This article is part of Football FanCast’s The Chalkboard series, which provides a tactical insight into teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…
Mauricio Pochettino made a mistake on Sunday as he benched Tanguy Ndombele against Liverpool.
On the chalkboard
The Frenchman was curiously missing from the starting XI when the teams landed before the encounter, having played against Red Star Belgrade in the Champions League in midweek.
He did come on as a substitute in the 63rd minute, though, replacing Harry Winks, and enjoyed an excellent cameo performance.
However, one has to wonder why he wasn’t included initially; Spurs struggled to exert any measure of control on the game prior to his introduction, as evidenced by the final possession tallies. Liverpool had 68% to Spurs’ 32%.
During his time on the pitch, Ndombele registered a total of 19 touches, per WhoScored, one shot and two key passes and a passing accuracy of 77%, higher than all but two of Spurs’ starting XI.
And his statistics so far this season are enlightening too, painting Pochettino’s decision in an even darker light.
He has played twice in the Champions League, along with seven times in total in the league, and his performances in Europe have been genuinely exceptional.
Per WhoScored, he has registered two assists, one shot per game, two key passes per game and 1.3 dribbles in the Champions League.
Defensively, he has also won two tackles per game, 1.7 interceptions and 1.3 fouls. He also has a passing accuracy of 89.1% from an average of 43 passes.
In the Premier League, he already has two goals to his name, one assist, 0.8 shots per game, 0.8 key passes and 1.1 dribbles. He also makes 2.3 tackles and has a pass completion rate of 83.1% from 29.5 passes.
Baffling call
Ndombele was signed for a club-record fee in the summer but here he was, on the bench, against perhaps the best team in the Premier League and technically speaking, the best team in Europe.
Per WhoScored, Ndombele is better than Moussa Sissoko in every attacking area bar dribbles, in both the Premier League and the Champions League, and is also a more assiduous defensive presence.
Both Victor Wanyama and Eric Dier have struggled for minutes this season and are not really direct competitors to his spot, while Harry Winks, meanwhile, makes more interceptions than Ndombele but is outperformed in every offensive category, even though his pass accuracy is higher.
The stats show that the Frenchman is better than the majority of the players he has been bought in to play alongside and yet, he was not introduced until the game was slipping away.
He should have been on the teamsheet from the outset, and while that is not to say he would have rescued his side from an Anfield defeat, he could well have had an impact on them keeping the ball an providing some sort of counter-attacking threat when 1-0 up.
That he wasn’t able to is the result of a poor Pochettino decision.