Player Watch Player Watch: Yves Bissouma

[Japhet]

On the ball, it feels like he's playing like he did under Conte, with much less freedom and confidence. His ball distribution and decisions are restricted, with far fewer take ons or line breaking passes. Even in the games against teams that have sat deep, he's been very passive compared to earlier in the season. Playing like a water carrier just seems like such a waste of his ability, and he's not really good enough positionally or defensively to make up for it.

I always fear a mistake when the ball is played to him slightly away from his body, rather than moving towards the ball, he seems to kind of casually dangle out a leg to control it and too many times misses it or takes a bad touch.

He wasn't the only one by any stretch, but I thought he was weak in the tackle on several occasions. We lost the ball over and over to weak tackles all over the pitch.

 

[Kirito]

Bentancur can play the role

 

[lincspurs]

He wasn't the only one by any stretch, but I thought he was weak in the tackle on several occasions. We lost the ball over and over to weak tackles all over the pitch.

My impression was that Sarr was the one losing most of the tackles he should have won. His energy & athleticism are evident but I think he has to bulk up a bit too.

 

[Jamturk]

I want to shake the fuck out of Bissouma. So much ability there, but he now looks so scared to use it. Looks a completely different player to what's in a lot of this video. It's like all personality has been ripped from his game.

Maybe this is a result of the suspensions and sending offs, the way he was playing was unsustainable.

 

[Jamturk]

I think the midfield balance wasn't right for what we were up against yesterday, Sarr and Maddison was a luxury too far.

 

[archiewasking]

Still struggling with malaria maybe??

 

[Krafty]

Looks a long way short of confident. Biss at the start of the season was receiving the ball on the half term and looking to play forward - it was always back (barely even square) last night.

His lack of awareness when running back to our goal is a bit of concern, really something he needs to work on especially given how we play

 

[ATLguy]

On the ball, it feels like he's playing like he did under Conte, with much less freedom and confidence. His ball distribution and decisions are restricted, with far fewer take ons or line breaking passes. Even in the games against teams that have sat deep, he's been very passive compared to earlier in the season. Playing like a water carrier just seems like such a waste of his ability, and he's not really good enough positionally or defensively to make up for it.

I always fear a mistake when the ball is played to him slightly away from his body, rather than moving towards the ball, he seems to kind of casually dangle out a leg to control it and too many times misses it or takes a bad touch.

I've been wondering similar thoughts as to whether Ange reduced his freedom to carry the ball freely in the middle of the pitch. His play had become a bit loose prior to the New Year.

Either way, we need him back firing and the rest of the guys to step up as they have their deficiencies as well

 

[ajspurs]

Maybe this is a result of the suspensions and sending offs, the way he was playing was unsustainable.

It just didn't look like that to me, that it was so good it was maybe unsustainable. I think the telling sign is that he's not even attempting to play any bit like he was. It's not like he's trying to break through the lines and now failing, he simply just wants to pass the ball off whenever he gets it.

 

[Monkey boy]

Palhinha only just recently signed a contract extension until 28 and he’s supposedly valued at around £50-60 mil supposedly. There is zero chance we pay that for a 29 year old. It’s just not the way we operate.

maybe we need to change the way that we operate then as our current way hasn’t got us anywhere.

 

[Sp3akerboxxx]

Crazy to think from the start of the season that he has been dropped by Mali entirely.

Apparently he has removed all mention of Mali from his socials as a result.

 

[whenstevewentup]

The guy has let us down too many times this season , u can’t have a player like that who is constantly turning over posession so frequently , losing his runners so frequently and playing so inconsistently. In Anges system his role is in the top 3 most important and I don’t see how we can keep him .

Seems like the Mali coach also agrees with me !!

 

[joey55]

I actually didn't really want us to sign Bissouma, as though he looked good, I'd never been impressed with him to the extent that I wanted us to sign him, even when he got plaudits for a performance against us. I felt pretty vindicated after his first season with us, though he showed glimpses of real quality. However, at the start of this season, I couldn't believe what an absolute scouting moron I must have been not to see how damn good he is. Obviously I don't watch Brighton very much and assumed that I must have caught him on off days and probably wasn't really focusing on him when he played against us, so possibly didn't appreciate his performance. But now, it's becoming clear, that guy is just very inconsistent and has to have always been, as there is no chance that the player we saw at the start of the season wouldn't have been playing for a big club years ago. I suspect that many were so keen for us to sign him because they'd caught games of his when he was in full flow. While I just happened to have caught him in games where he's played at the levels we've seen post the Chelsea game.

