On the latest episode of the Last Word on Spurs podcast, Ricky Sacks, Lee McQueen, Michael Bridge, and Ricky Norwood have been reflecting on Spurs’ 2-1 win against Arsenal last weekend, as well as looking forward to the game against Newcastle United later this week.
One topic of conversation on the recent episode, which was titled: ‘Spurs Silence Arsenal‘, was Tanguy Ndombele. The French midfielder was once again left on the bench throughout the North London derby win, which provoked a discussion of the 23-year-old on the recent podcast.
Here’s what Norwood had to say about the former Lyon man: (17:08)
“I think seeing him [Ndombele] against Bournemouth, it was great to see a bit of energy from him. It was great to see him wanting to be on the ball and want to play a forward pass. That’s what I was excited to see to play a forward pass and an incisive pass. A pass with imagination. There is such a player in there, he has got bags and bags of talent. I think that, a bit like [Mousa] Dembele, when Dembele first turned up, we didn’t know what position he was and he could beat three or four men but then he used to run into the fifth one.
“It was only until [Mauricio] ‘Poch’ turned up with a plan that gave Dembele license to do what he [did] and then he blossomed into an irreplaceable, undroppable type of player and I think with Ndombele we’re going to have to give him a bit of time and a bit of patience. He wasn’t on for long against Bournemouth, but when he was on, you saw maybe after about 15 minutes that he started to slow down a little bit. So there is fitness issues there. I think that it’s going to be important for the club and Ndombele to be fit and firing for next year, to be on that pitch.”
TIF Thoughts…
We can understand Norwood’s comparison of Ndombele and Dembele, considering both the Frenchman and the Belgian’s style of play consists of dribbling and playing short passes in the midfield.
Can Ndombele become as good as Dembele was?
Yes
No
If the 23-year-old can work on his fitness issues and win the trust of Jose Mourinho, then perhaps he can go on to have the same sort of impact Dembele did in his time with the club; with the 32-year-old contributing 10 goals and 12 assists in 249 appearances for the Lilywhites (per Transfermarkt).