue into becoming nonchalant, uncaring, mercenary like.

 

[thebenjamin]

Pretty amazing that they took us for £65M for a guy who has never been consistently good

 

[SamR]

Football history is littered with many many cases where this overly-simplistic statement is not the case

I do acknowledge your point. I'm just looking at this through a pragmatic lense. Jose has a winners mentality and he has proven that. So I'm assuming he is playing each game to win right now and with that in mind Ndombele isn't making the team ahead of the others who he believes are more likely to get us the result.

I really like what I've seen of Ndombele but we're romantics at heart and mostly judging him on what he has done in the french league/CL rather than what he has done in a spurs shirt to date.

I'm surprised/frustrated he doesn't get an outing as a sub but mainly due to the point above.

My own opinion is that if we get a decent DM we'll then strike the balance of playing both Ndombele and Lo Celso with a proper DM and this could be an amazing midfield line up....but that might mean we see him play more next season rather than this season.

 

[Gilzeanking]

Many of us are grumbling about Sissoko and even Moura's play when on the ball, but my god they both put a shift in yesterday. Moura was chasing down opposition defenders/midfielders like a mad man.

Yes and he's usually like that , something completely missed by the legions of naysayers here .

 

[HedgieSpur]

Don't think he's a better 10 than GLC or Dele mate. He would be goof further up but he's not really a 10.
Think he's best as a 6/8. He's a Mezella type of player, would work in a 2 in a 4-2-3-1 with the other being a true DM or he could work in a 4-3-3 in a slightly advanced RCM role.

Agree with you re: Lo Celso, disagree with you re: Dele. I thin Ndombele supplying a front 3 of Son, Kane and Bergwijn would work

 

[DanielJohnCosta]

Jose has always had issues with players that differ in personality and I’m not saying this means the players are worse off for this. You really think de bruyne or salah are players with bad fitness and shitty footballing opinions? They both direct the two best footballing teams in the country

 

[HedgieSpur]

I do acknowledge your point. I'm just looking at this through a pragmatic lense. Jose has a winners mentality and he has proven that. So I'm assuming he is playing each game to win right now and with that in mind Ndombele isn't making the team ahead of the others who he believes are more likely to get us the result.

I really like what I've seen of Ndombele but we're romantics at heart and mostly judging him on what he has done in the french league/CL rather than what he has done in a spurs shirt to date.

I'm surprised/frustrated he doesn't get an outing as a sub but mainly due to the point above.

My own opinion is that if we get a decent DM we'll then strike the balance of playing both Ndombele and Lo Celso with a proper DM and this could be an amazing midfield line up....but that might mean we see him play more next season rather than this season.

Im happy with him to play whenever Jose deems him ready...Im just a little concerned that we've really struggled to create chance and he's still not getting much of a run out. As you say, time will tell.

 

[HedgieSpur]

Yes and he's usually like that , something completely missed by the legions of naysayers here .

If thats all an inside forward needs to do then sign me up!

 

[SUIYHA]

Except Hoddle was right with Rebrov?

And maybe Mourinho will be proven "right" with Ndombele - depending on what your definition of right is. Rebrov was clearly a talented player - he was all time Champions League leading goalscorer at one point and had scored home and away against Arsenal in Europe. He showed flashes of brilliance in his first season here but struggled with Graham's long ball game, but then when Hoddle came in instead of giving him the chance to flourish in a more technical passing based game that should have suited him better, he was completely frozen out in favour of a 36 year old Les Ferdinand, a 36 year old Teddy Sheringham (who was still class TBF) and er, Steffen Iversen. Now on one hand the fact that Rebrov never got back to his best after leaving Spurs to prove Hoddle wrong shows that he was "right", but I do also feel that part of the art of management is to get the best out of your players, especially your best players, and simply discarding expensive assets to the scrap pile is a dangerous strategy - particularly when you don't exactly have world class options in their place.

 

[DiVaio]

Pretty amazing that they took us for £65M for a guy who has never been consistently good

Yeah pretty amazing that one of the best young midfielder in the world cost only 60+10m eur

 

[kaz Hirai]

Wouldn't mind trying out gio in one of the advanced roles instead of headless chicken

Have ndombele with winks and sissoko in mid. That frees him some what until he's up to speed

Who knows, but I'd rather he didn't get isolated till sold

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

I mean we have had people in this thread refer to him as having a "ghetto attitude"!

Really. How many people?

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Agree with you re: Lo Celso, disagree with you re: Dele. I thin Ndombele supplying a front 3 of Son, Kane and Bergwijn would work

To be fair the way dele has been playing recently you could be right, I'm just not sure Ndombele is a true n.o10, he's certainly creative and can shoot and pick a pass but just doesn't seem like a true n.o10 to me but I can certainly see where you're coming from.

Does anyone know if he's ever played as a 10 at Lyon etc, I only ever saw him playing as a 6 or 8 for Lyon and France.

 

[Timberwolf]

If we can actually get a proper DM behind him and Ndombele starts putting in at least some kind of a shift, I think he'd be a far better 8 for us than a pure 10.

Lo Celso is the one you want around the box putting in little through balls and taking shots - that's where he excelled at Betis.

Ndombele on the other hand is the master at picking an early pass from deep and cutting between the lines. He sees things that no-one elses sees and can also beat a man with the ball at his feet - kinda like Pogba in his current role at Utd alongside Matic. However, I dunno if I can see him popping up in the box and finishing off moves, or scoring from range in a way that a natural number 10 will. He's not bad at that stuff, but it's not really his strength.

Problem is, without a proper DM, Ndombele won't get a game at 8, and without Ndombele as an 8, there's no-one to feed Lo Celso or our attacking players quickly.

Instead we get the most risk averse central midfield pairing in the known universe of Winks and Sissoko, neither of which is willing to make a quick forward pass pretty much ever. I don't think Winks ever makes a long pass at all unless it's sideways. Oh, and they're crap defensively too.
Gotta love it.