A consistent Yves Bissouma will take the Premier League by storm

“Arsenal are considering a move for Brighton & Hove Albion midfielder Yves Bissouma.” A headline that not many Albion or Gunners fans would have expected to see when they woke up on Friday morning.

And yet there it was, all over Twitter. Mikel Arteta wants midfield reinforcements and if you believe what you read, Bissouma is somewhere near the top of the list.

Interestingly, the story did not seem to come with any sort of price attached to it. There was no mention of how much Arsenal were willing to pay, nor how much Brighton value Yves Bissouma at. Which is both strange and telling.

Here at WAB Towers, we tried to work out what the Albion might demand for Bissouma if Arsenal – or anyone else for that matter – came knocking. It was a lot harder than it sounds.

We genuinely didn’t know whether the Brighton would make a small profit, double, treble or even quadruple the £15 million which Bissouma cost when signing from Lille in the summer of 2018.

We then turned the question over to Twitter and judging by the range of responses, we are not the only ones unable to put a value on Bissouma.

At the lower end of the scale, some fans said £25 million. At the upper end, £60 million. How can a player who we all watch week in, week out garner such a different set of valuations?

The answer is because Bissouma is inconsistent. One week, he will dominate games and be head-and-shoulders above any other player on the pitch, such as in the 2-1 win over Arsenal in June.

Based on what Arteta saw that day, it is little wonder that the Gunners manager is interested in taking Bissouma to the Emirates. And Bloom would have every right to demand £60 million for a box-to-box midfielder who is as good going forward as he is defensively.

Fast forward two or three games down the line however and Bissouma will coast through, looking lethargic. Sometimes, you forget he is even playing. When he has one of those days, Brighton would do well to get over £20 million for his services.

From the moment that Yves Bissouma signed for Brighton, it has been very clear just what a talent he is. What let him down during his first 18 months at the Albion was a lack of discipline, defensive naivety and the fact nobody seemed to know where he should be played.

There were also occasions during the 2018-19 season when Bissouma looked lost. In Brighton’s 2-1 defeat against Leicester City in February, he strolled back and made no attempt to put in a tackle as the Foxes launched the move which ended with Jamie Vardy putting them 2-0 ahead.

Bissouma was also one of the biggest disappointments in the 5-0 home defeat to Plucky Little Bournemouth, going through the motions more than most of his teammates. When you are getting dicked by a relegation rival, the last thing you want to see is a player not trying.

With Bissouma, there was this sense that he had no interest in the nitty-gritty, defensive side of the game. He was only concerned with going forward, trying to make headlines for his skills and scoring wonder goals. When you play for a Brighton & Hove Albion side constantly battling relegation, there is not much opportunity for that.

Under Chris Hughton, Bissouma did not have the positional or tactical discipline needed to usurp Dale Stephens as a holding midfielder. He was not a team player like Davy Propper. And he did not bring goals or assists to the party like Pascal Gross.

Sometimes, he would perform all three roles better than Stephens, Propper or Gross. Most of the time though, he wouldn’t. Frustrating was the word to describe Bissouma in 2018-19, a trait that a lot of people were happy to ignore because he had a catchy song, danced when Brighton beat Crystal Palace and laughed at Arsenal on the pitch at the Emirates as they failed to qualify for the Champions League.

Bissouma’s inconsistency continued in the first half of the 2019-20 season under Graham Potter. It took him until December to register his first good performance, when replacing the suspended Dale Stephens away at Crystal Palace.

At the time, Bissouma in the holding role in a must-not-lose game against Palace looked like a huge gamble. His performance that evening however was one of the best that the Malian had given in an Albion shirt.

It was something of a watershed moment. Suddenly, Bissouma had shown Potter he matured enough to play as a defensive midfielder. Not only that, but he might also prove to be a dynamic upgrade on the solid-if-unspectacular Stephens.

Bissouma brought more of the spectacular, along with increased energy and skill. He suddenly went from a player who Potter was struggling to find a place for in the Potterball revolution to a man who could challenge Stephens for a spot in the starting lineup.

The challenge now for Bissouma was to start delivering those sorts of performances on a regular basis. Once the Premier League resumed after the enforced three month break, that is exactly what he did.

Bissouma was easily Brighton’s best player over the final nine games of the Premier League, winning our WeAreBrighton.com Player of the Month Award for June and coming second to Tariq Lamptey in the July poll.

So good was Bissouma’s form post-lockdown that we even had some complaints into the WAB Inbox that he was not included in our shortlist for Player of the Year.

Bissouma was not on there because you cannot award Player of the Year based on under a quarter of the season. If he plays as brilliantly over a 38 game Premier League campaign in 2020-21 as he did in the final nine matches of 2019-20, then we might as well not bother running a poll next year. Bissouma will win by a landslide.

His numbers post-lockdown are ridiculous. Look back through the games Bissouma started from June onwards and you will often find him leading the way in all they key metrics by which midfielders tend to be ranked – passes, ball recoveries, tackles, interceptions and take ons.

Potter was impressed, saying of Bissouma, “He wins a lot of balls back and physically he is in a good place. He will get better the more he plays and he showed a discipline and quality. I’m really pleased.”

“He makes good decisions and he has the power, athleticism and technical qualities to deal with the ball. It’s then just the tactical understanding which I think he has developed.”

Bissouma has become one of the first names on Potter’s team sheet. At 23-years-old, he still has scope to improve too. Training and playing alongside a professional with the skills and attitude of Adam Lallana next season should help him kick on even further.

Consistency aside, Potter has earmarked one other area for Bissouma to work on – goals. Before the final game of the 2019-20 season away at Burnley, Yves Bissouma had not scored for Brighton in the Premier League in 49 attempts.

Appearance number 50 brought goal number one at Turf Moor and in a way, it summed up Bissouma’s first two seasons in England. He initially lost possession by being sloppy and carefree before winning the ball back brilliantly and hitting a stunning effort from 30 yards into the top corner. Frustration followed by the superb. Bissouma all over.

Now imagine a Bissouma who no longer frustrates. Who plays every week as well as he did in the final two months of 2019-20. And who chips in with five or more goals per season from midfield.

That sort of consistent Bissouma would be one of the best players in the Premier League. If we see him in 2020-21, he is a £60 million player – at least.