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Player Watch - Tanguy Ndombele

Donki

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May 14, 2007
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Grealish does go down easily, but he is definitely more robust than Ndombele, who seems to be really shaken by each hit. He isn’t just adjusting to the pace of the game over here, but also the intensity, the hits are harder and more frequent. That takes getting used to, especially when you’re feeling weak anyway.

Frustrating as fuck TBH, ability no doubt and I will give him to the start of next season to adapt. Need to realise this is what the PL is all about and its not going to ease up. I have no doubt in saying it even at the time, I would have happily paid £60M for Grealish before paying it for NDombele.
 

yido_number1

He'll always be magic
Jun 8, 2004
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Frustrating as fuck TBH, ability no doubt and I will give him to the start of next season to adapt. Need to realise this is what the PL is all about and its not going to ease up. I have no doubt in saying it even at the time, I would have happily paid £60M for Grealish before paying it for NDombele.
At the time we signed him Grealish hadn't played at the level he has this season in the Premier League. I wanted us to sign Grealish at the time as I thought he had a higher ceiling than he was showing but I would have preferred Ndombele. I had no idea Ndombele's conditioning would be so bad. If he can get fit there is a fantastic player in there that can dribble spot a pass and make a contribution. I just wonder what is the defining factor of him not being fit. Mourinho said a global approach and his comments point to poor diet and lack of knowledge of what it takes to be a pro. He needs to be under someones wing or a coaches wing who is constantly on him to improve.
 

buckley

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Sep 15, 2012
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Grealish goes down a lot because he is the most fouled player in the premier league and I think its common knowledge that when fouled if you don't go to ground the opponents will give you even more harder tackles leadings to possible injury also I believe most referees don't give free kicks for fouls if you stay on your feet when tackled unfairly . Myself I would do the same as Grealish and I just wish he was in a spurs shirt .
 

Donki

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At the time we signed him Grealish hadn't played at the level he has this season in the Premier League. I wanted us to sign Grealish at the time as I thought he had a higher ceiling than he was showing but I would have preferred Ndombele. I had no idea Ndombele's conditioning would be so bad. If he can get fit there is a fantastic player in there that can dribble spot a pass and make a contribution. I just wonder what is the defining factor of him not being fit. Mourinho said a global approach and his comments point to poor diet and lack of knowledge of what it takes to be a pro. He needs to be under someones wing or a coaches wing who is constantly on him to improve.

I don't thing there was any real doubt Grealish would be able to perform at a higher level, his attitude in his early years was the only thing in question and he is still only 24 which I find astonishing. I can see Liverpool going for him in the summer.
 

Donki

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May 14, 2007
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Grealish goes down a lot because he is the most fouled player in the premier league and I think its common knowledge that when fouled if you don't go to ground the opponents will give you even more harder tackles leadings to possible injury also I believe most referees don't give free kicks for fouls if you stay on your feet when tackled unfairly . Myself I would do the same as Grealish and I just wish he was in a spurs shirt .

Exactly he goes down cause he gets fouled, his dribbling and close control are massively underrated.
 
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dagraham

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Sep 20, 2005
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I'm sorry, but Grealish goes down so easily.

I think you're missing the point a bit with this. Grealish goes down easily when he feels contact to win his side free kicks, often in dangerous areas.

He is not afraid of or effected by getting constantly kicked. Something that so far we cannot say of N’Dombele.
 

JUSTINSIGNAL

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Jul 10, 2008
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Anyone else think we’ll look to offload early and recoup as much as possible for a rebuild/players Jose does want?

I hope we don’t but I can see Jose ever falling in love with him unless he suddenly improves his fitness and physicality.

Nah. It’s not the way we operate. Teams like Chelsea just bin off big money signings if they don’t work (Morata/Bakayoko) but we always coach and improve if possible.
 

danielneeds

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May 5, 2004
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At the time we signed him Grealish hadn't played at the level he has this season in the Premier League. I wanted us to sign Grealish at the time as I thought he had a higher ceiling than he was showing but I would have preferred Ndombele. I had no idea Ndombele's conditioning would be so bad. If he can get fit there is a fantastic player in there that can dribble spot a pass and make a contribution. I just wonder what is the defining factor of him not being fit. Mourinho said a global approach and his comments point to poor diet and lack of knowledge of what it takes to be a pro. He needs to be under someones wing or a coaches wing who is constantly on him to improve.
Funny thing is before last season a lot of Villa fans bemoaned Grealish’s habit of continually picking up niggly injuries which continually saw his form go up and down. It seemed like the failed transfer to us was the “coming to Jesus” moment where he got everything together.

