This article is part of Football FanCast’s Opinion series, which provides analysis, insight and opinion on any issue within the beautiful game, from Paul Pogba’s haircuts to League Two relegation battles…
Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Tanguy Ndombele has had a mixed start to his career with the north London outfit with some decent performance and some average ones, but he played a major part in their 2-1 win against Southampton at the weekend.
The £63m man arrived at Spurs full of promise having made a name for himself with Lyon in Ligue 1, and a goal on his debut against Aston Villa understandably left fans excited at what was to come from the 22-year-old as he started to show signs of living up to his price tag.
However, having suffered an injury he then looked a little off the pace on his return to the starting XI, especially against Olympiacos in the Champions League and then the subsequent fixture against Leicester City, where he earned a 5/10 rating from Football London and was described as “ineffective”.
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The Frenchman did play a pivotal role in his side beating Saints with 10 men on Saturday though, scoring the first goal when he smashed the ball past Angus Gunn from inside the penalty area.
It was a dominant and influential display that you would expect given his price tag, and you could certainly say that he grabbed a difficult situation by the scruff of the neck and helped the hosts when it came to taking the ball forward and winning fouls – he totalled six of the latter against the south coast outfit.
That said, there is still one weakness to his game that needs to be rectified if he is to make it as a really top, top Premier League player – his lack of concentration.
The trait is listed as his only weak one on stats-based website WhoScored, and it’s no surprise why when you look at his game in certain aspects.
For example, he has averaged committing 1.2 fouls per appearance in the English top flight this term, while he has the exactly the same number for dispossessions in his five Premier League outings.
Perhaps the thing that sums up the weakness most of all is the bad control he encounters per outing – 2.2 times on average every game.
His concentration let him down in the 7-2 loss against Bayern Munich on Tuesday too, where he wasn’t quick enough to react in defensive situations.
Ndombele is beginning to look like the player Tottenham paid such a big amount for though, but he needs to improve .
