Yves Bissouma has had a watching brief from the substitutes' bench in four of Tottenham's last five games. In the match he played, the Mali international was hooked on 55 minutes during the 4-2 defeat at Wolves.
That has unfortunately been the story of Bissouma's season. He has gone from an undroppable in Ange Postecoglou's team to a bit-part role.
That may well result in an exit from north London as this summer will see him enter the final year of his contract. Apart from the first few months of Postecoglou's Tottenham tenure, Spurs have never seen the very best of the player who wowed at the heart of Brighton & Hove Albion's midfield.
It is a move that just hasn't work out and it will likely take a transfer away to get back to his previous levels. The head coach's team selection in Tottenham's past two Premier League outings has said an awful lot about the 28-year-old's current status in north London.
Heavily rotating his team with Thursday's Europa League semi-final against Bodo/Glimt in mind, Bissouma was the only outfield player involved in the past two matchday squads not to get a single minute of action to his name against either Nottingham Forest or Liverpool. Antonin Kinsky was the other player not to feature as a result of Postecoglou sticking with Guglielmo Vicario between the sticks.
It paints a very bleak picture for Bissouma at Tottenham currently. After missing out on minutes against Forest, Bissouma was again named on the bench at Liverpool as Archie Gray started in the holding role.
It was only Gray's second Premier League start in midfield for Spurs and it proved to be a torrid afternoon for him as he really struggled coming up against arguably the league's best midfield trio. The 19-year-old was replaced at the break as Pape Matar Sarr entered the fray and Dejan Kulusevski replaced James Maddison.
Despite Liverpool's superiority in the game and their ability to create chances at will as they looked to add to the three goals they had already scored, Postecoglou had the option of bringing Bissouma on to shore things up but he elected against that change. It has been some fall for Bissouma during the Australian's Tottenham reign as he has gone from playing near enough 90 minutes week in, week out to a severely restricted role.
In the 2023/24 campaign, the former Lille ace started 26 of his 28 appearances for Tottenham. It is a different story altogether this season as he has started 23 times from 37 games. What is even more damning is that he has only completed the full 90 minutes in three of his 24 Premier League outings.
There have been a handful of occasions where he has started and duly made way at the break having not done enough in his game time. A lack of match sharpness and poor form may have contributed to that scenario constantly playing out but he is simply not performing in his minutes to remedy the situation and put an end to it for good.
Tottenham have six games remaining in the 2024/25 campaign as things stand at present, with an extra game set to be added to the calendar providing they beat Bodo/Glimt to reach the Europa League final. Quite how much football Bissouma plays in that time remains to be seen.
Sunday's game at West Ham will present Postecoglou with the opportunity to rotate his team after the Bodo/Glimt first leg fixture and the same goes for the following weekend when they host Crystal Palace in N17. Going on his past two team selections, there is certainly no guarantee that Bissouma is handed any minutes if the Forest and Liverpool picks are anything to go by.
As has been the case over the past month, the midfielder may have to contend with a watching brief from the bench once again.