Alasdair Gold reveals why Ndombele was not involved in cup final

Football.London’s Alsadiar Gold has revealed that Tanguy Ndombele was fit to start the Carabao Cup final against Manchester City but Ryan Mason decided not to select him.

Mason made two changes to the side that came from behind to get a win against Southampton in his first game in charge, with Ndombele and Gareth Bale being replaced by Harry Winks and Harry Kane in the starting eleven.

Mason’s decision to start Winks over Ndombele did raise a few eyebrows particularly as the England international has not had the best of seasons so far.

Tottenham struggled to keep hold of the ball against City and did not really have a creative outlet in the middle of the park, with the likes of Winks and Giovani Lo Celso struggling to impose themselves on the game.

Ndombele watched on from the sidelines for the ninety minutes as Mason brought on Bale and Moussa Sissoko before introducing Steven Berwijn and Dele Alli late on with Spurs chasing the game.

Gold revealed that the Spurs interim boss had decided to leave Ndombele on the bench due to the Frenchman’s recent form.

When asked why Ndombele did not play on Sunday during a Q & A with some Spurs fans, Gold responded: “I’m told he wasn’t injured or carrying a knock and it was a decision made on his recent form.

“Personally, I think with how Spurs were trying to play out from the back he was the perfect man for the role but hindsight is a wonderful thing.”

Spurs Web Opinion

I think Mason’s decision to start with Winks was quite smart as he recognised that City would have a lot of the ball and did not want to leave spaces in midfield for Pep Guardiola’s men to exploit.

For all of the outstanding talent that Ndombele has on the ball, he does not really bust a gut to get back and cover spaces when Spurs do not have the ball. However, I was surprised that Mason did not bring the Frenchman on with around 20 or 30 minutes to go.

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