Player Watch - Tanguy Ndombele

[LeParisien]

It’s just a load of banter and stories from back in the day when he used to play with friends. The first quote from that twitter never appears in the interview with the journalist but the second one is a broad paraphrasing (my translation is much better). Perhaps he says it when joking around with his friends at one point?

Tanguy did tell an amusing story about how his friend (on the call), with whom he played in his youth, would buy chocolate beignet from a vendor and anger his coach by eating it in front of him before training. I suppose Tanguy has not done this of late because it’s fucking impossible to find a respectable beignet in London.

Édit: last thing... The people involved were all from his Amiens days. The Amiens president was watching the stream (on Facebook) and lots of people assosicated with the club. The interviewer at the end implores Jose to look after Tanguy who is a phenomenal talent. Tanguy replies .. « non...ça va ... ne vous inquiétez pas » as if to dismiss his concern for him and his relationship with Mourinho. I’d say that as of confinement (based on this interview) everything was fine between them. Some of the rumors we have heard are unlikely to be true based on this friendly interview. Lots of bs out there. I reckon he’ll be fine and see more game time next season.

 

[Pochemon94]

Oh man it's going to be a shit show on spurs twitter today hahahha, I'm happy to know it sounds like the interview was pretty positive

 

[danielneeds]

I’ll add something that will be invisible to most of you. In French he’s an absolute sweetheart. Humble, a kind of warm soft voice... he’s not a dickhead footballer. His persona is completely at odds with the primadonna or lazy, unprofessional slurs that have come his way.

Of course that could be wrong but it’s something

This might be a slight part of the problem with Jose, who likes his players to be confident, brash, alpha types.

 

[E17yid]

This might be a slight part of the problem with Jose, who likes his players to be confident, brash, alpha types.

Yeah, what Jose needs to do is to go up to Kane and tell him Ndombele has been banging his mrs. Then he needs to go up to Ndombele and tell him that Kane is banging his mrs. Then sit back and watch the macho mind games play out. That’s just the kick up the ass Ndombele needs. That’ll separate the men from the boys.

 

[danielneeds]

Yeah, what Jose needs to do is to go up to Kane and tell him Ndombele has been banging his mrs. Then he needs to go up to Ndombele and tell him that Kane is banging his mrs. Then sit back and watch the macho mind games play out. That’s just the kick up the ass Ndombele needs. That’ll separate the men from the boys.

So you think John Terry was acting under Jose’s instructions at Chelsea then? Yeah, all makes sense...

 

[Monkey boy]

So that interview was from the time that we were in lockdown when it appeared to everyone that he would be given a chance to shine when football restarted. I’d hazard a guess that he’s feeling a lot different now that he’s only managed to get on to the pitch for 45 mins in the whole time.

 

[E17yid]

So that interview was from the time that we were in lockdown when it appeared to everyone that he would be given a chance to shine when football restarted. I’d hazard a guess that he’s feeling a lot different now that he’s only managed to get on to the pitch for 45 mins in the whole time.

Hopefully he can make an impact next season. I can’t see us selling him this year so he’ll get more opportunities I’m sure. My money is on him leaving after next season, though.

 

[carpediem991]

This is what a lot of us have been calling for so it's music to our ears. Honestly, I think you can make a case for selling Dele at this point, but Jose does appear to love what he offers. Perhaps you do a 4-3-1-2 with Dele in the 1, playing off Kane and Son.

--------- Hojbjerg ---------
Ndombele --- Lo Celso ---
----------- Dele ------------
Kane ------------- Son ----

Can not see that would work as it would mean quite a lot running tasks for the 8's to provide cover on the flanks.

I would rather see this:

--------------------Höjbjerg-----------------
----------------Tanguy---Lo Celso-----------
-X----------------------------------------Son-
-----------------------Kane-------------------

X could be either Sissoko, Lucas, Bergwijn or Lamela.

Hard to see a good spot for Dele here though.

 

[HedgieSpur]

they should change the name on his shirt to Ndumbele

In your head, this actually appears funny and clever doesn't it?

 

[jay2040]

In your head, this actually appears funny and clever doesn't it?

Just funny!

 

[ClintEastwould]

Hojberg is not ndombele's replacement .. He is wanyama replacement and we have replaced dier with winks ... Dembele with ndombele and eriksen with lo celso ... If we sell ndombele, we will buy another player in that position ...

We replaced Wanyama 3 years after his last good performance - actually we haven’t even signed him yet. If you think we’re going toreplace Ndombele with another creative midfielder I have a few Bruno Fernandez to sell you.

 

[Cochise]

My hope would be to see something like this:


----------------Kane----------------------
LWB--------------------Bergwijn----------
--------Dele--------------------------------
---------------N'Dombele-------------RWB
-------------------------------GLC----------
------- Hojbjerg----------------------------


Son obviously can interchange with Dele and Bergwijn, but the idea is to keep N'Dombele as a free agent with GLC and Hojbjerg as the stable platform behind. GLC can still get forward and Dele gets to play more like he normally does with a higher left wing back. Defensively Dele and Bergwijn are the wide men and N'Dombele the #10.

 

[punkisback]

I’ll add something that will be invisible to most of you. In French he’s an absolute sweetheart. Humble, a kind of warm soft voice... he’s not a dickhead footballer. His persona is completely at odds with the primadonna or lazy, unprofessional slurs that have come his way.

Of course that could be wrong but it’s something

As a francophone I can agree on this! It's such a long interview so I cannot be bothered to listen at work though.

