Tottenham Hotspur: Alasdair Gold claims Oliver Skipp and Yves Bissouma have been played out of position

Journalist Alasdair Gold has claimed that Tottenham Hotspur manager Antonio Conte has been playing both Oliver Skipp and Yves Bissouma out of position. 

Up to this point in the Premier League season, amid this current break for the 2022 World Cup, Spurs have plenty of positives to talk about. Indeed, they are fourth in the division and qualified top of their Champions League group.

However, there is still room for improvement with plenty asking questions about just how well the team have actually been playing, especially during the first half of games.

Something may need to charge at Tottenham and perhaps that switch could come in the middle of the park. However, Skipp and Bissouma have both had limited chances to play regularly this term, with Rodrigo Bentancur and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg often the trusted pair in midfield, and Gold has suggested that the underused duo haven’t even been played correctly when given rare moments to impress. 

Indeed, while speaking on the Gold and Guest talk Tottenham podcast, the journalist said (13:25): “I think Skippy has been used quite sparingly and when he has played, has played in the wrong position.

“I still don’t understand why he’s playing Bissouma as an anchorman and Skippy is almost like an attacking winger at times.

“Surely swap them around and have Bissouma as the box-to-box midfielder and Skippy holding, as he was so brilliant at Norwich doing it and in the first season for Spurs after he came back [from loan] as well.”

TIF thoughts on Oliver Skipp, Yves Bissouma and Spurs…

Injury prevented Skipp from being fit at the start of the season and since then he has started just twice in the league. Bissouma has had more chances, featuring 18 times in all competitions (mainly as a substitute), and still wasn’t trusted to start in the Champions League.

Clearly Gold thinks the two have not been used in their best roles. When you look at Skipp’s heatmap on SofaScore, you can see that he hasn’t often operated on the right side of the pitch in advanced positions, which does seem odd when he’s a more natural central midfielder who operated much deeper in the past.

And so, if Conte keeps asking them to operate in unusual roles, he may struggle to get the best out of his midfield options. It will certainly be interesting to see if anything changes for the pair in the second half of the season.