Moussa Sissoko

[scaramanga]

We weren't always a good counter-attacking unit under Poch. In fact, in the classical sense of the term, where counter-attacking involves ceding possession to your opponent but hitting them on the break, I'd suggest that we've really only come into our own as a counter-attacking unit *this season*.

14/15 - we were a mish-mash of approaches, only unified by fierce desire and a determination to compete (as evidenced by the number of late wins and draws we salvaged). Otherwise, we were very much a work in progress.

15/16 - we had basically one way of playing that season, which was aggressive passing in forward areas twinned with a relentless hunger to win the ball back when we lost it. We were nearly always the team with more possession - but when Plan A failed, we were pretty toothless.

16/17 - we merged the 15/16 style of play with a bit more ruthlessness and more street smarts - and although we made our first attempts at being a pure counter-attacking unit that season (switching to 3-at-the-back against Arsenal at the Emirates and looking to hit them on the break, as one example), we were still more comfortable with dominating (or at least shading) possession than we were with ceding it. And we still stuck to our ideological guns a bit - remember, Poch played Klopp's Liverpool twice and set us out to be the superior side in possession, but we were outplayed both times (and lost once, at Anfield).

17/18 - this is the first season where we look more comfortable out of possession than we do *in* possession - against Dortmund, against Liverpool and against Madrid (twice), we have ceded control and possession in exchange for sheer ruthlessness and speed on the break. This is encapsulated by the difference between Liverpool coming to WHL last season and them coming to Wembley this - last season, we were dominated in the first half, and then endured a pretty turgid second half only livened up by Rose thumping in a rare chance for the equalizer. This season, we played Liverpool like a smaller side would, and utterly obliterated them.

So, overall, I'd say we weren't a counter-attacking side under Poch until very, very recently. And Sissoko does help with that. One of the first things that comes to mind when I think of his performances this season is the speed with which he breaks when we're in possession (or he's on the ball) - visceral speed allied with pace. Even last season, we had basically three players that could do that - Son, Walker and Rose. This season, Walker's gone, Son hasn't played much and Rose has been out injured for most of it. Thus, Sissoko has at times been our only really pacy option - which is pretty damned central to a counter-attacking side, wouldn't you say?

He certainly helps with the ceding possession bit.

 

[nayimfromthehalfwayline]

We weren't always a good counter-attacking unit under Poch. In fact, in the classical sense of the term, where counter-attacking involves ceding possession to your opponent but hitting them on the break, I'd suggest that we've really only come into our own as a counter-attacking unit *this season*.

14/15 - we were a mish-mash of approaches, only unified by fierce desire and a determination to compete (as evidenced by the number of late wins and draws we salvaged). Otherwise, we were very much a work in progress.

15/16 - we had basically one way of playing that season, which was aggressive passing in forward areas twinned with a relentless hunger to win the ball back when we lost it. We were nearly always the team with more possession - but when Plan A failed, we were pretty toothless.

16/17 - we merged the 15/16 style of play with a bit more ruthlessness and more street smarts - and although we made our first attempts at being a pure counter-attacking unit that season (switching to 3-at-the-back against Arsenal at the Emirates and looking to hit them on the break, as one example), we were still more comfortable with dominating (or at least shading) possession than we were with ceding it. And we still stuck to our ideological guns a bit - remember, Poch played Klopp's Liverpool twice and set us out to be the superior side in possession, but we were outplayed both times (and lost once, at Anfield).

17/18 - this is the first season where we look more comfortable out of possession than we do *in* possession - against Dortmund, against Liverpool and against Madrid (twice), we have ceded control and possession in exchange for sheer ruthlessness and speed on the break. This is encapsulated by the difference between Liverpool coming to WHL last season and them coming to Wembley this - last season, we were dominated in the first half, and then endured a pretty turgid second half only livened up by Rose thumping in a rare chance for the equalizer. This season, we played Liverpool like a smaller side would, and utterly obliterated them.

So, overall, I'd say we weren't a counter-attacking side under Poch until very, very recently. And Sissoko does help with that. One of the first things that comes to mind when I think of his performances this season is the speed with which he breaks when we're in possession (or he's on the ball) - visceral speed allied with pace. Even last season, we had basically three players that could do that - Son, Walker and Rose. This season, Walker's gone, Son hasn't played much and Rose has been out injured for most of it. Thus, Sissoko has at times been our only really pacy option - which is pretty damned central to a counter-attacking side, wouldn't you say?

