Japhet Tanganga Returned to Tottenham Line-up for Ludogorets
By Aaron Coe
Young Tottenham Hotspur defender Japhet Tanganga looked good in only his second start of the season for Spurs having recovered for several injuries.
Japhet Tanganga got his big chance last season making his Premier League debut up against might Liverpool. While Tottenham did not win on the evening, Tanganga was good and certainly made a bit of a name for himself with his performances. The young English defender played 11 times in all competitions last term earning nearly 1000 minutes, so it was great to see him get his first full 90 of this term on Thursday, in Spurs 4-0 victory over Ludogorets.
Tanganga Sweeping Tottenham to Success
Given the overall game plan of Ludogorets was to pack it in deep and try to stay close, both Japhet Tanganga and Davinson Sanchez were acting more as sweepers than your traditional center backs. Ludogorets only had one striker, so the pair just kept him between them and then just worked to beat the attacker to every ball.
From there Sanchez and Tanganga did manage to win nearly every ball that was pushed forward toward the attack for Ludogorets. Tanganga was excellent pushing into the attacking half of the pitch to win the ball on the ground or in the air. Japhet won five headers on the evening, which helped to keep Ludogorets pinned in most of the evening.
Tanganga played smart simple passes most of the night and completed 57 of his 63 attempts. While his very first touch of the night was extremely poor, fortunately he had enough time to gather himself and get the ball out before he was under any pressure. From there, it is hard to say Tanganga misplayed a touch, such was his performance next to Sanchez.
So complete was the defensive performance not only did Ludogorets fail to register a shot, they did not even have a single touch in the box. Much of this can be credited to the overall team dominance, but Sanchez and Tanganga did their part on the defensive end.
The one area of ‘concern’ if you want to call it that from Tanganga was his aggressiveness physically. Normally being strong on the ball and on the pitch is good, but Tanganga had a couple of cheeky little shoves and was probably lucky to avoid a yellow card. A couple of those pushes looked very reminiscent of one Davinson Sanchez and is not a good habit to be picking up.
Ultimately, the fouls are just something to watch and be smart about on the pitch as you never know how a referee might respond. Outside of a couple questionable moments that caused no problems for Spurs, Japhet Tanganga had an excellent return game. With Toby Alderweireld out, this is hopefully something Tanganga can build on as Tottenham look to grow their defensive depth.