 

[LeParisien]

As a francophone I can agree on this! It's such a long interview so I cannot be bothered to listen at work though.

Yeh the only bit relevant to spurs is 10-13 mins in.

 

[Timberwolf]

My hope would be to see something like this:


----------------Kane----------------------
LWB--------------------Bergwijn----------
--------Dele--------------------------------
---------------N'Dombele-------------RWB
-------------------------------GLC----------
------- Hojbjerg----------------------------


Son obviously can interchange with Dele and Bergwijn, but the idea is to keep N'Dombele as a free agent with GLC and Hojbjerg as the stable platform behind. GLC can still get forward and Dele gets to play more like he normally does with a higher left wing back. Defensively Dele and Bergwijn are the wide men and N'Dombele the #10.

Ah, the lesser-spotted 'staircase' formation. I've long been a fan.

In all seriousness I like the idea, but you'll never see both of our fullbacks that high up the pitch in a Mourinho side.

 

[C0YS]

This might be a slight part of the problem with Jose, who likes his players to be confident, brash, alpha types.

Yeh, in interviews he appears a very shy lad, and seems to lack confidence in speaking English, which is probably not helping the situation. Sissoko jokes that he has two jobs, a footballer and an interpreter, and the language barrier can't be helping. With on pitch communication too. Again, he just needs to look at Sissoko, look at Lamela and others in the club that as he adapts with hard work he has a future here.

I'm not going to make crazy formations to fit him in, because he hasn't shown to be so good that we should be looking to do that. He should focus on his game and a place will come up for him. If we play a 4-3-3 or a 4-4-2 next season as an option he will find plenty of spaces to push into.

He isn't a sneijder, who was hard working but had physical limitations and had to be managed, who you can build a side around, and we wouldn't have the players to provide him with that platform anyway, and to do so would probably see Lo Celso and Dele (though I guess he could compete in a sort of Pandev roll) sidelined simply to make this work. He hasn't shown that, and hasn't shown an ability to set tempo or switch play around like Sneijder does.

N'dombele's greatest strength is incisive passing through the lines, his second greatest strength is his close control and making space for himself in tight situations. These are great strengths but incomparable player to Sneijder. I think he has all the attributes to be a quality number 8, I don't see him as mobile enough to truly be a N.10, but we will see.

 

[LeParisien]

Yeh, in interviews he appears a very shy lad, and seems to lack confidence in speaking English, which is probably not helping the situation. Sissoko jokes that he has two jobs, a footballer and an interpreter, and the language barrier can't be helping. With on pitch communication too. Again, he just needs to look at Sissoko, look at Lamela and others in the club that as he adapts with hard work he has a future here.

The interviewer in the above clip says he remembers having 4 questions for Tanguy after a game in which he played well at Amiens. Tanguy had 4 responses - yes, no, yes, no. Seems he has always been a man of few words In french too!

 

[Snarfalicious]

I made an addition to my post above right as you posted this. I agree, that looks nice in theory, but i just don't think our fullbacks can provide the width required for that to work. In theory, that formation plays like a 3-4-1-2 in attack, with Hojbjerg dropping deep and our full backs bombing forward. Davies and Aurier just don't have the quality to do that. Now if we can develop Sessegnon (who seems perfect for that formation) and get another quality RB, I'm open to it. I'd still prefer utilizing Stevie wide instead instead of Dele at the 10.

Can not see that would work as it would mean quite a lot running tasks for the 8's to provide cover on the flanks.

I would rather see this:

--------------------Höjbjerg-----------------
----------------Tanguy---Lo Celso-----------
-X----------------------------------------Son-
-----------------------Kane-------------------

X could be either Sissoko, Lucas, Bergwijn or Lamela.

Hard to see a good spot for Dele here though.

I understand the onus my prospective formation I posted would put on our fullbacks and the deepest midfielder. I was just trying to show a way to have Dele in a lineup while also accommodating both Lo Celso and Ndombele. I honestly don't think we should really develop a formation just to suit Dele; he hasn't warranted that in recent times, in my opinion.

 

[HedgieSpur]

Yeh, in interviews he appears a very shy lad, and seems to lack confidence in speaking English, which is probably not helping the situation. Sissoko jokes that he has two jobs, a footballer and an interpreter, and the language barrier can't be helping. With on pitch communication too. Again, he just needs to look at Sissoko, look at Lamela and others in the club that as he adapts with hard work he has a future here.

I'm not going to make crazy formations to fit him in, because he hasn't shown to be so good that we should be looking to do that. He should focus on his game and a place will come up for him. If we play a 4-3-3 or a 4-4-2 next season as an option he will find plenty of spaces to push into.

He isn't a sneijder, who was hard working but had physical limitations and had to be managed, who you can build a side around, and we wouldn't have the players to provide him with that platform anyway, and to do so would probably see Lo Celso and Dele (though I guess he could compete in a sort of Pandev roll) sidelined simply to make this work. He hasn't shown that, and hasn't shown an ability to set tempo or switch play around like Sneijder does.

N'dombele's greatest strength is incisive passing through the lines, his second greatest strength is his close control and making space for himself in tight situations. These are great strengths but incomparable player to Sneijder. I think he has all the attributes to be a quality number 8, I don't see him as mobile enough to truly be a N.10, but we will see.

I agree, except, I think he would make a very good 10....especially due to his incisive passing

 

[C0YS]

I agree, except, I think he would make a very good 10....especially due to his incisive passing

I think that he would pass well, I just don't think he is mobile enough. I just can't see him being that kind of player who makes runs beyond kane, or is moving through channels, like maybe I'm wrong.