I would say youve taken it in a way not intended.

I wasnt talking about being a counter attacking team, sitting back, soaking up pressure.....

I was talking about, you know, counter attacking. That point in the game where you break against a team that is getting on top of you. Something we have done very well since Poch came in, catching a team in that attacking/defending transition.

Sissokos speed is not something Id describe as "visceral". And while I agree he is quick and does break quickly, things often break down with him on the ball just as quickly, so I question its true worth.

People keep gonig on about his speed, and I do think he is fast - but I maintain its no big deal. He isnt abnormally faster than people in our squad such that it stands out as a new asset in the team. So I had a little look and found this:

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/spor...s/moussa-sissoko-tops-premier-leagues-8407294

As at Jan 2015 he was the fastest recorded player in the league at 21.93mph. I was surprised, maybe I need to re think this, then I saw that Eric Dier was in the list as well - 21.75mph. Which swung straight back around to my original point.

That was at Saudi Sportswashing Machine two years ago. At Spurs now I really dont see his "speed" as, frankly, notable.

And yes, I do maintain we have always been good on the counter attack under Poch. I do think passing and movement is more important than raw pace. And I do think Sissoko has been, at best, average this season.

Compared to last season, amazing. Compared to his peers? Meh.

 

[harr1984]

Had the pleasure of watching the CL game against Real Madrid again today. Wanted to look for some details not consciously observed in earlier viewings. Was interested in stuff like Winks' midfield play and ball distribution, how Eriksen began to get to grips with Modric, who I thought outplayed him in the first half.

And our man Sissoko. I like how he and Trippier are well connected on the right side, how smoothly Sissoko slides in to cover when Trippier goes forward. He showed great awareness of positioning and defensive shape moving back into our zone and picked good moments to exchange spots with Trippier. This is shaping up to be a better combo than most of what we've seen between Walker and Lamela or Lennon.

He also showed good off-the-ball movement, taking up good positions to receive a pass or block lanes defensively. And one on one, he's no George Best going forward, but when he goes shoulder-to-shoulder, he's a handful and very wearing on his opponent. That adds up over the course of a game. Yes, far from perfect, but he does a lot of useful little things that add up.

I'm hard pressed to find much fault at his play in our greatest CL win. Maybe it takes a truly big game to bring out the best in him.

Shhh this type of analysis isnt welcome here. He can't be doing the above, Poch has played him in EVERY game this season because he just miscontrols the ball and adds nothing like a select few like to suggest.....

 

[braineclipse]

Shhh this type of analysis isnt welcome here. He can't be doing the above, Poch has played him in EVERY game this season because he just miscontrols the ball and adds nothing like a select few like to suggest.....

Pochettino obviously sees him as a valuable part of our squad.

The reason he has played as much as he has is quite clearly injuries though.

Fair play he's done alright from a difficult starting point this summer. He's still one of the players I think we could most easily upgrade on in our squad.

 

[harr1984]

Pochettino obviously sees him as a valuable part of our squad.

The reason he has played as much as he has is quite clearly injuries though.

Fair play he's done alright from a difficult starting point this summer. He's still one of the players I think we could most easily upgrade on in our squad.

Yes injuries have meant hes had to play every game. But if he was anywhere near as bad as some make out, he would only of made a handful of appearances this season when we were really struggling with injuries.

The bolded bit I agree with, all Ive ever said is that he's been a decent player for us this season and is a good squad option - he is more than useful in a lot of games. Im sure there's better options out there, but he's at least proved his worth to the team, which is good enough for a 'squad player' who has ensured with the number of important midfielders we've had missing so far, hasn't left a real weakness in that area despite what some allude to....

 

[braineclipse]

Yes injuries have meant hes had to play every game. But if he was anywhere near as bad as some make out, he would only of made a handful of appearances this season when we were really struggling with injuries.

The bolded bit I agree with, all Ive ever said is that he's been a decent player for us this season and is a good squad option - he is more than useful in a lot of games. Im sure there's better options out there, but he's at least proved his worth to the team, which is good enough for a 'squad player' who has ensured with the number of important midfielders we've had missing so far, hasn't left a real weakness in that area despite what some allude to....

You say he would only get a handful of games when we really struggled with injuries if he was as bad as some were saying. At the same time you say that we've had a number of important midfielders missing.

