How to use the Tanguy Ndombele of 2022? / Ligue 1 / J23 / Monaco-Lyon / SOFOOT.com
In July 2019, Tanguy Ndombele flew to London to sign a six-year contract with Tottenham. A little over sixty Premier League matches later, here he is back in France, in Lyon, where he changed dimension between 2017 and 2019 and where he intends above all to pick up the thread of a hitherto written at the ‘ inconstancy. But what can the 25-year-old French international bring to this OL?
Who are they ? What are their networks? Who are these nostalgics who, in times of spleen, replay the last minutes of an Amiens-Lens of January 2017, who send each other in full the different dances of their hero with PSG or who like to devour at the time of the breakfast the strong points dinners between Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and their little protege? They are the ndombelistes, guys who have been constantly defending tooth and nail the rare and brilliant footballer, whimsical and tormented, that is Tanguy Ndombele, 25 years old and seven small selections for the Blues where, in a parallel reality, there could already be more than twenty. Yet such is fate: Wednesday evening, Ndombele appeared behind a microphone, in Lyon, thus sealing his return on loan for a few months at OL, the club from which he left in June 2019 towards Tottenham against a record check of 60 million euros. “It’s not the coaches’ fault that I struggled a bit at Tottenhamthen released the native of Longjumeau. It’s the right time for me, for my adaptation, to come back here. I hesitated: I went out through the front door, and coming back, I’m taking a risk. (…) I think I’m ready. I know that I won’t have time, that it has to go quickly. I saw the project in front of me, I saw it was interesting, but I don’t think it’s the easiest option. »
Stuck in an impasse in England, where his last trip with the Spurs was punctuated by whistles, Tanguy Ndombele had no choice: he had to find a window to escape and finally embrace a context allowing him to settle down permanently. That of OL seems ideal, even if Peter Bosz, who now has to learn to live without his tightrope walker Bruno Guimarães, will have to put on his chemist’s coat to succeed in drawing a suitable animation with a squad without a reliable 6 and who has no not seen the long-awaited winger fall from the sky during the winter transfer window. Before seeing the Lyonnais plunge into a month of February which could rock his first French season, Bosz could put on a 4-2-3-1 where the corridors would be animated by gourmands (Emerson and Gusto) and where the creatives would cross between the two half-spaces and the heart of the game. A question, however, will quickly be decided: where to insert the 2022 version of Tanguy Ndombele?
“It’s boring to defend”
Logic would dictate that the French midfielder, who decided to pay Tottenham himself the difference between the part of his salary that OL paid for and that which the Spurs demanded, found a seat in a double pivot. But today, OL no longer have Lucas Tousart in their squad, the player who in the past was transformed into a safety net for Ndombele to project himself and make his science of the pass speak. To be able to make the most of his qualities to others, Tanguy Ndombele must evaluate at the heart of a practically integrated system tailor-made for him and it is first necessary to cross out the shortcuts on his profile. The French international has, for example, often been wrongly presented as a tireless hen. First thing: in thirty months spent with the Spurs, he only contested 90 minutes nine times and all of his coaches (Mauricio Pochettino, José Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo, Antonio Conte) were held back by the player’s inability to repeat efforts. During his years in Lyon, Ndombele rarely hit the 10 kilometers covered per game and sometimes annoyed by his passivity during the phases without the ball, especially during events considered minor in his eyes. At Tottenham, the Frenchman has even improved on this point, especially in the past months with a Mourinho who loved to push back his block once the advantage was taken on the scoreboard.
In this configuration, the former Amiens, dressed as a playmaker of a counter-attack team, could not disconnect from the block at the risk of being unable to shoot arrows for the Son-Kane duo, but also avoided taking the elevator too often on the lawn. Despite everything, Tanguy Ndombele always walks around with a fairly low defensive volume and repeated several times does not take any pleasure in living without the ball. During an interview given to Channel Football Clubfor example, he slipped one day: “I didn’t like defending, I walked on the pitch. I only played when I had the ball. I was young and born. Against City, you have to defend, they have the ball all the time, so you’re happy, you recover, they recover, and it starts again. Against smaller teams, on remains Lyon. We have to have the ball, we have to make them run. It sucks to defend. It’s up to them to run behind the ball. » In February, during the light matches that OL will have to play (Monaco, Nice, Lens, Lille), we should therefore see Ndombele, who is a player of great moments, but when it is necessary to go to Lorient or receive Angers? Lyon supporters already know this music.
“When I look at the France team, that Tanguy doesn’t play, I don’t blame Didier Deschamps, I blame Tanguy. » Jose Mourinho
Wonderful first touch and multiple roles
Still, Tanguy Ndombele is a footballer with rare creativity, a wonderful first touch and a high quality long game. With the ball, we are talking about a player who is difficult to read, armed with great ball protection, who only lives for the last pass and the smashing of lines. It is moreover all this arsenal which had struck his teammates during his first sessions with the Spurs and which made him a unique element in Lyon. Bruno Genesio never hid his joy at having, at the time, in his workforce “a thoughtful and intelligent player, possessing a superior information price” . According to Christophe Pélissier, Ndombele’s trainer in Amiens, it is precisely this intelligence which has always allowed Ndombele to juggle between roles and which one day prompted Jean-Michel Aulas, the little prince of comparisons, to affirm that the good man reminded him of Michael Essien. It is also for all these reasons that José Mourinho, who has never ceased to alternate between the slap and the hug with the middle, had decided on Canal + about his former protege: “Tanguy is the kind of player from whom you always expect more than what he gives you. His talent is amazing. But I always come back to the same thing: he can always give more. He never goes to the limit of effort, sacrifice, and even ambition. I love him as a player, but he frustrates me a bit, because I feel he can be even better than he already is. When I look at the France team, that Tanguy doesn’t play, I don’t blame Didier Deschamps, I blame Tanguy. »
At Tottenham, Tanguy Ndombele has never stopped seeing his position go up a notch over the months and it now seems unlikely to see in him a likely 6 over time. Used in preparation as a sentry, Maxence Caqueret, OL’s biggest presser this season (25 pressures per match on average) as the match against OM proved again, is not a 6 in either the soul, and at the end of November, he explained precisely in the columns of The Team its role since the arrival of Peter Bosz: “I am part of ‘the bank’. For the coach, the two midfielders are positions of trust. It’s as if he gave us money and we had to make him work. He asks me to play simple in the transition between defenders and attackers. I try to be a little more this hub that manages the tempo. In my progress, I aim to be more decisive in the last meters and to take my chance more often. » This last point is also a point of progress for Ndombele, but with the departure of Bruno Guimarães and the need to trust Thiago Mendes over time, Bosz will have to find a parade for the survival of his ensemble, at the risk of seeing him break through on the defensive transition phases against certain opponents. Behind Caqueret, Guimarães was also a formidable hunter where Tanguy Ndombele, whom Pochettino wanted to integrate into his PSG, will bring new keys to this OL, but also arrives with his faults. The only certainty: the Ndombelists are ready to enrich their collection of strong points.
By Maxime Brigand