View: Yves Bissouma suffers new Tottenham setback in attempts to impress Ange Postecoglou as footage emerges
Tottenham midfielder Yves Bissouma may well have suffered another worrying setback in his attempts to impress Ange Postecoglou after footage emerged from their pre-season fixture against Lion City Sailors (26 July).
When the 26-year-old arrived from Brighton and Hove Albion last summer, he did so to plenty of excitement. For the reported £25million fee that had been paid (Sky Sports, 17 June 2022), it seemed a steal.
However, due to injuries and his inability to adapt to Antonio Conte’s passive and rigid system, the Mali international simply did not live up to expectations, much to the disappointment of some of the Tottenham fanbase.
While his Tottenham career hasn’t gotten off to the best of starts, there is no doubt that there is a real player of quality in the former Seagulls man and he has more than enough ability to turn his fortunes around, especially under new manager Ange Postecoglou.
The new boss’ arrival will allow each player a clean slate and a chance to prove themselves capable of Postecoglou’s favoured 4-3-3 attacking system, something that stats suggest the Mali midfielder will have a chance of doing.
The Australian coach enjoys dominating possession and likes to use a midfield three that Bissouma could sit at the heart of and dictate play. As per stats provided by FBREF, during his final season at Brighton, the midfielder enjoyed an 88.9% average pass accuracy, putting him in the top ten per cent of the league’s midfielders.
His pass completion rate over short and long distances were both above 91 per cent, which certainly highlights how much he would suit Postecoglou’s possession-based style.
The midfielder was in the top one per cent of his positional peers for tackles won (2.09 per 90), the top two per cent for interceptions (2.13 per 90) and the top six per cent for the percentage of dribblers he tackled (56.8% per 90).
Bissouma of all people would have been particularly excited when he saw Postecoglou walk through the Tottenham doors, offering him a potential chance to redeem himself in a Spurs shirt.
And the early signs suggest he is loving life under the Australian. His body language seemed much improved through various social media posts from the club’s official Twitter site and the system that the former Celtic boss is beginning to implement looks to suit the swash-buckling midfielder.
However, in a new worrying development, Bissouma may well have suffered another costly setback in his relatively short and frustrating Tottenham career.
In a tweet posted by The Sun journalist Tom Barclay (26 July), the Malian appeared to have been getting some treatment at half-time in the 5-1 pre-season win over Lion City Sailors in Singapore
Postecoglou named a pretty strong line-up for the first-half and one of the players who was in the starting 11 was Bissouma, who has been putting in a string of impressive performances of late.
During the club’s pre-season clash with West Ham in Perth on 18 July, Postecoglou’s first official game in charge, the midfielder was one of the brightest sparks on the pitch for Spurs.
He played the full first 45 minutes before the whole starting eleven was substituted at half-time, in order to give Postecoglou a chance to examine his squad, and was one of the standout performers.
As per Sofascore, the combative midfielder had a very busy first half, making two tackles, winning all four of his ground duels, succeeding in both of his dribble attempts and registering a passing accuracy of 92 per cent, completing 36 of his 39 passes.
However, in what seemed to be a decision made pre-match against the Lion City sailors, all 11 of Tottenham’s starters were set to be replaced at half-time by a fresh set of players and were understandably undergoing warm-down drills during this period.
The players were supposedly made to do long warm-down runs before coming off and right at the end of it, Bissouma seems to have shown some discomfort with his ankle and apparently slumped to the floor.
This development will certainly set alarm bells ringing at the club’s camp with the Mali international supposedly holding the same ankle that has troubled him since his move to Tottenham.
It remains to be seen whether it is a recurrence of the same problem but this will not help Bissouma in his attempts to impress Postecoglou and nail down a starting place in the Tottenham eleven once the new season kicks off.
For the kind of football that the Australian wants the team to play, there isn’t a midfielder in the squad more suited than Bissouma and the former Brighton man may be hoping and praying that this new worry isn’t a serious one as he was supposed to form a key part of Postecoglou’s exciting new setup.
In other Tottenham news, the stars of Spurs’ Women’s side are one step closer to learning their fate in Group A at the World Cup.