It was once again another frustrating afternoon for Tanguy Ndombele despite his Napoli side securing a late 1-0 win over Spezia. Linking up with the Serie A team on loan from Tottenham at the end of August, the 25-year-old has so far played a bit-part role for Luciano Spalletti's men.
Coming off the bench for a matter of minutes in the Fiorentina and Lazio fixtures either side of his start in the 1-1 draw with Lecce, Ndombele was an unused substitute on Wednesday evening when the Italians demolished Liverpool 4-1 in the Champions League. Making changes to his XI for Saturday's game against Spezia, the French international was one of the players to come into Spalletti's thinking.
Named in a midfield three alongside Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Eljif Elmas, Ndombele played the deeper of the trio as the other two were given licence to push upfield. That was very much the case for former Fulham man Anguissa as he looked to get on the ball and go forward at every opportunity.
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Ndombele, on the other hand, was on the periphery of the action and rather quiet. However, on a couple of occasions, he did show his skill and strength, notably winning one free-kick in the Spezia half after getting the better of his marker.
Prior to half-time, the loanee did go on a driving run through midfield only to see his shot from outside the area blocked, with the same happening to another attempt moments later. Not doing enough in the first half to influence proceedings, Ndombele was hooked at the break as Stanislav Lobotka replaced him.
While his passing accuracy of 94 per cent was impressive after completing 17 of his 18 passes, he only had 23 touches in total across the 45 minutes and Spalletti clearly wanted much more, thus explaining his half-time exit.
Ndombele was given a rating of 5.5 by Calciomercato, with the news outlet making it clear that he has a lot to do if he is to become a key player in the Napoli team. They wrote: "The pace is already starting to be better than in the match against Lecce, but it is not yet 100 per cent. He has to grow a lot to be a protagonist in this Naples team."
Replaced by Lobotka at half-time in the last game he started against Lecce, Ndombele has played a total of 102 minutes across his four Napoli appearances so far. While of course, it needs to be remembered that it will take the player time to adapt to Spalletti and the team's ways after only linking up with them a few weeks ago, his minutes will only increase if the performances are there.
Rangers and AC Milan are on the agenda for Napoli this week before the first international break of the season takes place. Such a key season for the player after his underwhelming loan spell back at Lyon last campaign, both Napoli and Tottenham need to be seeing more from him right now.
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