Liverpool star Luis Diaz learnt the hard way that midfielder Yves Bissouma is playing the best football of his Tottenham Hotspur career right now.
Covering the match for BBC Sport, Stephen Warnock was very impressed with the £25m enforcer.
A lot has been made of how much improvement there’s been in such a short space of time at Tottenham this season.
Ange Postecoglou has provided a new lease of life to many players in the squad.
Pape Matar Sarr never really got a sniff under Antonio Conte but is now a key player in Postecoglou’s team.
There were big question marks over Pedro Porro after his move in January from Sporting CP.
However, he put arguably his best performance in a Tottenham shirt last night, delivering the cross that ultimately led to Tottenham’s winner.
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The turnaround of Yves Bissouma is arguably the most impressive and most important development in the Spurs squad.
The 27-year-old has made the role of sitting in front of the defence his own and protected a back four given license to attack.
Luis Diaz thought he could take advantage of this against Tottenham last night, but Bissouma had other ideas.
The Colombian may have initially got the upper hand over his opponent in one phase of play yesterday, but it’s easier said than done to escape Bissouma’s attention.
Bissouma dominates Diaz in Tottenham win
During one Liverpool attack in the first half, Warnock was impressed with Bissouma’s tenacity and said: “Brilliant from [Yves] Bissouma. He lost the ball initially to [Luis] Diaz and then Diaz just sold [Cristian] Romero with the Cruyff turn and it’s Bissouma back at him, making sure he got close to him.”
Diaz did escape Bissouma’s attention later in the half when he thought he equalised, but Tottenham benefitted from an incorrect offside call.
Once Liverpool went down to nine men, Diaz was sacrificed as Liverpool tried to cling onto a point.
Bissouma has received so much praise for his performances all season and it’s easy to see why.
Before yesterday’s match, Bissouma had made more tackles than any other player in Europe.
He added another four to his tally last night as he attempted to cover every inch of grass on the pitch.