It doesn’t get any bigger for an academy graduate than starting a match against the Premier League leaders, an unbeaten side, while marking one of the best players in the world.
That was the start to young Japhet Tanganga’s weekend, as the 20-year-old central defender made his Premier League debut against Liverpool on Saturday.
Not only that, but the Englishman was asked to mark Sadio Mane for the majority of the match, before moving out of position into left-back and facing Mo Salah.
Tanganga took to both like a duck to water, even playing through an injury in the second half in order to help the team, even if Spurs failed to overturn the 1-0 deficit.
Japhet was certainly a surprise starter in such a big game, with even Jurgen Klopp thrown off my the Mourinho decision, as he admitted after the game that he did not know about the player.
Klopp said (Football London): “I didn’t know about him and it was a surprise. Our match day analyst told me about him. He played well. It was nice when the crowd cheered his name. It was his first Premier League game? Very impressive.”
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