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Player Watch - Tanguy Ndombele

The Long Suffering One

Well-Known Member
Mar 13, 2014
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We need to get him on the ball more and feel like the diamond isn't helping him in this regard. There was a point today where we were trying to play out from the back, the ball went from Toby to Sanchez and Ndombele was lined up at LB and Rose was higher up the pitch. We need to move back to a 2 man midfield and utilize him more.

I think Poch has a dilemma on his hands on omitting either Sissoko or Winks from the onset. Personally, I feel Sissoko and Ndombele should be the CM2 moving forward and Winks's withdrawal from the game twice in a row now makes you wonder if Poch is mulling that CM2 option permanently.

I love Winks but he can't offer the physical presence that Sissoko can and Ndombele is able to receive the ball on half turns that Winks does so well but with the additional abilities of crisp and incisive passing.
 

dtxspurs

Welcome to the Good Life
Dec 28, 2017
11,234
46,574
I think Poch has a dilemma on his hands on omitting either Sissoko or Winks from the onset. Personally, I feel Sissoko and Ndombele should be the CM2 moving forward and Winks's withdrawal from the game twice in a row now makes you wonder if Poch is mulling that CM2 option permanently.

I love Winks but he can't offer the physical presence that Sissoko can and Ndombele is able to receive the ball on half turns that Winks does so well but with the additional abilities of crisp and incisive passing.
To me, we needed a physical presence in the midfield today to lay into tackles and give their creative players something to worry about. Winks simply doesn't do that.
 

bigpalacios

Well-Known Member
Jun 7, 2009
2,769
6,980
He is still adapting and he isn't fully fit, yet he has shown glimpses of his potential. This time next month I imagine we will be looking at one of the top performers in the league
 

bigpalacios

Well-Known Member
Jun 7, 2009
2,769
6,980
I’ll be honest, I though the game passed him by, those stats clearly suggest otherwise so perhaps I need to give it a second viewing but they don’t represent the picture I had of his performance. Obviously I’m happy if I’ve misjudged.
Theres a highlight reel on YouTube of him from yesterday's game.
 

ajspurs

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2007
22,987
31,167
I know it seems like not so much, but even the pass to Lamela for the goal is what we've missed so much and what he often looks to play. It's something that Winks and Sissoko don't greatly do, to pass into that area of the pitch, it's much more safe and sideways from those two, in all respect. If we can get more balls into that pocket of space it will certainly enhance our play, especially if you've got Son and Lucas on either side for instance, with Eriksen/Lamela central with Kane ahead, once it's in that area of space it's a lot for the opposing defenders to be concerned about.
 

belsunz

Well-Known Member
May 19, 2007
1,396
2,889
Dispossessed Mahrez twice in as many minutes while he was cutting inside. much much more to come from him when he’s 100 percent fit and adjusted to the PL.
 

spurs4europe

misses the snow!
Oct 11, 2004
1,105
201
Really quite a decent performance and even better than I remembered. He'll be some player when he's fully up to speed with the league and our style.

 

Nick-TopSpursMan

Well-Known Member
Aug 4, 2005
4,000
18,942
I thought he did ok, without being spectacular.

Let's be honest though we set up very negatively and had a very defensive mindset, which restricted a lot of our players.

Considering this was his second ever Prem match, away to the Champions (one of the best ever Prem teams), he did fine.

His weaknesses remain defensive awareness and focus/intensity off the ball. You will notice when he receives the ball he comes to life, he becomes dynamic. What he needs to learn is to maintain that kind of intensity when we don't have the ball, this is the step that will turn him in to a truly elite CM. This has been the case for the past couple of years when I watched him for Lyon. I'm confident Poch is the ideal coach to bring the best out of him and develop his game.

A slight concern I have is the pairing with Winks. I love Harry as a player but defensively he needs to improve. Once again Saturday he failed to make a single tackle or interception (Ndombele made 4 tackles, 2 interceptions). If they are going to be paired together, they both need to be contributing defensively. I fear they may both be better alongside a more defensively aware midfielder. It will be interesting to see how this develops over the course of the season.
 

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,350
87,813
It was definitely a bit of a wake up call for him. Its unlikey he's come up against that level of aggressive pressing before. He was caught on the ball on a few occasions, and De Bruyne and Bernardo were marauding through us at times.

That's the test of the premier league. You'll either wise up to its pace and lack of time on the ball, and learn. Or it'll chew you up and leave you on the floor.
 
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brendanb50

Well-Known Member
Jul 21, 2005
4,483
3,890
It was definitely a bit of a wake up call for him. Its unlikey he's come up against that level of aggressive pressing before. He was caught on the ball a few times, and De Bruyne and Bernardo were marauding through us at times.

That's the test of the premier league. You'll either wise up to its pace and lack of time on the ball, and learn. Or it'll chew you up and leave you on the floor.

And whilst very few will do it as well as city, even some of the poorer sides are good at pressing as a unit.

