It is still very early days in the Jose Mourinho days at Tottenham Hotspur and a lot of people need to remember that until the Portuguese gaffer is given a couple of transfer windows he’s going to struggle to reform the backline, but it looks like he’s already making a start.
We may have only seen two games from the youngster, but we have got a strong hunch that the incredible Japhet Tanganga can cut it and could be a huge part of Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur going forward, especially seeing as we’ve seen him feature at centre-back, left-back and right-back in his two games.
Against Middlesbrough, the youngster was awarded the man of the match award for his performance as the Lilywhites won 2-1 in their FA Cup 3rd round replay, but even before that the 20-year-old was absolutely sublime against Liverpool despite the 1-0 home loss against the European Champions.
We’re not expecting Mourinho to build his entire side around Tanganga and for the young defender to be in the England squad at the end of the season, but he’s certainly one of those who will have piqued the interest of fans everywhere, as the starlet is showing exactly what he can do.
Ahead of the Liverpool game, Mourinho let on that Tanganga’s inclusion was because of his searing pace across the ground, yet what we didn’t know was how incredibly strong in the air, in the tackle and on the ball the versatile defender is, although we’ve all seen what he can do now.
Against Liverpool, no one expected a young defender on his Premier League debut to step up and keep Sadio Mane at bay the way he did, and the stats show just how impressive Tanganga was, as he recorded two tackles, two interceptions, eight clearances and one block, which happened to be a goal-line block inside the first 90 seconds (WhoScored).
Will Mourinho fix the defence?
Yes
No
We don’t expect Tanganga to shoulder the defensive expectation at Tottenham, but having him in the side is undoubtedly a huge boost for the club, as he gives them an obvious lift and has been one of the standouts across the last two games.