Ryan Sessegnon's Tottenham career has been extremely stop-start to say the least but he is now starting to make a real impact in north London. Starting in six successive games for Spurs at left wing-back and appearing to have nudged ahead of Sergio Reguilon in the pecking order, the 21-year-old was dealt a cruel blow at the start of March after sustaining a hamstring injury.
Now back to fitness and looking to return to the team, Antonio Conte's 3-4-3 formation is the perfect system to bring the best out of the player's attacking qualities. With the Lilywhites previously playing with a back four under both Jose Mourinho and Nuno Espirito Santo, the former compared Sessegnon to Ashley Cole back in November 2019 but stated that his player was not ready to play as a left-back.
Instead seeing Sessegnon as more of a winger, Mourinho made it clear that the ex-Fulham man could become a left-back in the future but he needed to "learn how to defend". The England Under-21 international believes Mourinho's assessment at the time was right, with his loan spell at Hoffenheim in 2020/21 helping him improve defensively.
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"In a way, I understood what he was saying because the defensive side at that time, I probably wasn't as aggressive off the ball as he wanted me to be," said Sessegnon in an exclusive interview with ESPN. "Looking back now, I kind of agree with what he was saying because it wasn't until I went to Germany, I think my defensive side improved in terms of physicality, being aggressive off the ball.
"I needed that trip to Germany to really understand what he was saying. So, when he's saying the stuff about learning to defend better, at that time he was right."
Not at the club when Mourinho was dismissed from his position last April due to his loan spell in Germany, Sessegnon did return to the club in the summer as Espirito Santo's tenure commenced. However, he only got to play under the Portuguese twice with another injury issue leaving him on the sidelines.
"As soon as [Nuno] and his staff came in, they were very welcoming to me," admitted Sessegnon. "I remember we had conversations where he said he tried to sign me when he was at Wolves and I played against him a few times in the Championship and the Prem and I knew that he liked me from that time. But again, I didn't even get to play much under him."
