Saturday's win over Southampton restored order at Tottenham but their attempts to replace right-back Kieran Trippier remain chaotic.

Spurs decided against signing a replacement for Trippier after considering Napoli's Elseid Hysaj but, in the first nine matches of the season, Mauricio Pochettino has already used four different right-backs.

Juan Foyth, who was earmarked for the role late last season, suffered an ankle injury in pre-season against Tuesday's opponents Bayern Munich and is yet to return to action. Kyle Walker-Peters started the first three matches of the campaign before an ill-timed hamstring injury against Newcastle and has not been in a Premier League squad since. Davinson Sanchez has had two surprising outings at right-back at Arsenal and Olympiakos, while Serge Aurier looked to be turning a corner before being carelessly sent off after 31 minutes on Saturday, ruling him out of next weekend's trip to Brighton.

None of Pochettino's post-Trippier options are perfect: Foyth is an unknown quantity at full-back and, besides, the young Argentine has all the ingredients to be a top centre-half. After three seasons training with the first team, Walker-Peters, 22, has still not earned Pochettino's trust and Aurier is a liability, always capable of the kind of recklessness he displayed on Saturday. Sanchez is clearly a centre-half.

Pochettino enjoys a left-field solution to a problem and, in the circumstances, it is tempting to wonder if Moussa Sissoko is the manager's best option at right-back. The Frenchman, who signed a new contract until 2023 last week, deputised for the final half-hour at Newcastle and an hour on Saturday, and on neither occasion looked out of place.

"He was wonderful, he knows what to do," Toby Alderweirled said of Sissoko's display against Saints. "That's quality, to play in a position that maybe he never played in before and then put in a performance like that. Of course, it helps as a team that everyone was coaching and helping and communicating, so that was important, but massive credit to him."

Sissoko has earned the trust of his team-mates after a remarkable turnaround in the past 18 months and, on paper at least, he ticks most of the boxes for the archetypal Pochettino full-back. He's fast, physical, aggressive and tireless – see Kyle Waker and peak Danny Rose – allowing him to cover the whole flank and use his pace and stamina to recover during opposition counter-attacks.

His technique is unconventional but Sissoko is certainly a better crosser than he is finisher, and he spent most of last season babysitting a half-fit Trippier anyway.

Using Sissoko at right-back could potentially kill two birds with one stone, allowing Pochettino to fill a problem position and switch back to 4-2-3-1, with Harry Winks and Tanguy Ndombele as the midfield pivots. The Argentine has been reluctant to drop one of the three, starting Sissoko, Winks and Ndombele against Leicester and Saints, but Spurs' best performance of the season, the win over Crystal Palace, came with a two-man midfield.

On the flip side, Sissoko's energy and tenacity would be missed in the middle, particularly while Ndombele continues to adjust, and Spurs' struggle to keep clean sheets this season hardly suggests less midfield protection is a sensible way forward. Moving him out of a position where he has looked so comfortable threatens to disrupt his progress and regress him to the point where he looks an accident waiting to happen, as in his first two seasons at Spurs.

For his part, 30-year-old has previously said he wants to play centrally and he did not sound enthusiastic when asked about filling-in at right-back on Saturday.

"Everyone knows it is not my position, but I need to fight for the team and I had to play in that position," he told football.london. "I am happy with my performance, even if it wasn’t my position, but I had to do it for the team and I am happy with that."

Pochettino has been reluctant to start Sissoko at right-back, even if he clearly considers him a viable in-game solution, and his picks in this week's matches against Bayern and Brighton will be illuminating.

He described Aurier's dismissal against Saints as harsh but there is every chance the 27-year-old could be dropped against the Bundesliga leaders, even if he remains the closest – in terms of experience and attributes – to what Pochettino wants from his full-backs.

Tottenham 2-1 Southampton | Premier League Highlights | 28/09/2019

When asked on Monday about Sissoko's suitability for the position, Pochettino said: "He is one of the possibilities. He played there in the last 15 minutes against Barcelona last season. It's not new.

"If you go back to my first season, you know who was my first right-back? That season Naughton, [Eric] Dier, [Vlad] Chiriches and in the end Kyle Walker, who was injured. If you analyse all my seasons, they were similar. Now Kyle Walker-Peters, Serge Aurier, Davinson and Saturday was Moussa for the last hour. But we are always working in similar circumstances and it's not going to change this season. It's not new for us."

One of Foyth and Walker-Peters should be given the chance to stake a claim at Brighton but Spurs would benefit from an end to the chopping and changing, even if Pochettino will always rotate his full-backs. At the moment Sissoko is potentially the safest bet to provide that long-term stability.