If you’d have told me at the start of the season that Antonee Robinson wouldn’t start a game until at least December, I’d have broken out in a very cold sweat. He has been integral to this side for years and honestly, I didn’t think Ryan Sessegnon had it in him to step into those shoes. I was so wrong.
I had two major concerns with the prospect of Sess at left-back . Firstly, as we’ve all spoken about, the defensive side of his game was never a real strength. I distinctly remember it effectively becoming a catchphrase back in the day – “Ryan Sessegnon is not a left-back”.
I don’t think he’s as good defensively as Robinson, but he’s progressed a long way and provides enough stability. What he lacks in recovery speed he’s been able to make up for in other ways. Comparing last season’s Jedi with Sess this year, they have largely similar defensive outputs. Our injured American was slightly more active, attempting more tackles and making more interceptions, however Sess appears to be a bit more efficient, making fewer tackles but with a higher success rate.
I’ve been really impressed by how he’s done defensively, especially as he’s come up against a couple of the best right wingers in the league in Bukayo Saka and Bryan Mbeumo and handled himself commendably.
The second area of concern that I had, and the part I want to focus on most in this piece, is that I thought we’d lose a lot of his attacking threat by forcing him deeper. I didn’t think he’d be able to get up and down the pitch for 90 minutes, contributing in all thirds. Once again, he’s proved me so wrong.
So much so, that I really think Thomas Tuchel has to be considering him for an England call-up.
We all know how important Robinson’s overlapping runs have been since Silva joined. Interestingly, I think Ryan Sessegnon has evolved this role into something new, something that makes Fulham more potent and is starting to create his own blueprint for how to be a Marco Silva left-back.
I’m going to pick out some examples to demonstrate how I think he’s starting to bring some variety to the Fulham attack. What I haven’t worked out yet is whether it’s by design and he’s following Silva’s instructions, or whether it’s just the natural positional intuition that he possesses; I’m leaning towards the latter. He’s always been superb at finding dangerous spaces, acting on instinct, and I love that he’s still able to do that from the left-back slot.
The first example is the classic overlap. We’ve seen this thousands of times since Marco took over, with our left-winger, Kevin on this occassion, tucking inside and freeing up space for a marauding Sess to create a crossing opportunity.
Where I think Sess has added a new dimension to this role though, is all the other types of runs he’s been making. The next example is the underlap. At this point in the game we’ve replaced the right-footed Kevin, with the left-footed Samuel Chukwueze. Knowing that Samu is likely to stay wider, dragging Hume out, Sess picks up a lovely pocket in the half-space.
It’s an area that Arsenal full-backs exploit a lot and it can cause a lot of defensive distress. With Hume being tasked with keeping Samu quiet, Talbi being forced to try and put pressure on Bassey, it leaves no one marking Ryan.
As the dotted arrow shows, he then makes a very clever out-to-in run and gets into a position that you see very few full-backs in, just outside the six-yard box. In the end, he should have done better, with a moment of uncharacteristic discomposure seeing him blaze the ball wide.
However, if he’s able to consistently get into these areas, Fulham will create chances because it’s so hard to stop. I was so angry when we played Arsenal because I was watching Calafiori getting into outrageous positions and just thinking – “that’s not fair, you shouldn’t be allowed to do that from left-back”. Seeing Sess do it brings me a lot of joy.
To make sure that you don’t think we’re just overanalysing one game against a newly-promoted side, let’s go back to a couple of other games this season where these underlapping runs were devastating.
Starting with Wolves at home; we once again see a left-winger hugging the touchline, dragging Hoever, the Wolves right-back, out wide. Ryan sniffs out that space and bursts into that gap between centre-back and right-back, latching onto a through ball from Raul and stroking home.
His other goal this season game from another one of these underlaps. As Chukwueze gets the ball, it would be so easy for Sessegnon to get wide and try and put a cross in. Instead, he hits that half space once again.
This is what I mean by variety. Ordinarily, Fulham work this out to the left-flank and try and find someone in the box. It’s worked for us time and time again, however it’s also a low percentage game. Compare that to where Sess ends up with the ball, just outside the six-yard box, with a high quality chance that he buries, because that’s what he does.
What he’s able to offer down that flank is pretty unique. No Fulham player has had more touches in the penalty area than Ryan Sessegnon, which is perhaps a bit of an indictment of the way we’ve performed this season, but also shows how integral he is to chance creation in this Fulham team.
The final example I want to show highlights the technical abilities that he brings to the role. Inverted full-backs are all the rage at the moment and it’s definitely something that doesn’t come naturally to Robinson. Sess on the other hand, is more than capable. I’m sure we all remember that pass at Wembley.
He nearly did it again on Saturday, feeding another left-footer in Harry Wilson, who probably should have done better with his finish.
He finds himself in effectively the number 10 position, in between the lines, and has the intelligence and ability to thread a lovely ball into Wilson. I know I keep saying it, but he’s meant to be playing at left-back!!
He hasn’t been able to rack up the assists that Robinson usually does, but he has as many league goals this season as Jedi has ever scored for Fulham. I also think that if continues to break into those half spaces, those cutbacks will start to bear fruit on the assists front.
It’s important not to erase Jedi’s history. He is a magnificent player and I repeatedly said he was the best left-back in the league last season. However, what Sessegnon has brought to the role raises some really interesting questions about what you do when he returns, because he’s pretty undroppable currently.
There have been games where we’ve missed his raw speed and the frequency with which he’s able to get balls into the box, but there are also things that Sessegnon has done this season, as detailed above, that you just wouldn’t see from Jedi.
What he’s been doing is really special and I hope people outside of Fulham start to take notice. To have gone from a player who was totally written off and discarded just 18 months ago, to a complete full-back is immense and one of the loveliest comeback stories around.
Given the limited options that England have in that area of the pitch, I passionately believe that he needs to be in the conversation. Just picture it, Ryan Sessegnon, England international…