Antonio Conte’s Tottenham Hotspur side head into Tuesday afternoon’s Premier League fixture against Southampton in an excellent run of domestic form, with Spurs yet to suffer defeat under the management of the 52-year-old on English soil.
The latest fixture in this run was the highly impressive 3-0 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday afternoon, a game in which almost every Tottenham player on the pitch enjoyed a fine performance.
However, there was one Spurs man who did not enjoy the finest of displays against Patrick Vieira’s side, something which has become a bit of a theme in recent weeks, in the shape of Tanguy Ndombele.
Conte must not start Ndombele
While the £34.2m-rated midfielder only featured for 11 minutes at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium at the weekend, he failed to make any impact on the game whatsoever – something which could cost Conte and his side dearly if he is given the opportunity to start against Southampton this afternoon.
Indeed, the France international who Tim Sherwood dubbed a “maverick” had just 11 touches of the ball, completed a mere nine passes, lost all three of his attempted duels, gave away possession of the ball once, was dribbled past by an opponent once and conceded one foul.
These returns saw the £120k-per-week midfielder earn a disappointing SofaScore match rating of just 6.3, by far and away ranking him as Tottenham’s worst player on the day.
As such, with Spurs facing what is sure to be a challenging test against a team coming into today off the back of an impressive 3-2 win at West Ham United, Conte simply cannot afford to start Ndombele in the middle of the park, as a repeat of his performance against Palace could well cost Tottenham dearly.
Indeed, when taking into account that the club’s £63m record signing has averaged a SofaScore match rating of just 6.58 over his nine Premier League outings this season – ranking him as Spurs’ sixth-worst performer in the league – it is clear to see why Graham Roberts stated his belief that Ndombele is turning into something of a “joke” in north London.
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