Ryan Sessegnon has admitted that he sees working with Antonio Conte as a way to kickstart his Tottenham career.
After arriving from Fulham in the summer of 2019, Sessegnon was hampered by injuries in his first season at Tottenham. The youngster impressed on loan at Hoffenheim the last term but found it difficult to get game time at Spurs on his return from Germany.
The 21-year-old is now getting a few opportunities under Conte and has admitted that he believes that the left-wing-back role is a perfect fit for his attributes.
Sessegnon told The Mirror: “I think ever since I’ve come to the club, all I’ve wanted to do is to play games for this team.
“In previous seasons, I’ve had a lot of injuries and things like that. Different managers and for whatever reason, I’ve not played many games.
“But, again, this season is a chance for me and the gaffer has played me in a lot of games so far and I just want to repay him with good performances.”
“For me, especially, in terms of the formation that we play, it is perfect for me in that left wing-back role which I think is probably my best position because it allows me to attack and also in defence.
MORE SPURS STORIES
“For me, it’s given me a lot of confidence for the rest of the season.”
Sessegnon started Tottenham’s 2-2 draw against Liverpool on Sunday and the youngster was not just a threat going forward but he also managed to keep Mohamed Salah relatively quiet.
The former Fulham man earned praise from Conte for his performance and he has now stated that he and his teammates have a newfound belief under the Italian.
Sessegnon said: “We have a lot of belief under the coach. He gives us the energy and intensity from the way he is and that runs throughout the whole team.
“That’s the passion that we need to bring on the pitch and I think we’ve shown that. We’ve shown that in many games.”
The youngster also admitted that the postponements that Tottenham have had over recent weeks have been frustrating to endure.
When asked about the difficulty of having games called off due to the Covid-19 outbreak, he responded: “It’s not been so difficult, more frustrating because we’ve not been able to play with all the games being postponed.
“But again, we’ve been training hard and the boys have stuck together and we’ve dealt with this situation and we managed to get the game on.
“It’s our job. We want to get training done and play games on the weekend. When that doesn’t happen, it’s frustrating for us players.
“When games are being called off it’s frustrating because you just want to get through the period of games, winning as many games as we can.
“You just want to get the games done, don’t want to be playing with games in hand and we don’t want to fall behind.”
Spurs Web Opinion
While Sessegnon’s athleticism, pace and energy was never in doubt, I was left extremely impressed with his one vs one defending against Liverpool.
However, my only concern about the 21-year-old is that he does not look too tidy in possession, which he needs to be if he is to play as a left-wing-back.
I got the feeling against Liverpool that his teammates did not necessarily trust him with the ball in tight areas as they did with Emerson.
Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
