The Athletic journalist Charlie Eccleshare has suggested that Tottenham Hotspur losing Mousa Dembele was a “monumental blow”, during a Q&A.
What did he say?
Speaking after Spurs’ 0-0 draw against Watford, fans were discussing the Belgium international following his sale to Guangzhou Evergrande in January 2019.
With it being a year since his departure, Spurs supporters were suggesting that he still hasn’t been fully replaced, with a lack of planning meaning the void left by the now-32-year-old is more obvious than it needed to be.
In response to the chat about Dembele, Eccleshare said:
“He was physically gone by the end, but Dembele’s departure has been a monumental blow. He was absolutely pivotal to the way the team played at their best.”
A massive loss
During his time with Spurs, Dembele made a total of 249 appearances for the club between 2012 and January of last year.
With that in mind, it is understandable that his influence is difficult to replace, which adds onto the point of the move being such a hard one to deal with – even if it can be argued that it was necessary after he missed 22 games of the 2018/19 season through injury.
However, this feeling of loss will likely have been added to by Tanguy Ndombele’s inability to truly make his presence felt this term.
So far, the Frenchman has managed 14 starts and six substitute appearances across the Premier League and Champions League, getting one goal and two assists.
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In the league, he has averaged 1.5 tackles, 0.9 interceptions, 0.3 clearances and 0.2 blocks per game, which is a decent contribution, though it doesn’t give the idea of an indomitable presence in the middle of the pitch.
He has been effective with the ball at his feet though, averaging 2 dribbles and 0.7 key passes, while also being fouled 1.4 times per game.
The statistics indicate that there is potential for the 23-year-old to step up into that role, which is something the club will need him to do if they are to fully recover from the blow of losing Dembele.
Meanwhile, Spurs fans slammed one man for their disappointing performance against Watford.