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To be fair I dont think Conte understood the question about Ndombele at all.

They asked him what role do you see for Tanguy to play?
Conte doesnt hear it well and starts to talk about Tanganga.

Then the interview clarifies that he asked about Ndombele.
And he replied with what he thought 'role' meant as in his position.
So he said "he is a midfielder, so i think he is a midfielder".

The interviewer then asks about how in a previous interview he said Ndombele has to learn about his position. Is he learning that? (or something to that effect)
Conte goes on about how he gives all players equal time blah blah.

Basically he wasnt trying to be weird with the 'he is a midfielder' thing. He just didnt understand question as its all in English and obviously doesnt look very comfortable with interviews in English (as shown by the long errrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr between every 4 words).

I do remember Mourinho last season saying Winks has been great in preseason and it will be his year. Played him a few times and then gave up. Lets hope this time round things are slightly better. Its last chance saloon for a lot of our players.
thanks for the message.
to be true conte spoke about ndombelè also in another press conference, saying that he does not need players that wander on the pitch without respect tactical orders and indications.
I hope that conte will give ndombelè another chance, because potentially he has the best technical skills among the midfielders, but if we can reach brozovic in june, he can go away imo
 
It’s amazing how some players deserve five months to be played into form, and others deserve 5 minutes at Everton, 64 against Liverpool and 11 against Palace to find form
Ali Gold's not good for much but he seems to have got to the bottom of this particular mystery. Ndombele don't warm up with sufficient enthusiasm, you see.

The Frenchman is the most gifted footballer at Tottenham. He can do things with the ball and sees things on the pitch that others simply can't.

Yet he also does things his own way. Even something as simple as watching his warm-up down the sidelines during matches each week is a sport in itself as he ambles out of his seat when asked, slowly shuffles down the edge of the pitch and often spends the next minute or two either watching the match or kicking up his heels behind him occasionally.

It's a similar routine, week in, week out and it's not gone unnoticed by those within the club.

For someone who has had his injury problems in the past, it's not exactly the most thorough warming up of his muscles and when Conte looks down the sideline to see who is motivated to come on and change the game, Ndombele is not exactly screaming to him that he's ready.


 
Ali Gold's not good for much but he seems to have got to the bottom of this particular mystery. Ndombele don't warm up with sufficient enthusiasm, you see.

The Frenchman is the most gifted footballer at Tottenham. He can do things with the ball and sees things on the pitch that others simply can't.

Yet he also does things his own way. Even something as simple as watching his warm-up down the sidelines during matches each week is a sport in itself as he ambles out of his seat when asked, slowly shuffles down the edge of the pitch and often spends the next minute or two either watching the match or kicking up his heels behind him occasionally.

It's a similar routine, week in, week out and it's not gone unnoticed by those within the club.

For someone who has had his injury problems in the past, it's not exactly the most thorough warming up of his muscles and when Conte looks down the sideline to see who is motivated to come on and change the game, Ndombele is not exactly screaming to him that he's ready.


On his podcast Ali also said he has talked to people at Spurs who say Ndombele is the best player with the ball at his feet and the worst player without the ball in the squad. Not a fit for a manager like Conte who expects everyone to work with and without the ball.
 
thanks for the message.
to be true conte spoke about ndombelè also in another press conference, saying that he does not need players that wander on the pitch without respect tactical orders and indications.
I hope that conte will give ndombelè another chance, because potentially he has the best technical skills among the midfielders, but if we can reach brozovic in june, he can go away imo
The way things are, if we can get any decent CM, ndombele can go away. While in the end Mourinho learnt how to use him, it shouldnt be just upto managers to adapt the game to their players.

Having said that, there is a slight symmetry(probably wrong word to use) how Poch changed how he had Mason in the middle and more chaotic games to the next years when we played a more controlled dominant game, with Dembele(+ Dier/Wanyama) in the middle instead. Now we have Winks(again the less skilled runner) and maybe in a year a more talented player will take his place.

