{"id":284346,"date":"2025-11-26T12:31:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T12:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/284346\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T12:31:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T12:31:12","slug":"how-ryan-sessegnon-has-put-himself-in-england-contention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/284346\/","title":{"rendered":"How Ryan Sessegnon has put himself in England contention"},"content":{"rendered":"

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If you\u2019d have told me at the start of the season that Antonee Robinson wouldn\u2019t start a game until at least December, I\u2019d have broken out in a very cold sweat. He has been integral to this side for years and honestly, I didn\u2019t think Ryan Sessegnon had it in him to step into those shoes. I was so wrong.<\/p>\n

I had two major concerns with the prospect of Sess at left-back . Firstly, as we\u2019ve 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 – \u201cRyan Sessegnon is not a left-back\u201d. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think he\u2019s as good defensively as Robinson, but he\u2019s progressed a long way and provides enough stability. What he lacks in recovery speed he\u2019s been able to make up for in other ways. Comparing last season\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been really impressed by how he\u2019s done defensively, especially as he\u2019s come up against a couple of the best right wingers in the league in Bukayo Saka and Bryan Mbeumo and handled himself commendably. <\/p>\n

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\u2019d lose a lot of his attacking threat by forcing him deeper. I didn\u2019t think he\u2019d be able to get up and down the pitch for 90 minutes, contributing in all thirds. Once again, he\u2019s proved me so wrong. <\/p>\n

So much so, that I really think Thomas Tuchel has to be considering him for an England call-up.<\/p>\n

We all know how important Robinson\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m going to pick out some examples to demonstrate how I think he\u2019s starting to bring some variety to the Fulham attack. What I haven\u2019t worked out yet is whether it\u2019s by design and he\u2019s following Silva\u2019s instructions, or whether it\u2019s just the natural positional intuition that he possesses; I\u2019m leaning towards the latter. He\u2019s always been superb at finding dangerous spaces, acting on instinct, and I love that he\u2019s still able to do that from the left-back slot.<\/p>\n

The first example is the classic overlap. We\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

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Where I think Sess has added a new dimension to this role though, is all the other types of runs he\u2019s been making. The next example is the underlap. At this point in the game we\u2019ve 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.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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However, if he\u2019s able to consistently get into these areas, Fulham will create chances because it\u2019s so hard to stop. I was so angry when we played Arsenal because I was watching Calafiori getting into outrageous positions and just thinking – \u201cthat\u2019s not fair, you shouldn\u2019t be allowed to do that from left-back\u201d. Seeing Sess do it brings me a lot of joy.<\/p>\n

To make sure that you don\u2019t think we\u2019re just overanalysing one game against a newly-promoted side, let\u2019s go back to a couple of other games this season where these underlapping runs were devastating.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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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\u2019s worked for us time and time again, however it\u2019s 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\u2019s what he does.<\/p>\n

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What he\u2019s 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\u2019ve performed this season, but also shows how integral he is to chance creation in this Fulham team. <\/p>\n

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\u2019s definitely something that doesn\u2019t come naturally to Robinson. Sess on the other hand, is more than capable. I\u2019m sure we all remember that pass at Wembley. <\/p>\n

He nearly did it again on Saturday, feeding another left-footer in Harry Wilson, who probably should have done better with his finish.<\/p>\n

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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\u2019s meant to be playing at left-back!! <\/p>\n

He hasn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important not to erase Jedi\u2019s 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\u2019s pretty undroppable currently.<\/p>\n

There have been games where we\u2019ve missed his raw speed and the frequency with which he\u2019s 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\u2019t see from Jedi.<\/p>\n

What he\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

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\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you\u2019d have told me at the start of the season that Antonee Robinson wouldn\u2019t start a game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284347,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-284346","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}