Tottenham star Ryan Sessegnon reveals why Jose Mourinho was right about his game

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.

Antonio Conte's seven Tottenham undroppables in 2022/23 plans and the four spots up for grabs

"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