Images courtesy of Sky Sports
Tanguy Ndombele is a force of nature. Like the popular misconception – that bumble bees shouldn’t be able to fly – watching Tanguy, it frequently looks as if he is somehow defying the laws of physics in the way he manages to move the ball and skip past opponents, usually to lay on a killer pass.
Yesterday against Chelsea we were treated to several examples of what one of the Sky commentators described as, the Frenchman’s ‘low centre of gravity’ which allows him to bob and weave so magically.
More, please.
Bad boy baller. Simple
Very interesting statistics. Also, for the first time yesterday, he actually didn’t appear to be knackered when he was substituted.
Love that mon, Ndom
I think what makes him unique, is that normally the biggest praise you can give a CM – like Scholes, for example – is that he could see two or three phases / passes ahead of where the ball is.
Tanguy seems to be able to see in the instant, act on impulse, and it is amazing to see.
fully agree. I just read this in another article which shows his fitness is heading in the right directions:
Even more significant, however, was that, at the time of his substitution in the second half, Ndombele, a player previously criticised by Mourinho for a lack of work-rate, had covered more ground (8.2km) and registered a higher average speed (7.52 km/h) than any other Spurs player.
Tanguy is a truly unique player. In more than 50 years of watching football I don’t think I have ever seen a player exactly like him. The boy has some sublime talent on the ball. He has amazing footwork, by which I mean very quick feet, but he is also remarkably quick-witted, somewhat more of a rarity.
The way he pirouettes, twists, turns, wriggles out of tight spaces and scuttles with the ball, is one aspect of his game, like a cross between a crab and an eel, but then you see the quick-wittedness, the courage on the ball, the vision, the razor sharp forward pass.
Plus physically now, he is more and more resembling Dembele, in his prime, in the way he cannot be shunted off the ball, rather than last season where the initial impression was he would fall over at the drop of a hat, like a piece of unbalanced fine china toppling off a shelf.
He is already a special player, but if he is able to ally elite fitness, to supreme skill and vision and maintain that level, then this boy could genuinely become a generational talent in our colours, a Gascoigne, a Hoddle, one of the true greats to have graced the shirt.
I think we just HAVE to start Tanguy and Gio when we play lower teams and expect more possession. Sissoko and Hojbjerg are great when we are on the back foot but against lower half opposition we need more.
Arsenal are 14th, so let’s treat them like it next week
Second half was a little disappointing yesterday. I thought we could have done a little better in possession. We committed fewer numbers forward and it showed – passing to a white shirt proved difficult because they were outnumbered. We’ll never know if we would have won had we done so, but in the end a point is a safe result in a game like that. Tanguy is instrumental to everything we’re doing well at the moment.
Love that fella, Ndombela
Love that guy, Tanguy.