Clearly at the moment Ndombele has issues with confidence in his body. Whether his hip injury is still bothering him or not, or whether the it’s a general confidence about everything is lacking, I think it’s a number of little things that have piled on top of each other to get him where we are at the moment.
 

Colonel Dax

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Jul 24, 2008
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Pointless comparing Grealish and Ndombele. Ndombele has been in England for only 6 months, has picked up injuries and is still adjusting to his new life in a strange country.

Grealish was getting whacked and hacked by the grandsons of Arthur Shelby from the age of 5 playing street football in some smoggy industrial Birmingham street whilst wild horses neighed in the background. Grealish is used to a bit of rough and tumble.

Send Ndombele to Birmingham for a month or two I say. That'll toughen him up ?
 

dagraham

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Sep 20, 2005
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Pointless comparing Grealish and Ndombele. Ndombele has been in England for only 6 months, has picked up injuries and is still adjusting to his new life in a strange country.

Grealish was getting whacked and hacked by the grandsons of Arthur Shelby from the age of 5 playing street football in some smoggy industrial Birmingham street whilst wild horses neighed in the background. Grealish is used to a bit of rough and tumble.

Send Ndombele to Birmingham for a month or two I say. That'll toughen him up ?

Now I can’t help picture Grealish in a flat cap on the set of Peaky Blinders :D
 

InOffMeLeftShin

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Jan 14, 2004
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If you can't get yourself physically conditioned in 7 months, with the best of coaches and training staff then you're taking the piss. Simple as that

Lamela hasn’t got himself fully fit and conditioned in 7 years but it’s quite clear it’s not for a lack of effort. Niggling injuries lead to more niggling injuries unfortunately.
 

stevenurse

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May 14, 2007
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[QUOTE="InOffMeLeftShin, post: 6738332
Lamela hasn’t got himself fully fit and conditioned in 7 years but it’s quite clear it’s not for a lack of effort. Niggling injuries lead to more niggling injuries unfortunately.
[/QUOTE]

Lamela is a 100% different case. We know he's had awful luck with injuries.

Until we're told otherwise and it turns out he has a chronic groin injury or something which is currently limiting him, we can only assume he's not working hard enough and not living right.

And even when he's not fully fit, Lamela will give half an hour of giving everything he's got. Tanguy gives us 5 minutes and 15 minutes of flopping about.

I can't underestimate how excited I was that we signed him, and his highlight reel gives me a semi, but that's all it is. A 5 minute highlight reel. We need to be seeing him for consecutive 90 minutes
 

SugarRay

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Jul 6, 2011
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Nah. It’s not the way we operate. Teams like Chelsea just bin off big money signings if they don’t work (Morata/Bakayoko) but we always coach and improve if possible.


I hope we keep him but, if Jose is adamant he doesn’t want him for example, pissing about won’t be the way to go. I’m glad it seems he rates him highly
 

InOffMeLeftShin

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Jan 14, 2004
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Lamela is a 100% different case. We know he's had awful luck with injuries.

Until we're told otherwise and it turns out he has a chronic groin injury or something which is currently limiting him, we can only assume he's not working hard enough and not living right.

And even when he's not fully fit, Lamela will give half an hour of giving everything he's got. Tanguy gives us 5 minutes and 15 minutes of flopping about.

I can't underestimate how excited I was that we signed him, and his highlight reel gives me a semi, but that's all it is. A 5 minute highlight reel. We need to be seeing him for consecutive 90 minutes

I don’t disagree but by the same token we can’t just criticize him for not being in shape when we don’t know the reasons behind it. Mourinho clearly stated in a presser a few weeks back that he was frustrated that Ndombele kept getting injured so why wouldn’t we believe that.