We've been without Lamela and Wanyama essentially all season. Winks started the season injured and took time getting fit. Alli was suspended in the CL and now injured. Dembele has seemingly had issues all season so far.

He started in disappointing games against Swansea, West Ham and Manchester United. I think he may have been a weakness in those games. I think that may have contributed to those results.

 

[harr1984]

You say he would only get a handful of games when we really struggled with injuries if he was as bad as some were saying. At the same time you say that we've had a number of important midfielders missing.

We've been without Lamela and Wanyama essentially all season. Winks started the season injured and took time getting fit. Alli was suspended in the CL and now injured. Dembele has seemingly had issues all season so far.

He started in disappointing games against Swansea, West Ham and Manchester United. I think he may have been a weakness in those games. I think that may have contributed to those results.

Throughout the season yes,thankfully theyve not all been at the same time. Wanyama was there at the start of the season and Sissoko was still playing. Im not going to drill down into any greater detail, there is no way in hell he would play in every game if Poch didnt feel he was delivering on the pitch - he would rather give game time to a youngster.

Again, Sissoko has played in EVERY game so is a very easy target to suggest any dissapointing performance/result is because of him....

 

[braineclipse]

Throughout the season yes,thankfully theyve not all been at the same time. Wanyama was there at the start of the season and Sissoko was still playing. Im not going to drill down into any greater detail, there is no way in hell he would play in every game if Poch didnt feel he was delivering on the pitch - he would rather give game time to a youngster.

Again, Sissoko has played in EVERY game so is a very easy target to suggest any dissapointing performance/result is because of him....

And again I agree that he has delivered to a reasonable level. I'm not suggesting that any disappointing performance or result is down to him. Rather that I think there's room for improvement if we want to upgrade either in the market or by promoting a youngster.

Pochettino seems very well considered in his use if youngsters. They're not simply 3rd or 4th choice players to be thrown in when needed. When youngsters get (serious) game time it seems to be when they're ready and quite likely to succeed. And when they've earned it though training and youth performances. He's not one to give a youngster a chance primarily because there's a short term hole to fill in the team.

 

[scaramanga]

Throughout the season yes,thankfully theyve not all been at the same time. Wanyama was there at the start of the season and Sissoko was still playing. Im not going to drill down into any greater detail, there is no way in hell he would play in every game if Poch didnt feel he was delivering on the pitch - he would rather give game time to a youngster.

Again, Sissoko has played in EVERY game so is a very easy target to suggest any dissapointing performance/result is because of him....

He's played in every game because he's (currently) better than Nkoudou (our only other midfield option).

If Wanyama, Winks, Lamela and Dembele had been fit this season, he wouldn't have even made the bench.

 

[BrainOfLevy]

Had the pleasure of watching the CL game against Real Madrid again today. Wanted to look for some details not consciously observed in earlier viewings. Was interested in stuff like Winks' midfield play and ball distribution, how Eriksen began to get to grips with Modric, who I thought outplayed him in the first half.

And our man Sissoko. I like how he and Trippier are well connected on the right side, how smoothly Sissoko slides in to cover when Trippier goes forward. He showed great awareness of positioning and defensive shape moving back into our zone and picked good moments to exchange spots with Trippier. This is shaping up to be a better combo than most of what we've seen between Walker and Lamela or Lennon.

He also showed good off-the-ball movement, taking up good positions to receive a pass or block lanes defensively. And one on one, he's no George Best going forward, but when he goes shoulder-to-shoulder, he's a handful and very wearing on his opponent. That adds up over the course of a game. Yes, far from perfect, but he does a lot of useful little things that add up.

I'm hard pressed to find much fault at his play in our greatest CL win. Maybe it takes a truly big game to bring out the best in him.

Love this post, and it's something I've been trying to get at. I think he is excellent defensively. And that's one of the reasons he is in the team and getting a heck of a lot of minutes. He doesn't get beaten one-on-one, and his adherence to the plan, his keeping of shape, his covering, his sniffing out of danger, is actually top class. When Zaha was through on goal for his open goal this weekend, who was one of our players that was busting a gut closest to him? Sissoko.

He's top class defensively, and for anyone to argue against that they need to point to chances conceded where Sissoko has been out of position and let it happen. This is why he is in the team. I maintain, we paid too much for a player to do what he is now doing, and it certainly wasn't the initial plan, but that is much the club's fault as it is Sissoko's. He's not an Aaron Lennon. He's not a Sadio Mane. But we played him like one and it didn't work. This season, with him playing more centrally and more easily focusing on his strengths, he's been a big contributor to why we are winning.

