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A whole new Nkoudou
There were signs in pre-season that Georges-Kevin Nkoudou was starting to get understand what he had to do.
One thing that's clear from Pochettino teams is that he does not like wingers who hug the line. He has no need for them with his flying full-backs.
The Argentine wants his attacking midfielders to be able to switch sides with ease and play through the middle if required.
Nkoudou started to show that in the post-season friendly against SC Kitchee in Hong Kong. He continued his improvement in the USA on tour in the summer, but then he picked up a troublesome foot injury that kept him out for the opening month of the season.
Pochettino told football.london this month that he had been happy with the young Frenchman's progress and that he now needed to find some consistency and continue to work hard to get more minutes under him.
Against Barnsley, the 22-year-old showed exactly what he can bring to the party. Spurs don't have many players who can beat a man with pace and trickery, but Nkoudou falls into that category.
He turned up on the left and right at various stages on Tuesday night and even had a rare shot on goal after coming off the bench with a powerful effort that was beaten away by the goalkeeper.
Nkoudou is only young and struggled to settle into the English way of life in his first season. However, now his manager feels he is fully integrated into life at the club and is a "calmer" person for it.
If he shows more of what he did at Wembley on Tuesday night, with an end product, then he might have something to offer Spurs as the season goes on.
There were signs in pre-season that Georges-Kevin Nkoudou was starting to get understand what he had to do.
One thing that's clear from Pochettino teams is that he does not like wingers who hug the line. He has no need for them with his flying full-backs.
The Argentine wants his attacking midfielders to be able to switch sides with ease and play through the middle if required.
Nkoudou started to show that in the post-season friendly against SC Kitchee in Hong Kong. He continued his improvement in the USA on tour in the summer, but then he picked up a troublesome foot injury that kept him out for the opening month of the season.
Pochettino told football.london this month that he had been happy with the young Frenchman's progress and that he now needed to find some consistency and continue to work hard to get more minutes under him.
Against Barnsley, the 22-year-old showed exactly what he can bring to the party. Spurs don't have many players who can beat a man with pace and trickery, but Nkoudou falls into that category.
He turned up on the left and right at various stages on Tuesday night and even had a rare shot on goal after coming off the bench with a powerful effort that was beaten away by the goalkeeper.
Nkoudou is only young and struggled to settle into the English way of life in his first season. However, now his manager feels he is fully integrated into life at the club and is a "calmer" person for it.
If he shows more of what he did at Wembley on Tuesday night, with an end product, then he might have something to offer Spurs as the season goes on.