Mauricio Pochettino may have found the perfect role for Georges-Kévin N’Koudou after joining Tottenham this past summer.
Since joining Tottenham on transfer deadline day for £10.8 million from Olympique Marseille, Georges-Kévin N’Koudou has slowly been working his way into Mauriico Pochettino’s 18-man matchday squad.
He has yet to earn his first start for Spurs but N’Koudou has made three appearances already to end the month of September. For the time being, Pochettino has a plan for him as the 21-year-old continues to work on his fitness levels after missing pre-season.
“He’s not 100 percent at the level that we want him,” Mauricio Pochettino said (via Ham & High). “He’s very young and he needs to work a lot to arrive at his best, but it’s true that in the way we want to use him now, we can use him.”
Because Marseille underwent a hierarchy change during negotiations with Spurs, a deal was put on hold for a while. Weeks would pass before both sides eventually agreed to a deal, but with N’Koudou missing pre-season he wouldn’t be fully fit to begin the new league year.
To complicate matters, with the 21-year-old being French, it’s obvious he only knew his native language and was still trying to learn English. He could understand what his coaches and teammates would say, but to respond properly would be difficult.
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Still, it wouldn’t take the French winger too long to finally make his Spurs debut.
Although he’s been coming off of the bench lately, perhaps Georges-Kévin N’Koudou has been given the role of an impact sub. And against CSKA Moscow in the Champions League, after coming into the match in the 67th minute, N’Koudou continued the work that Son Heung-Min had started when the match first began, to constantly attack Moscow’s defense.
Four minutes later, Spurs scored the game’s first-and-only goal of the evening.
N’Koudou wasn’t directly involved in the build-up play, but his introduction into the game meant that Spurs shifted to another gear. They added even more pace and width causing Moscow’s defense to lean towards the left flank of Spurs’ attack.
A couple of possessions later, CSKA left just enough space for Toby Alderweireld and Érik Lamela to dissect the middle of the pitch with two quick passes setting up Son’s fifth goal in six matches.
N’Koudou plays very direct, looking to get vertical often which helps when Tottenham are in possession and need to score late. Although he wasn’t necessarily envisioned as an impact sub when Spurs first signed him, this is the role that Pochettino sees the 21-year-old succeeding in to begin his Spurs career.
“He’s perfect to be on the bench and make an impact like he did in Moscow.” Pochettino added.
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Three games in the month of September and Georges-Kévin N’Koudou has come off the bench as a substitute. It’ll be a little longer until he gets his first start because of Son’s form at the left winger position.
But he has done wonderful job of what he’s been asked every time he comes into a game and that’s becoming an impact sub that Mauricio Pochettino has needed for the past couple of seasons.