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da dobrowin： This article is part of Football FanCast’s In Numbers series, which takes a statistical look at performances, season-long form and reported transfer targets…
Tottenham Hotspur fans were beyond ecstatic when the club completed the club-record signing of Tanguy Ndombele during the summer transfer window, for a fee Sky Sports reported to be £63m.
The Frenchman made an instant impression on the opening day of the Premier League season with a fine goal against Aston Villa, before the 22-year-old followed it up with an assist against Manchester City in their following top flight clash.
However, he then suffered a hamstring issue that kept him out against Newcastle United and Arsenal, and he hasn’t really looked great since he made his return to action as a substitute against Crystal Palace.
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Whether he simply isn’t back to full fitness or not, the former Lyon man was particularly disappointing in the 2-1 defeat against Leicester City on Saturday.
He wasn’t at the races, and as well as encountering bad control on six separate occasions according to WhoScored, he was also dispossessed three times as well.
Having committed three fouls and having not been particularly great on the ball with a passing accuracy of less than 77%, it was hard to see what he was really bringing to the table at the King Power Stadium – whatever it was it certainly wasn’t worth £63m.
Off days can happen, but perhaps most worrying of all though was how lethargic he looked.
While the midweek Champions League trip could have played a part, you would expect an athletic 22-year-old to have a fair bit of energy but as Football London picked up on, he appeared tired throughout.
The fact that he was dribbled past on three occasions, as per SofaScore, and won just eight of the 20 duels he faced only goes to back that up even more, and it was a concerning performance in that respect.
Ndombele is a young player who clearly has a lot of quality in his locker, but he needs to show a lot more than he did against Brendan Rodgers’ men if he wants to ensure that Tottenham don’t end up regretting shelling out a huge transfer fee for him.