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EQP
- Sep 1, 2013
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The enigma of Tanguy Ndombele
By Jack Pitt-Brooke Sep 16, 2021
The last time Tanguy Ndombele started for Tottenham belongs to another era.
It was almost five months ago, Ryan Mason’s first game as interim manager, and in the midst of the Super League saga. Ndombele played poorly and was hooked for Harry Winks, dropped for the Carabao Cup final four days later and barely seen again for the remaining five matches of last season.
Plenty has happened since then, not least Ndombele trying and failing to force a move away. New coach Nuno Espirito Santo quite understandably did not want to pick him while the midfielder’s future was still unclear but now that he is staying at the club, both parties might as well make the best of the situation.
So Ndombele was back in the team for Thursday’s Europa Conference League group opener away to Rennes, able to show what he can do for the first time in 2021-22.
Although plenty has changed since that 1-0 defeat to Manchester City at Wembley, some things have not. In short: Ndombele is a brilliantly imaginative and creative player unlike anyone else Spurs have. He can do things his team-mates cannot and that opponents struggle to prevent. He is also far from a perfect player — he is prone to giving the ball away, not assiduous defensively and not always fit enough to get through 90 minutes.
Last night’s performance in north west France could hardly have been more typically Ndombele. He produced one ludicrous bit of skill for Tottenham’s first goal and opened up the move for the late second that earned them a 2-2 draw. There were moments when he looked unstoppable, but there were also long periods where the game passed him by. When Rennes stepped it up, Spurs needed Ndombele to try to stop them, and he did not.
Ndombele was certainly their best player (when could we last say that?) but he was the best player on a bad team. The trick for Nuno is not simply to get the best out of Ndombele over 90 minutes — it is to motivate him to perform twice a week across the whole of a 50-game season. If he can do that, he will have managed more than predecessors Mason, Mauricio Pochettino or Jose Mourinho did.
The problem for Tottenham in Rennes was that their best moment, the first goal, was itself the turning point of the game. And it all started with just one brilliant little flick. Ndombele was out on the right-hand side, inside Spurs’ half, and his attempt to chest the ball had almost knocked it out of play. Recovering fast, he hammered a backheel through the legs of Adrien Truffert and away from Flavien Tait. That gave Oliver Skipp space, he found Harry Kane, whose perfect flick round the corner set Lucas Moura away to score Spurs’ opener via a heavy deflection off Loic Bade.
This could have been the start of something, not only for Ndombele but for Spurs’ season, maybe even the whole Nuno tenure. But almost as soon as Tottenham had taken the lead, Rennes woke up and started playing a level of football beyond what Tottenham could cope with.
As brilliant as Ndombele was to set up Spurs’ opener, he struggled to cope with the physical intensity that Rennes demanded of him as they raised the tempo. The home side seemed to sense that he would not offer much resistance. Tait shrugged off Ndombele far too easily, leaving him standing still, before curling a shot around Japhet Tanganga and into the bottom corner for 1-1.
But Ndombele was still Spurs’ best and most important attacking player, offering that point of difference.
Even as Spurs were struggling to cause Rennes any real problems, Ndombele would just emerge from nowhere and do something that nobody else had counted on. Like when, five minutes into the second half, he hit a first-time pass to Kane, burst into the penalty area past the centre-backs, received the return pass and then got thwarted by onrushing goalkeeper Romain Salin just as he tried to get his shot away.
Which other Spurs player would have the ingenuity, bravery and skill to try something like that? One of the most striking things about Tottenham’s decline over the last few years has been the draining of imagination out of their game.
Under Mourinho, the players looked scared to try things. Under Nuno, they are sometimes caught up in a tactical straightjacket. The emphasis so far this season has been on shape, pressing and organisation. Spurs are not trying to be more entertaining, they are trying to execute a more effective version of Mourinho’s football.
Ndombele’s skill alone was not enough to turn this game in their favour. There were too many other problems for that. And as Nuno continued to make changes to protect players for Sunday’s meeting with Chelsea, Spurs had less and less firepower on the pitch. But when they conceded for a second time with 20 minutes to go, they needed an equaliser.
Picking up the ball on the left (not far, in fact, from where he’d played his early backheel), Ndombele drove forward, cut inside and away from Gaetan Laborde and looked up. Seeing Matt Doherty was his only team-mate in space, Ndombele scooped a pass onto the Irishman’s run, switching the play perfectly, opening up the pitch for Spurs. Doherty’s cross was deflected but turned in by Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.
Five minutes later, Ndombele was taken off for Dele Alli. From that point on, Tottenham did not create much more in the game. They escaped from Brittany with a point, which is a good result in the context of a disjointed performance against a superior opponent.
The significance of that one point will only become clear later in the tournament, perhaps not until December 9 when Spurs host Rennes in their final group game. Far more important will be what Nuno might have learned from watching his team struggle last night.
His iteration of Tottenham are struggling desperately to create openings and chances but the one man who can make the difference is Ndombele.
The Frenchman is far from perfect and not even fully fit yet, but he is different, dangerous and surprising.
In a predictable team, that counts for a lot.
The enigma of Tanguy Ndombele
Ndombele was Spurs' best attacker and the only one who could make the difference against Rennes, but he was also too sloppy defensively
theathletic.com
