Jose Mourinho has revealed the role that Tanguy Ndombele was asked to play with and without the ball against Manchester City, admitting that the midfielder had an extremely difficult job on his hands.
Mourinho once again decided to start with a midfield three of Ndombele, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Moussa Sissoko, with the former Lyon man supporting Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Steven Bergwijn in attack when Spurs went forward.
Ndombele set up Son’s opener after he turned away from a couple of Manchester City players and played a perfectly weighted through ball for the South Korean, who finished brilliantly past an on-rushing Ederson.
The Frenchman put in a major shift before being replaced by Giovani Lo Celso just past the hour mark and the substitution proved a stroke of genius after the Argentine netted just a matter of seconds after coming on to give the home side a two-goal cushion.
When asked about his inspired substitution, Mourinho admitted that he took Ndombele off as he was tired due to the demanding role that he was asked to perform.
The Spurs boss told beIN SPORTS: “The objective (of the substitution) was Tanguy was really, really tired because he made such a difficult job.
“Because the job was to play with Harry Kane through the middle and when the wingers were making movements to the centre, he had to give cover on the sides and it’s very, very difficult to do it.”
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