You thought Pape Sarr made up half of Tottenham’s double-pivot with Yves Bissouma? Think again. Rarely found close to Bissouma, Sarr offers Spurs something different, and the genius of his positioning is beating every opposition press. 

Opponents are understandably caught up in smothering Bissouma and James Maddison, Spurs’ two playmakers who sit between each line of the opposition press. Add to that Ange Postecoglou’s trademark, the inverted full-backs, and the pressing teams have problems in central areas. 

Teams quickly realised that wingers were redundant in the press and had to focus centrally against Spurs. So far, four of Spurs’ nine opponents have opted to press man-for-man in a sort of narrow 4-4-2 (diamond) shape. Knowing that the pass from centre-back to winger will simply have to be covered by a touch-tight full-back, they’d then transition into a new shape. 

However, Sarr has been making the same movement all season in build-up. He wanders over to the right flank as a bridge for that centre-back-to-winger pass. Against these pressing teams, he causes a real problem, especially for the opposition left-winger (in this case, the No.11). 

A free pass into him beats the press immediately and leaves him with time and space to turn and play forward. However, if the No.11 tracks the run, leaving Pedro Porro (No.23), this gives Spurs a 5 v 4 overload in the first phase and, even better, a 3 v 2 marked by the white triangle. 

Finally, the solution Fulham came up with after halftime was to remove one of their front-two and place someone on Sarr. However, as before, this just gave Spurs another 5 v 4 in the first phase.

Whatever the opposition is doing in these situations, Spurs can progress on the right side relatively quickly, thanks to Pape Matar Sarr.