It’s been a dreadful couple of weeks for Tottenham Hotspur since their incredible win away to Manchester City.
Ange Postecoglou’s side drew at home to AS Roma and Fulham, lost away to Bournemouth and then managed to throw away a 2-0 lead against Chelsea to lose 4-3 yesterday afternoon and now find themselves 11th in the Premier League.
While one or two starters put in a decent enough performance, most of them were dire, including one international who’s in danger of becoming Spurs’ new Tanguy Ndombele.
39%
Possession
61%
2.90
Expected Goals
2.83
3
Goals
4
6
Big Chances
3
13
Total Shots
17
5
Corners
10
17
Fouls
11
316
Passes
517
Spurs' poor performers
Before we get to the player in question, it’s worth examining a few of the other Spurs players who put in a notably poor performance yesterday, starting with Pape Matar Sarr.
The young midfielder looked busy throughout the encounter, but that’s about the only positive thing you could say about his game, as aside from running about a bit, he offered very little in attack or defence.
In fact, his most significant contribution to the game was giving away a second penalty in the 83rd minute thanks to a rather foolish challenge on Cole Palmer, so it wasn’t a massive surprise to see Spurs writer Alasdair Gold award the 22-year-old a 4/10 match rating.
Moving back into the defence, it was another performance to forget from Destiny Udogie, as while he wasn’t as bad as Sarr, it was still a disappointing day at the office for the Italian.
In his defence, the former Udinese gem looked bright for parts of the first half but ultimately couldn’t make an impact going forward, registering an expected assists figure of 0.01 and was equally ineffective at the back, losing five of nine ground duels, being dribbled past once and committing three fouls.
However, while both of the aforementioned starters were underwhelming, neither was quite as bad as the player who could become the team’s new Ndombele.
Spurs' new Ndombele
So, to get straight to the point, the player we are talking about is Yves Bissouma, who put on a horror show of a performance for Spurs yesterday evening.
The Mali international failed to have an impact going forward and was a complete liability in defence, clearing out Moises Caicedo in the penalty area in the 61st minute to hand Palmer the chance to level the score from the spot, which he did with ease.
It wasn’t just the “absolutely ridiculous” challenge on Caicedo, as Jamie Carragher described it, that led to Alasdair Gold awarding the midfielder a 3/10 match rating, though it was also the fact that he committed three fouls, lost five of 11 duels, lost the ball four times, was dribbled past once and generally felt like a walking disaster throughout.
Minutes
79′
Touches
32
Fouls
3
Penalties Conceded
1
Dribbled Past
1
Possession Lost
4
Duels (Won)
11 (6)
Shots
0
With that said, why is he at risk of becoming this team’s Ndombele?
Well, simply put, despite being an undeniably talented midfielder, the former Brighton & Hove Albion ace can be incredibly awkward in games and cause more problems for his side than he can solve, as evidenced by yesterday’s clash.
This is also how Ndombele was perceived for much of his time in North London, with former professional Trevor Sinclair describing the Frenchman as “clumsy” in an interview in December 2020.
The former Lyon star was an incredible prospect when the Lilywhites spent around £63m on him in 2019, but over the following years, he couldn’t string together any runs of impressive form, akin to Bissouma today, and eventually saw his contract terminated in the summer.
Ultimately, while there is still time for Bissouma to turn things around, he’s already made several high-profile blunders on and off the pitch this season, so unless he can get himself together, he could go the same way as Ndombele at Spurs.
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