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Player Watch - Tanguy Ndombele

guiltyparty

Well-Known Member
Sep 21, 2005
9,023
13,524
Thatll be Lyon who deservedly took 4 points from (elite?) Manchester City with Ndombele the best player on the pitch.

Two games, that he's still dining out on.

Harry Winks was best player on the pitch against Real Madrid, how's that working out?

Spurs fans are so quick to drop their pants for players it's ridiculous. Really don't have to do anything to impress us, and the more frustrating they become, it's almost like we love them more. We're a sick lot.

Coulda woulda shoulda "look at our team on paper!"…

(Another season no trophy.)
 

guiltyparty

Well-Known Member
Sep 21, 2005
9,023
13,524
Apologies. I was using elite in the same way football professionals do - to indicate a very high level player or team competing in international competitions.

I think it's pretty contentious what 'elite' actually means. It's ultimately meaningless in most of the ways it's used to do with football. But I'm pretty sure in any definition used by football professionals, a player playing in a European or international competition does not automatically become an elite player, otherwise that's an enormous number of footballers we're calling elite.

Elite - definition: "A select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group." Is finishing third two years in a row in the 5th strongest league in the world 'elite'?

Deloitte refers to the "elite" being the top 20 richest clubs, company Lyon are not in. And Lyon won 1 game in his solitary Champions League campaign. "Elite"
 

LeParisien

Wrong about everything
Mar 5, 2018
3,212
8,169
Two games, that he's still dining out on.

Harry Winks was best player on the pitch against Real Madrid, how's that working out?

Spurs fans are so quick to drop their pants for players it's ridiculous. Really don't have to do anything to impress us, and the more frustrating they become, it's almost like we love them more. We're a sick lot.

Coulda woulda shoulda "look at our team on paper!"…

(Another season no trophy.)

That might be true of some but I live in France, I am french and I know that Ndombele is a quality player. He showed it over two seasons including against the biggest teams in Europe (Man City, Barca etc).


I think it's pretty contentious what 'elite' actually means. It's ultimately meaningless in most of the ways it's used to do with football. But I'm pretty sure in any definition used by football professionals, a player playing in a European or international competition does not automatically become an elite player, otherwise that's an enormous number of footballers we're calling elite.

Elite - definition: "A select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group." Is finishing third two years in a row in the 5th strongest league in the world 'elite'?

Deloitte refers to the "elite" being the top 20 richest clubs, company Lyon are not in. And Lyon won 1 game in his solitary Champions League campaign. "Elite"
Of course we could get into a boring semantic argument, like people do about « world class ».

But that’s not the point. In my experience of working with football professionals at the FA and Spurs, the word elite would be applied to clubs like Lyon and players like Ndombele. You might disagree with that - and that’s fine - but that shouldn’t be enough for you to drag us into a pointless semantic argument. The point is Ndombele has performed at a top level for a great club .
 

Johnny J

Not the Kiwi you need but the one you deserve
Aug 18, 2012
18,124
47,908
Have a hard time imagining an overweight and unfit player so easily spin away from almost every opponent he's come across thus far.

I'm still at the "he has a sports hernia in need of an operation that's being confused with groin strains" fence.
I seriously doubt it's this. Hernias are incredibly easy to identify with an ultrasound.
 

mpickard2087

Patient Zero
Jun 13, 2008
21,886
32,513
Your hypothesis is that a player who has played over 100 games in the past two season without any fitness concerns earns a big money move and in the space of 6 weeks lives such a wreck less lifestyle that he’s unable to get up to speed in 5 months..?

But it's not a hypothesis, we've all seen it play out. People can bring up body shape, unique running style, etc. but we've all seen him since his first outings in pre-season and it's been a repeat pattern of him clearly being knackered after only a fraction of the game. I could pull up any examples, Arsenal and Bournemouth games spring to mind, where halfway through the first half and he already is completely unable to chase a player and do basic defensive duties because he's absolutely fucked.

There has definitely been an issue because as I said I am struggling to recall any other player turning up in the Spurs first team and having such a bad level of fitness and starting to struggle only a few minutes into a game. Van der Vaart probably the closest you could use as an example as he struggled physically/athletically a lot of the time. Maybe Lyon are to blame and have shocking standards, but surely the player has to take some responsibility here too and must know deep down if he's not the most natural athlete, and you'd expect some sort of standards and drive to turn up at a club after a big move and show everyone what you're all about. Well the evidence suggests that didn't happen...….
 

LeParisien

Wrong about everything
Mar 5, 2018
3,212
8,169
But it's not a hypothesis, we've all seen it play out. People can bring up body shape, unique running style, etc. but we've all seen him since his first outings in pre-season and it's been a repeat pattern of him clearly being knackered after only a fraction of the game. I could pull up any examples, Arsenal and Bournemouth games spring to mind, where halfway through the first half and he already is completely unable to chase a player and do basic defensive duties because he's absolutely fucked.

There has definitely been an issue because as I said I am struggling to recall any other player turning up in the Spurs first team and having such a bad level of fitness and starting to struggle only a few minutes into a game. Van der Vaart probably the closest you could use as an example as he struggled physically/athletically a lot of the time. Maybe Lyon are to blame and have shocking standards, but surely the player has to take some responsibility here too and must know deep down if he's not the most natural athlete, and you'd expect some sort of standards and drive to turn up at a club after a big move and show everyone what you're all about. Well the evidence suggests that didn't happen...….
If the premier league were a really difficult league for foreign players who play in central midfield to get up to pace, would that undermine your theory? In light of VdV, Keita, Fabinho, Modric and many others ...
 

WiganSpur

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
15,974
32,682
I wonder if it could be a diet related problem. I'm not sure what control the club has over player diets when they're away from the training ground. I do remember stalking his Instagram when he was about to sign for us and seeing him have what looked like some junk food.
 

mpickard2087

Patient Zero
Jun 13, 2008
21,886
32,513
If the premier league were a really difficult league for foreign players who play in central midfield to get up to pace, would that undermine your theory? In light of VdV, Keita, Fabinho, Modric and many others ...

Whatever struggles some have adapting to the Premier League, none of those players looked like they were about to keel over 10 mins into a match.
 

BringBack_leGin

Well-Known Member
Jul 28, 2004
27,719
54,929
If the premier league were a really difficult league for foreign players who play in central midfield to get up to pace, would that undermine your theory? In light of VdV, Keita, Fabinho, Modric and many others ...
The latter three struggled, VDV was an instant hit and also didn’t play central midfield for us.
 

ClintEastwould

Well-Known Member
Jul 3, 2012
4,748
9,845
Whatever struggles some have adapting to the Premier League, none of those players looked like they were about to keel over 10 mins into a match.

Almost every time Dembele played he would hobble around and grab his thigh every now and then. But once he was called into action he stepped up and did his job. I’m not saying the situations are exactly the same but I was always on the edge of my seat with anxiety over Mousa’s fitness. Some people just look awkward and have strange gaits.
 

Kiedis

Well-Known Member
Aug 4, 2013
2,926
8,490
These multi million pound assets are heavily supervised. The club decides what they eat, they're weighed every single day, they have blood tests done regularly, there are respiratory tests, sleep tests, spit tests, recovery tests etc. etc.

Ndombele isn't in his flat living the life of that fat german kid from the Simpsons.
 

ralphs bald spot

Well-Known Member
Jul 14, 2015
2,777
5,177
I wonder if it could be a diet related problem. I'm not sure what control the club has over player diets when they're away from the training ground. I do remember stalking his Instagram when he was about to sign for us and seeing him have what looked like some junk food.

He was defintely in the queue for Chick King after the Burnley game :woot:
 
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