 

[StephenH]

Didier Deschamps the french national managers calls Sissoko "his swiss army knife".
He can come in very useful and do various jobs?

Que smartass retort from @scaramanga .................................

I think 'blue tac' is great when it come to versatility.

 

[Lemonade Money]

I think he needs his eyes testing. I'm serious, too many air shots.

 

[greatwhitenorf]

It's interesting to consider that when we initially paid 30 mil for him, it looked like a really bad buy.

Now, with his improved play and the rampant inflation in player valuations, it's beginning - and I stress beginning - to look reasonable. Best of all, it's hard to imagine a player who shows steady development and improvement under Pochettino suddenly falling off in the calibre of their play.

Yes, injuries have created opportunities. But they've been acted upon. Under this manager, for Sissoko - or Winks, or Davies - to get to the level of first 11 and now offer him strong options for the initial starters, it means buying completely into a system of thinking, training, lifestyle. I'm optimistic we'll see Sissoko maintain this very acceptable level of play and leave Pochettino more freedom to focus on potential issues with the likes of Serge Aurier.

 

[thfcsteff]

You say he would only get a handful of games when we really struggled with injuries if he was as bad as some were saying. At the same time you say that we've had a number of important midfielders missing.

We've been without Lamela and Wanyama essentially all season. Winks started the season injured and took time getting fit. Alli was suspended in the CL and now injured. Dembele has seemingly had issues all season so far.

He started in disappointing games against Swansea, West Ham and Manchester United. I think he may have been a weakness in those games. I think that may have contributed to those results.

He did not solely contribute to defeats at Man U or against West Ham! Sorry, you’d be far better off blaming the lack of players like Kane and Sanchez. Against West Ham, a Vertonghen to gonad* some sense back into them would’ve helped. That first 45 minutes was embarrassingly easy, even I relaxed! One player did not contribute, they all did. By that metric, let’s agree that he contributed to winning and drawing against the European champions!

I just wish people would stop judging him by last season.


Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app

 

[tynesidespur]

Love this post, and it's something I've been trying to get at. I think he is excellent defensively. And that's one of the reasons he is in the team and getting a heck of a lot of minutes. He doesn't get beaten one-on-one, and his adherence to the plan, his keeping of shape, his covering, his sniffing out of danger, is actually top class. When Zaha was through on goal for his open goal this weekend, who was one of our players that was busting a gut closest to him? Sissoko.

Similar thing happened in injury time. Zaha had the ball and was twisting and turning Aurier and looking to work inside to get a shot away from the edge of the box. He had tricked his way past Aurier but Sissoko had dropped in, shouldered him off the ball and ran off at speed before drawing a foul from Zaha, thus winning us the 3 points. A small detail but most welcome when we were running a little on empty in the last 10 mins.

 

[nayimfromthehalfwayline]

I just wish people would stop judging him by last season.

So do I. Some people see the improvement in him since last season and praise his form disproportionately.

Judging him by his team mates he has been adequate. Thats it. Hardly worth all the fuss here to be honest.

 

[the dza]

So do I. Some people see the improvement in him since last season and praise his form disproportionately.

Judging him by his team mates he has been adequate. Thats it. Hardly worth all the fuss here to be honest.

I would agree, he's done a decent job. He's filled in and given us a bit of athleticism in the absence of Dembele and Wanyama. Not much more than that, but it's been a welcome contribution regardless.

 

[BrainOfLevy]

So do I. Some people see the improvement in him since last season and praise his form disproportionately.

Judging him by his team mates he has been adequate. Thats it. Hardly worth all the fuss here to be honest.

Who has done this?

 

[Robspur12]

Pochettino obviously sees him as a valuable part of our squad.

The reason he has played as much as he has is quite clearly injuries though.

Fair play he's done alright from a difficult starting point this summer. He's still one of the players I think we could most easily upgrade on in our squad.

Why would we bother? He is a squad player who offers something we need in certain games. He doesn't often start or see out a full 90 minutes, yet doesn't complain. We have other midfield players offering different things to him who can play if Poch deems it appropriate. Upgrading him might give us a better player but could also give us a player who is not happy to be part of the squad system.

 

[Mikey10]

If memory serves, he’s started a lot this season.