Tanguy Ndombele's 'amazing' Tottenham debut wows Mauricio Pochettino: 'When he runs, something can happen'

Joe Krishnan21 July 2019

Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino hailed the "amazing" ability of record signing Tanguy Ndombele after his impressive cameo in the 3-2 pre-season friendly win against Juventus.

The £65 million midfielder started the game on the bench but made an instant impression in front of the Tottenham fans in Singapore, setting up Lucas Moura for his goal just minutes after coming on as a second-half substitute.

The 23-year-old put in a stellar all-round performance with a mixture of fine passes and surges forward from midfield, showing just why Spurs broke their transfer record to sign him from Lyon.

While Pochettino was pleased with the France international's contribution, the Spurs coach believes Ndombele must be given time to adapt to his new surroundings and team-mates.

"Yes, of course I am happy but we cannot expect from him too much." Pochettino told reporters. "He's only just had the possibility to get to know his team-mates, to adapt himself to the new countries, new culture, new players, new games, new tempo.

"All is new for him, but I think with the first touch of the ball he started to show the quality from him. It was amazing and you can see when he runs something can happen.

"He has the capacity to add to the team different things and I hope during the season he can help the team achieve all that they want.

With Ndombele short of fitness and still integrating into the squad, Pochettino revealed he only planned to give the midfielder a short runout in Singapore but was impressed with how he coped.

"Ndombele is a player that has the capacity to do what he did today," he continued. "But still it's too far away in his adaptation. It's only one week with us.

"Today he played more than I expected because our plan was to play him for only 15 minutes, but with the tempo in the second half it was good to give him 30 minutes.

"We are happy with him but we don't expect too much. We know his talent and what he can add to the team but it's step by step and not to put too much pressure on him."

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