I don’t want to see him play 90 minutes until he has earned the right to. He’s not playing well enough to start, should come on as an impact sub and play so well that he can’t be kept off the team sheet.
 

yido_number1

He'll always be magic
Jun 8, 2004
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I don’t disagree but by the same token we can’t just criticize him for not being in shape when we don’t know the reasons behind it. Mourinho clearly stated in a presser a few weeks back that he was frustrated that Ndombele kept getting injured so why wouldn’t we believe that.

I don’t want to see him play 90 minutes until he has earned the right to. He’s not playing well enough to start, should come on as an impact sub and play so well that he can’t be kept off the team sheet.
Mourinho made more elaborate comments on this not long ago talking about him not being at the top level for long and putting a global program in place to manage his football.

Those comments basically said he isn't living like a footballer should and isn't managing his body properly. He's young and can learn and I hope we are putting our full resources into him behind the scenes.
 

Shadydan

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Jul 7, 2012
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Time to settle is one thing, being physically fit is another. He's been here for nearly 7 months. That's enough for anybody to get fit. I refuse to believe we've not given him sufficient time to get himself in a condition to play 90 minutes.

Of course nobody wants to be a failure and if nothing else, that's what baffles me about it all. If that was me, I'd be doing EVERYTHING I could to ensure I succeeded.

The fact he's being put on special diets, fitness regimes etc shows he's not living correctly. He's got top class strength and conditioning coaches, as well as nutritionists and all sorts of help.

Sissoko is the ultimate example. He was shit for 2 years when he joined us, but you could never fault his effort, and he got his rewards. Hopefully we'll see the same.

Grealish gets kicked basically for 90 mins game after game after game. Tanguy gets a little tap and he's down for 5 minutes. He needs to toughen up (and I accept that this side of his game may take some time to adapt).

This is a bit of speculativw nonsense really and highly Overdramatic. He was fine last year and the year before that in League 1, hit fitness issues rarely come to fruition and was able to play consistently. This year the difference is that he's moved countries to a far better league and thus he needs to get up to speed mentally and thus physically...we've seen this before from many footballers who have come over here and needed time to settle, why is Ndombele any different from anyone else?

He isn't 'taking the piss' as you put it, what sense would it make to purposely down tools and get lazy, he's a young footballer playing at a big club with a goal to get called up for France in the Euro's in the Summer. He clearly wants to improve as he could have stayed in the comfort zone at Lyon or gone to a weaker league than the Premier League.

Biggest thing for me is his mentality, I keep saying it. If you have the right mental state then you want to do the hard yards and dig deep and subsequently get fitter...I don't think he's overweight or physically not up to it, I think mentally he's nowhere near where he needs to be.
 

stevenurse

Palacios' neck fat
May 14, 2007
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This is a bit of speculativw nonsense really and highly Overdramatic. He was fine last year and the year before that in League 1, hit fitness issues rarely come to fruition and was able to play consistently. This year the difference is that he's moved countries to a far better league and thus he needs to get up to speed mentally and thus physically...we've seen this before from many footballers who have come over here and needed time to settle, why is Ndombele any different from anyone else?

He isn't 'taking the piss' as you put it, what sense would it make to purposely down tools and get lazy, he's a young footballer playing at a big club with a goal to get called up for France in the Euro's in the Summer. He clearly wants to improve as he could have stayed in the comfort zone at Lyon or gone to a weaker league than the Premier League.

Biggest thing for me is his mentality, I keep saying it. If you have the right mental state then you want to do the hard yards and dig deep and subsequently get fitter...I don't think he's overweight or physically not up to it, I think mentally he's nowhere near where he needs to be.

I'm not suggesting that he's sat at home with his feet up, pissing himself that he's conning us out of 200k a week.

Of course he isn't doing it on purpose, but he clearly isn't putting in the work required.

The difference in him and others is that he has shown that he's capable. When he has played, and in the cameos he's had, he's been largely fantastic. The problem is being able to continue for more than 20 mins at a time.

The examples of foreign imports not being up to speed differ in the sense that they couldn't perform with the speed of thought etc required. Now if he was consistently caught on the ball and tackled because he's used to more time etc then I'd accept your point. But he isn't is he? It's solely a physical conditioning issue. Yes that comes with a degree of mental conditioning too but in 7 months I'd have liked to think he'd have had a kick up the arse.
 
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