Tottenham loanee Japhet Tanganga could save his career amid ‘outstanding’ form for Millwall
Tottenham loanee Japhet Tanganga has turned his fortunes in the Championship with Millwall around over the past week.
Tanganga was brought back to Tottenham following a miserable loan stint in the Bundesliga with FC Augsburg, during which he played exactly zero minutes. He was then loaned to Millwall for the second part of the 2023–24 season.
With the Lions, he has played in significantly more games. On Saturday, January 20, he made his debut with the London team, coming off the bench in their 2-0 Championship loss to QPR. It was his first competitive appearance in nine months.
Tanganga has made six appearances for Millwall so far. Following a difficult start to his first four games, which resulted in his being benched for Wednesday, February 14’s 4-0 home loss to Ipswich Town, Tanganga was called back into the starting lineup and has improved in his last two games.
The 24-year-old gave a commanding performance against Sheffield Wednesday on February 17 and then contributed significantly to Millwall’s 2-1 victory at Southampton on Saturday, February 24, which was their first victory in eight games.
The defender will try his hardest to convince Ange Postecoglou that he has a future in North London before the end of the season, given rumors that he might be on summer leave.
Could Japhet Tanganga play at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium again?
Tanganga shown against Sheffield Wednesday that, despite a challenging start to life at The Den, he still has the potential to play a significant role in the team’s efforts to prevent relegation from the Championship.
It was difficult to assign a lot of the responsibility to the Spurs player who was on loan, even if his team lost 2-0 and failed to score in front of their home fans for the second straight game.
In addition to winning three of his five ground duels and four of his seven aerial duels, he completed 90% of his passes, played five accurate long balls forward out of the six that he attempted, and made three clearances, three interceptions, two tackles, and one blocked shot, according to Sofascore.
Sadly, his performance was insufficient to keep his manager Joe Edwards from losing his job, and Neil Harris, a club legend, took his place.
Additionally, Tanganga improved on his performance against Sheffield Wednesday in Harris’ first game back in command at Millwall, leading his team to a 2-1 victory away at promotion-chasing Southampton.
Tanganga was instrumental in helping his club cling on for a critical three points after Zian Flemming’s penalty kick after Che Adama’s equalizer given the visitors the lead after five minutes.
Incredibly, he made 14 clearances, two shot blocks, one clearance off the line, and one last-man tackle.
Harris was pleased with his defender’s performance following the game. He also won two of his three ground duels and two of his four aerial duels (via Bein Sports, 24 February).
“I thought we did a fantastic job defending our box today, and Japhet was just fantastic.”
Spurs supporters may not have seen the last of the Englishman at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium if he keeps up this performance. He still has a chance to turn around his fortunes in N17.
