'Prepare to attack': Tottenham told 24-year-old loanee has been 'excellent' at improving Championship club

Tottenham defender Japhet Tanganga on loan at Millwall has rediscovered his smile again after that disastrous loan spell at Augsburg where he barely kicked a ball. On Saturday he scored a last-minute header to help the Lions beat Birmingham City 1-0.

At Spurs after 50 games, he never found the back of the net and now he's got two in the last four since moving to The Den in January. His goal helped an improving Millwall side under Neil Harris to move 16th on the league table, four points off the drop.

The Spurs defender is playing with confidence again and looks to be rediscovering the form that made him a regular under Jose Mourinho in north London. Asked what has been the difference, Millwall manager Harris said: “It needs to be, doesn’t it? It needs to be in the modern game. If you’re going to be at a football club like Millwall it is not just about the beautiful game of passing the football as a centre-half anymore. You still have to be able to defend one-on-one – defend your duels. 

"And when centre-halves are asked to go into the opponent’s penalty area for 12 set-plays a game then you have got to be prepared to attack the ball, especially at a football club like this. Japh has done excellent.”

The Hackney-born player has been capped at multiple levels by England at junior level, including at U21 level. Tanganga had joined Bundesliga side Augsburg with an option to buy but his stay in Germany was cut short.