Jose Mourinho named Tanguy Ndombele in his starting eleven for last night’s Europa League clash against Shkendija.
Ndombele completed 90 minutes for the first time in 2020, and for only the second time during Jose Mourinho’s 10 months in charge (transfermarkt).
The Frenchman was arguably Tottenham’s most impressive player during the match in Northern Macedonia where he showed a desire to work defensively while also providing an attacking outlet in the final third with some clever defence-splitting passes.
Mourinho acknowledged the 23-year-old’s performance in Northern Macedonia and admitted that he needs to see how his body will react to having played a full fixture to see if he can be considered to start Sunday’s Premier League fixture against Newcastle United.
The head coach admitted that if the midfielder is not ready to face the Magpies, with Spurs having such a hectic fixture schedule, he could instead be available for Tuesday’s Carabao Cup fourth round tie against Chelsea at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
“He played very well,” Mourinho told Football.London.
“Of course in a game where I can imagine our percentage of ball possession was very, very high and our percentage is high he feels obviously much more comfortable.
MORE SPURS STORIES
“However, even without the ball he had recovery, he had duels, he had defensive transition. It was a really positive game from Tanguy, really happy.
“Can be play Sunday [against Newcastle]? I’m not sure. It’s the first time he played 90 minutes, we have to see how he reacts and recovers from it.
“We have so many matches coming though that if a player is not able to play the next match he will be able to play the next one, and we need that because the matches are coming very fast.”
Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
