View: Udogie could be midfield option for Tottenham as Italy manager experiments in training
Ange Postecoglou seems to have a midfielder-in-hiding in his Tottenham squad in Destiny Udogie.
The 20-year-old joined Spurs from Hellas Verona last year but spent his first season on the books in North London out on loan at Udinese.
He made his long-awaited debut for Tottenham in August and the left-back hasn’t looked back since.
The Italian has been in superb form for Spurs, starting all eight of their Premier League matches and assisting two goals in the process.
According to stats by Whoscored, only Yves Bissouma (3.3) has averaged more tackles per league game than Udogie (3.1) at The Lane this season while the Italian also ranks third in the Spurs squad for interceptions per appearance (1.3).
While Udogie has done well in his natural left-back role, the Verona-born ace has been training with the Italy national team as a midfielder.
As quoted by Italian news outlet Tuttomercatoweb on 9 October, Italy manager Luciano Spalletti said: “There are those (in our squad) who can cover multiple roles. Udogie played as a midfielder (in training) and can also be used in that role.”
When you look into Udogie’s performances for Tottenham this season, you can see why Spalletti would do that.
Wyscout stats show that Udogie has completed 87.9 per cent of his passes this season with an impressive 92.7 per cent completion rate for passes into the final third.
In Spurs’ 2-2 draw against Brentford on 13 August – incidentally Udogie’s debut for Tottenham – the Italian completed all 17 passes he attempted into the final third.
The image below, via Wyscout, shows where all of Udogie’s passes were made from and made to with all a lot of them coming from a midfield area.
One of those passes shows that Udogie likes to tuck inside while Tottenham are in possession, which helps aid the midfield to keep the ball and continue their attack.
Due to Udogie’s tendency to drift into more of a midfield role, it allows him a bit of time and space to look up ahead of him and make some playmaking decisions.
In the images below, taken from the game against Liverpool, Udogie can be seen in an almost completely central position while Guglielmo Vicario has the ball at his feet while under pressure from Liverpool’s attackers.
Udogie manages to collect the ball and turn away from two of Liverpool’s players as they continue to apply a high block against Tottenham.
Once turning, he sees the danger as he starts to drive forward and launch a Tottenham attack. As he’s about to lose the ball, he plays in a quick pass to James Maddison to keep possession.
Udogie is a bit of a Swiss army knife of a football because he’s capable of doing a lot of things at a high standard.
You can stick him out in a full-back role to bomb down the flanks, support wingers, get crosses into the box and also fulfil his defensive duties.
But given some freedom, he likes to come inside and has a real good eye for being able to keep possession.
On top of his abilities with the ball at his feet, Udogie is also strong without it because, as stats earlier showed, he’s hungry in the tackle and tuned into games enough to be able to win interceptions.
Postecoglou doesn’t need to play Udogie in the midfield any time soon but Bissouma is suspended for the clash against Fulham after the international break.
Maybe Spalletti has given the Aussie boss some inspiration about who could replace the banned ex-Brighton man?
In other Tottenham news, Richarlison has experienced a tough time while away with Brazil recently.