Maybe when a manager goes to a new club, they look for hardworkers at the expense of quality (Conte even used the word reliable), but in the end you need the quality too to succeed.
 
Ali Gold's not good for much but he seems to have got to the bottom of this particular mystery. Ndombele don't warm up with sufficient enthusiasm, you see.

The Frenchman is the most gifted footballer at Tottenham. He can do things with the ball and sees things on the pitch that others simply can't.

Yet he also does things his own way. Even something as simple as watching his warm-up down the sidelines during matches each week is a sport in itself as he ambles out of his seat when asked, slowly shuffles down the edge of the pitch and often spends the next minute or two either watching the match or kicking up his heels behind him occasionally.

It's a similar routine, week in, week out and it's not gone unnoticed by those within the club.

For someone who has had his injury problems in the past, it's not exactly the most thorough warming up of his muscles and when Conte looks down the sideline to see who is motivated to come on and change the game, Ndombele is not exactly screaming to him that he's ready.


Why doesnt the manager tell him off to warm up properly or send his fitness coach to tell him off. No point in seeing he isnt doing it right and then writing it in a notebook.
 
Maybe people need to look at what level Winks has improved from

Ndombele playing shit is still better than Winks 2.0

I’m all for rewarding effort, but I wouldn’t have picked Soldado over Berbatov because he tried harder

It’s amazing how some players deserve five months to be played into form, and others deserve 5 minutes at Everton, 64 against Liverpool and 11 against Palace to find form
Ndombele has over 2 years to get fit. How hasnt he?
 
On his podcast Ali also said he has talked to people at Spurs who say Ndombele is the best player with the ball at his feet and the worst player without the ball in the squad. Not a fit for a manager like Conte who expects everyone to work with and without the ball.
I am not going to go out on a limb for any of these players. I vacillate between rage and apathy where most of them are concerned. Ain't one of them I wouldn't sell in order to start a rebuild.

That being said, there's been a lot of talk about robots on this forum recently, and if, for example, you read the comparisons being made between Conte's Inter and Inzaghi's Inter, you would see words like rigidity and imagination being used. People can do their own homework on this.

Wasn't nobody on this forum saying Conte's Chelsea played sexy football. It was seen as shithouse stuff by Tottingham fans and we declared ourselves morally superior on the basis that we preferred to play on the front foot. Things are different now.

I love intensity, by the way. Love it.
 
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Because he’s lazy.
But I thought Conte was different to Nuno and Jose….
It’s very obvious Conte is different. All three of them are different in their own way, including Poch in the mix and that is 4 managers who have had success at different levels in their career not able to get anything out of Ndombele.

Conte made Lukaku a world class striker ffs. He can’t even get Ndombele to put effort in. It’s all on Ndombele to do it himself.
 
Because he’s lazy.
Ali Gold out here sayin' Ndombele is the fittest he's ever been at Tottingham.

The irony is that this season Ndombele is understood to have got himself into the best condition of his time at Tottenham so the fitness is there to help him dominate matches with his incredible ability.


I just stumbled upon these quotes from Fabregas, and I know this stuff happened 4-5 years ago, but it may just be the case that Conte prefers water carriers in the middle of the park. Safety first.

"When Conte first came to Chelsea I didn't really play the first three months. He made it clear he wanted a different type of midfielder. Nemanja Matic was playing, I had an injury as well and I didn't really play the whole season."

"But we went to Manchester City, we had won seven games and Conte says to me: 'You have to play.' We won 3-1, I played well and gave the assist to Costa for 1-1. It felt like I had made a point to the coach that he could count on me.

"But next we played West Brom, Matic recovers and he starts. It was a typical game and for 70 minutes it was 0-0. They were defending well. The game was calling for someone like me to come on to open the door or do something but the minutes went by and nothing. I remember Costa coming to the touchline and shouting at Conte, saying: 'Put Cesc on!'

"Conte is not the manager you mess with this and he was pretending not to listen to Costa. Two minutes later he says 'Cesc come', and two minutes after I come on and I provided the assist for Costa to score."


 
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