I don't think he's been bad at all and is a quality player. But the hope of him being the level of DM we need to challenge for the league is dwindling. He's 28 in the summer and has spent the majority of his career at "lesser" clubs. He must have been scouted hundreds of times by Europe's elite in the 6 years before he joined us and they all passed on him. There has to be a reason for that and that reason must be that he just can't sustain his peak levels for more the short periods. He's a streaky player. To challenge for honours, you need an 8/10 player most weeks. Yves will give you a few 9/10 games followed by a few 5 or 6/10 games. At 28 that is unlikely to change.

I'd be shocked if we don't see another run of form from him before the end of the season, where we chastise ourselves for writing him off etc and point out to the naysayers that they needed to have more patience and he's had malaria etc. But, I can't help but feel that it seems very unlikely that a player of his ability can get to 25 years old, when playing in the most scouted league in Europe (ligue 1) and the most watched league in the world (prem) and somehow not be playing for a European giant, unless something is amiss.

 

[EQP]

Here's hoping that his exclusion from international duty will have motivated him to get his season back on track.

I'm sure he would've been hurt by that but he has admit that he's been quite poor for a long time.

He's had 2 weeks to analyze his performances and hopefully get back to that early season Biss that was so elegant and effective for us.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Did he have a fallout with the Mali coach because absolutely no way he shouldn’t be in the squad, madness.

And as for Spurs yes Biss hasn’t hit his early season form but he has malaria during AFCON and we as a team have been a bit hit and miss with all our injuries and suspensions.

I think he could do with upping his form a bit, seems like he’s lost some confidence but some on here are imo going a bit OTT about Bissouma, I think he’s an absolutely brilliant player as he showed for Brighton and as he showed for us early this season.

Once he finds some rhythm and confidence again he’ll boss games again.

My only criticism of him this season was his discipline but as for his form he’ll find his best form again I’m sure of that.

 

[Scott Spur]

I just cannot separate the fact that we were playing amazing football when Biss was on fire, he was the confident player who drew the press and waltzed around it. IMO he was our key man in those first 10 games, with Madders a close second.

Then the Chelsea game happened and there are many reasons for our staggering drop in form, but most of the others revolved around players getting injured. The trouble is, the players are/have been all fit again and we are still not playing anywhere near as well as we did.

So for me, Bissouma’s continued poor form is one of the main reasons for our very mediocre results. He lifted that team and allowed us to overload teams far easier by keeping Madders and the front three higher up the pitch. Now, he’s not driving forward, just playing sideways. This means the whole team is sinking back into our own half, it’s like watching Spurs under Jose or Conte.

If it were me, I’d bench him for a few games to get Bentancur fully match fit and then give him another run for the last 5 games.

If he doesn’t improve, I’d seriously consider selling him this summer, we cannot let this happen next season and it really hurts to say that.

 

[Monkey boy]

I just cannot separate the fact that we were playing amazing football when Biss was on fire, he was the confident player who drew the press and waltzed around it. IMO he was our key man in those first 10 games, with Madders a close second.

Then the Chelsea game happened and there are many reasons for our staggering drop in form, but most of the others revolved around players getting injured. The trouble is, the players are/have been all fit again and we are still not playing anywhere near as well as we did.

So for me, Bissouma’s continued poor form is one of the main reasons for our very mediocre results. He lifted that team and allowed us to overload teams far easier by keeping Madders and the front three higher up the pitch. Now, he’s not driving forward, just playing sideways. This means the whole team is sinking back into our own half, it’s like watching Spurs under Jose or Conte.

If it were me, I’d bench him for a few games to get Bentancur fully match fit and then give him another run for the last 5 games.

If he doesn’t improve, I’d seriously consider selling him this summer, we cannot let this happen next season and it really hurts to say that

I keep seeing this regarding the first 10 games. He got sent off in the 8th game before half time so he only actually played well for 7 games. Since then quite frankly he’s been poor and not deserving of a place on the team and can be thankful that he’s getting a space on the bench as I don’t think either Skipp or Hojberg have put in worse performances than him this season.

 

[sidford]

Another poor half from him. He was terrible for their goal. His good start to the season seems a long time ago.

 

[ATLguy]

Picked up a completely unnecessary yellow kicking the spare ball in the stands on the second goal.

 

[whenstevewentup]

Upgrade needed in the summer .