According to Sky Sports journalist Michael Bridge, Yves Bissouma told Tottenham Hotspur staff he wasn’t fit to start the north London derby just 24 hours before kickoff.
Bissouma joined Spurs from Brighton this summer for £25million, but has only appeared in one game under Antonio Conte.
And according to Football London, Bissouma was in the plans to start against Arsenal but he returned from international duty with a ‘physical problem’.
According to Sky Sports News journalist Michael Bridge, Bissouma informed Conte’s staff of his muscle problems just a day before the game. He said:
“Now I understand Bissouma told Conte’s staff he was suffering a bit of muscle fatigue after international duty last Friday.”
“If that formation change did happen, one of [Heung-Min] Son or Richarlison would likely drop to the bench.”
Bissouma has had a difficult start to his Tottenham career, but he impressed from the bench against Leicester City where Conte switched to the 3-5-2 system during the emphatic 6-2 win.
The Mali international appeared much more at ease in a midfield three with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Rodrigo Bentancur. And many Spurs fans were expecting Conte to stick with the same formation against Arsenal but now it is revealed that the manager had his reasons to change it.
Davies and Dier as fullbacks? Compare them to the best in the league, your Reece James, Cancelo, Walker etc. We’d be even further behind IMO.
Decent fullbacks on either side are a priority in any top team nowadays, get that sorted with Romero and Skriniar in CB and then 3 in midfield looks much better.
Lol at Sarr, are him Gil and Tanganaga going to be starting games at some stage and if so I hope they will they be refunding matchday ticket purchases.
Agree absolutely, but the coach has to take blame as well. It’s his, for want of a better word, ‘tactics’ to sit everyone behind the ball with little or no pressing in the hope we catch the opposition on the counter. I don’t buy into the theory either that top quality players would make this work. If Conte did have better quality would he then play an expansive game? I don’t think so. He doesn’t do flair.
As we say ’round these parts, ‘ah, that’ll be the next one’ ☺️
I think you’re onto something there, given the social history, there’s expectation if not an legal obligation that you can for an afternoon a week lose yourself.
Now going to the football is like going to Centerparcs.
That’s having the foresight to carry out sensible quality recruitment,knowing that the players they develope will be moved on at a healthy profit.We don’t do that.
My life is pretty good, knock on wood. I don’t have many complaints. But a lot of people are having a rough go of it these days, and for ENIC to deprive them of 2 hours of joy once or twice a week to watch an exciting football match is just criminal in my book.
ENIC are toxic.
We didn’t need a fourth deep lying midfielder, we needed a ball player who helps the attack and gets forward. Conte seems to favour two defensive midfielders anyway, the problem with Bissouma is that he isn’t significantly better than the other three we have, he might not be worse, he might be slightly better but at the end of the day, who cares? He’s not a noticeable upgrade, if he was he’s already be in the starting 11…
Brighton don’t seem to be missing him though…
I will go against the flow here and state I was delighted with the Bissouma signing and think he will be at least the player he was with Brighton if not better but under which manager I dont know.
When my dad said he didn’t want me to renew our STs a few years back, it really hit home what ENIC have done to Spurs. He has been going since 1959.
Same Bissouma who’s apparently one of the best in the PL and will walk into our team immediately, as he’s far better than PEH? Surely not!
That’s exactly how I’ve felt for the last 3 seasons, disallusioned and disinterested, sad really
I used to look forward to the games. Now I don’t really care that much. Who wants to watch 2 hours of us playing a low block against teams with inferior talent? It’s depressing.
I can’t imagine how ST holders feel about paying 200 quid per game to watch this stuff. Or to travel for this.
I agree. Why everyone can’t see this IDK?
The way has been lost for sometime now because the most ‘unique person in football’ is a controlling sociopath who’s incapable of making a sound decision. Bissouma is a Levy signing, it’s got his signature written all over it
We already got Sarr to replace Winks. Currently have 5 DM’s and 0 AMs. It’s beyond a joke.
This 3 at the back stuff ain’t cutting it for me. Barca, Bayern, Real, Citeh, basically all the best clubs play a 433 formation. The Barcodes too, and they outplayed Citeh for an entire half.
It should’ve been Davies, Skriniar, Romero, Dier/Tanganga at the back. Dier has played RB before, it wasn’t the most crucial position. Bentancur, Milenkovic-Savic, PEH in the middle. Kane, Son, Kulu up front. Scamacca or Sesko as backup striker, either one at half the price of one Richarlison.
That team could beat anyone.
Problem was that we needed Bissouma to replace Winks, Milinkovic-Savic to replace Erkisen, Richarlison as a “backup” striker or winger option and we’ve needed a player like Skriniar for a few years now. Plus needed a decent RWB or two which we still don’t have.
The window was barely acceptable, particularly when you look at the dross we’ve still got kicking about in the first team. Another 2 windows was Conte’s guess, another 2 decades might be closer to the truth.
It’s not so much the players or even the mindset but to me Spurs have lost their way. What is the philosophy or the approach for THFC? For years we played on a small pitch with an attacking mindset and played entertaining, if not, successful football. All that was needed was some backing that ENIC didn’t provide on players, but on building a property that generates more revenue for them.
Now we have a big pitch, a defensive minded coach and still no real backing. I find myself questioning why am I supporting this lot?
ENIC need to vacate the premises asap, bring in an aggressive owner that hires attack minded players and coached by a forward thinking gaffer. Otherwise this is a waste of time simple as.
Pointless signing, along with Richarlison. We needed Skriniar and Milinkovic-Savic, end of story. Supposedly we’re a big club, but have a small-time mindset. They said Conte had clear demands, but either they weren’t met or he had the wrong ones. My bet is on the former.
We’ll finish 4th. Perhaps a Mickey Mouse trophy. Conte off in the summer. Some unproven European manager incoming and I predict low spending on more average dross/punts to follow. Paratici seems more and more like a company man.