N'Dombele will get there, he's clearly got enough quality even in what he's shown so far. That PL pace though is something new to him (and most new players to the league). Once he gets on top of that and has the Poch level of fitness, he'll be awesome.
 

Jemster

Well-Known Member
Jun 5, 2018
170
470
I thought he did ok, without being spectacular.

Let's be honest though we set up very negatively and had a very defensive mindset, which restricted a lot of our players.

Considering this was his second ever Prem match, away to the Champions (one of the best ever Prem teams), he did fine.

His weaknesses remain defensive awareness and focus/intensity off the ball. You will notice when he receives the ball he comes to life, he becomes dynamic. What he needs to learn is to maintain that kind of intensity when we don't have the ball, this is the step that will turn him in to a truly elite CM. This has been the case for the past couple of years when I watched him for Lyon. I'm confident Poch is the ideal coach to bring the best out of him and develop his game.

A slight concern I have is the pairing with Winks. I love Harry as a player but defensively he needs to improve. Once again Saturday he failed to make a single tackle or interception (Ndombele made 4 tackles, 2 interceptions). If they are going to be paired together, they both need to be contributing defensively. I fear they may both be better alongside a more defensively aware midfielder. It will be interesting to see how this develops over the course of the season.

Good post. The highlighted part caught my eye in the first couple of games too. He likes the ball into feet and is less likely to collect a pass on the half-turn which would buy him that all too valuable split-second. Very minor detail but can make a lot of difference given the frantic pace of the premier league.
 

Sid Tottenham

Well-Known Member
Jul 1, 2015
531
1,291
He ain’t Poch fit yet as is most of the team except maybe Harry Who looks lean and mean
End of the September /October before we see the real Tottenham I reckon
 

Cochraam

Well-Known Member
Jul 6, 2015
215
966
It was definitely a bit of a wake up call for him. Its unlikey he's come up against that level of aggressive pressing before. He was caught on the ball on a few occasions, and De Bruyne and Bernardo were marauding through us at times.

That's the test of the premier league. You'll either wise up to its pace and lack of time on the ball, and learn. Or it'll chew you up and leave you on the floor.

I agree with the sentiment in your post - he'll need some time to bed in, learn our system and the league, and adjust to PL speed/intensity and Poch fitness requirements. I do want to just point out he's not totally unfamiliar with Man City having played them twice last season in the Champions League group stages, even putting in a MOTM performance in Lyon's draw. His performances against City went a long way to assuaging my fears that he wouldn't be able to make the step up in league difficulty coming to PL. I think he's only scratched the surface of what he's capable of in his two games here, and I'm excited to see what he's able to do as the season progresses.
 

SlotBadger

({})?
Jul 24, 2013
13,751
43,099
Looking forward to everyone learning the correct spelling of his name over the coming weeks so that we no longer see NDombele / N'Dombele / N'dombele.
















You know, just like everyone did with Eriksen.
 

worcestersauce

"I'm no optimist I'm just a prisoner of hope
Jan 23, 2006
26,891
45,039
Seems to me he's one of those SO WHAT players, you know the ones who receive the ball have three Man City players charging in to press him and get the ball off him and he says, SO WHAT! they just didn't seem to ruffle him at all, he seems to lumber along but that's his camoflage, he has really sharp reactions and moves the ball or passes the ball just as they go to take it off him and they are left wondering where it had gone, I saw that a few times and it was just the same in a Lyon game at the end of the season in which I made a point of watching him.
 

Khilari

Plumber. Sort of.
Jun 19, 2008
3,461
5,287
I think Poch has a dilemma on his hands on omitting either Sissoko or Winks from the onset. Personally, I feel Sissoko and Ndombele should be the CM2 moving forward and Winks's withdrawal from the game twice in a row now makes you wonder if Poch is mulling that CM2 option permanently.

I love Winks but he can't offer the physical presence that Sissoko can and Ndombele is able to receive the ball on half turns that Winks does so well but with the additional abilities of crisp and incisive passing.
I don't think Ndombele should be an automatic starter - but even with his apparent legginess (lack of fitness at EPL levels perhaps) he has looked so good that he will play.

Ideal really as that's how he'll improve and get used to our style and pace of play.

But I have to say, at the moment I'd rather see Winks play longer than Sissoko, who for me hasn't looked as sharp as last season.
 

Japhet

Well-Known Member
Aug 30, 2010
19,232
57,389
It was definitely a bit of a wake up call for him. Its unlikey he's come up against that level of aggressive pressing before. He was caught on the ball on a few occasions, and De Bruyne and Bernardo were marauding through us at times.

That's the test of the premier league. You'll either wise up to its pace and lack of time on the ball, and learn. Or it'll chew you up and leave you on the floor.

I don't think we'll be coming under that much pressure too often. I thought that City performance was one of the most aggressive pressing displays I've seen. They were so quick to apply the pressure that we were playing everything down our flanks to avoid being ambushed in the middle of the pitch all afternoon.
 
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