Player Watch Player Watch: Yves Bissouma

Wasn’t his best game for us, compared to the level he’s been at so far this season. But speaks volumes that he was still miles ahead of anyone else they had in midfield.

Am i the only one who finds it uncanny what an incredible understanding he has already formed with Sarr (in particular) and Maddison? In such a short period of time. That’s crazy.

SpursSince1980 said:

Wasn’t his best game for us, compared to the level he’s been at so far this season. But speaks volumes that he was still miles ahead of anyone else they had in midfield.

Am i the only one who finds it uncanny what an incredible understanding he has already formed with Sarr (in particular) and Maddison? In such a short period of time. That’s crazy.

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Agree, wasn't his best performance but was still very effective.

This guy is so good that nobody is even bothering to talk about it anymore

I thought he looked good in the bits I saw.

Conte didn’t have a clue about some of our players.

ARMASPUR said:

This guy is so good that nobody is even bothering to talk about it anymore

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So right. Easy to take brilliance for granted. But fuck me… wow.
If Caciedo is 115m squidders, he is at least that, if not more right now.
If i had to pick between starting the two, the choice wouldn’t be close.

Why is nobody mentioning his new song?

TheVoiceofReason said:

Why is nobody mentioning his new song?

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We sang it last year but didn't fully get going due to lack of minutes and not being at his best in Conte's system.

As good as he is, he does tend to hold onto the ball way too long after he’s beat a man, numerous times he needs to release the runner.
I love the guy but the Rodri’s etc of this world are very good at this.

spursfan77 said:

I thought he looked good in the bits I saw.

Conte didn’t have a clue about some of our players.

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Same system that didn’t suit Bissouma worked wonders for Bentancur. Bissouma also spent over a third of the season injured. When he returned, Conte had been sacked 4 weeks prior. Did Stellini/Mason not have a clue either?

Some systems just don’t suit certain players. Bissouma needs freedom, something you don’t get within a rigid, pragmatic system.

djhotspur said:

As good as he is, he does tend to hold onto the ball way too long after he’s beat a man, numerous times he needs to release the runner.
I love the guy but the Rodri’s etc of this world are very good at this.

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I reckon that speed will come with time, the more used to his team mates he gets the quicker he’ll be releasing the ball going forward.

@Japhet

The reason I said your narrative changed, and forgive me if I misread, is that your original response to a post that said Bissouma had a bad season was that Conte was terrible which then became Conte refused to play him for ages, which is false. He had a normal bedding in period and then started to get a lot more minutes in a team that had a very solid midfield pair already.

Here are the stats:



As you can see, and take note of the first column too as this shows our league position, he played minimal minutes in his first 4 games and then had a fair few games where he almost played the full 90 or played the full 90. Conte made the statement regarding his struggles to adapt around the 15th of September, and even then, Bissouma still played a large portion of the minutes available.

This happened whilst we had PEH in the form of his career and Bentancur playing extremely well as a duo. Bissouma was still given minutes during this period. This happened while we were comfortably positioned in the top 4, and the team was the 3rd highest scoring in the league. Conte is known for never changing his strongest 11 yet he gave a player who was struggling with his system more than a fair amount of minutes during this period. Not so “terrible” if you’re asking me.

Not long after that, Bissouma got injured and was out for 12 weeks. During which, Conte was sacked.

If your argument was that Bissouma didn’t fit into Conte’s system I would agree with you. If you believe Conte didn’t get the best out of Bissouma I agree with that too, however he didn’t really need too given the form PEH, bentancur and the rest of the team were in at the time. Like I said, keep our league position and the players form in mind. Context matters.

Now before we trot out the old “You’re defending Conte” line, I want you to think of what I’m saying without any bias. I’m glad Conte’s gone, and he fucked up a whole bunch of things last season but I’m tired of seeing these kinds of statements when there’s evidence to the contrary.

Maybe I read into your post a bit too much, but I’ve seen the same thing from a few members here and it’s really not a fair judgment when Bissouma’s season, in it’s entirety, was mediocre for multiple reasons. It’s not completely down to Conte being “terrible”. If anything, given the evidence we have, he was very fair on Bissouma before his injury.

Bissouma came on for Mali after 62 minutes and got an assist for the 4th goal.

zicomerc said:

Bissouma came on for Mali after 62 minutes and got an assist for the 4th goal.

MAL 4-0 SSU | Mali - South Sudan

www.flashscore.co.uk

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A little half hour run out with an assist? Thankyou very much.

djhotspur said:

As good as he is, he does tend to hold onto the ball way too long after he’s beat a man, numerous times he needs to release the runner.
I love the guy but the Rodri’s etc of this world are very good at this.

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Dembele was always guilty of this, I think Bissouma is less so, though he does do it a bit yeah.

DiVaio said:

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That is ridiculous

That keeper might retire when he watches that back.

DiVaio said:

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djhotspur said:

As good as he is, he does tend to hold onto the ball way too long after he’s beat a man, numerous times he needs to release the runner.
I love the guy but the Rodri’s etc of this world are very good at this.

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Watch that video, and you can understand where that comes from. He just needs to adjust his game to the level he's playing at.

HNIM said:

Watch that video, and you can understand where that comes from. He just needs to adjust his game to the level he's playing at.

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The situation in the video has nothing to do with holding the ball too long, as he literally had no-one to pass too until the end.

djhotspur said:

As good as he is, he does tend to hold onto the ball way too long after he’s beat a man, numerous times he needs to release the runner.
I love the guy but the Rodri’s etc of this world are very good at this.

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I think that is exactly what Ange is talking about when he talks about Bissouma having areas he needs to improve on.

Even without improving it he is still amazing but, if he does improve that side of his game, it would take him and us up another level IMO.