And very often, he cant. And very often it takes him 3 or 4 touches to manage to get the ball under control. If someone says he cannot control the ball, this is what they are talking about - nobody has said he quite literally, exclusively, can never ever control a ball. Whats nonsense is to argue as if thats the case.
Ive seen his first touch be so bad he has had to chase it up the pitch, many times. Criticising his control is completely valid.
The same with his passing. Yes, of course, he is entirely capable of finding a decent pass - and yet - he very often passes like brick. Under hit/over hit/out of play/straight to the opposition...
And I know your first response "Well all players do that... (most likely with examples)" but this misses the point because you are trying to deal in absolutes.
Which is telling, by the way, when an argument has to be resorted to a binary thing - its already been lost.
Yes, all players have a bad touch, miss a pass etc. All players do it every game - Ill even say that before you. NONE, in our squad, have done it with the frequency/regularity of Sissoko though. And this is where we come back to that scale - comparing him to his team mates - he is very poor in these areas.
Hence people say "He cant control the ball", obviously not as an absolute, but as shorthand for "His control is reliably very poor, especially compared to the level of our other players, even if he sometimes has a good touch".
As much as you like to look to Poch consistently picking him, I think its plainly obvious its never by preference. Its always as a "well half my midfield is missing" or "Its only Newport and I want to rest people" option. That in itself speaks volumes.
7/10? No, almost never. Ive seen it in him maybe a few times. He is 5-6/10 for me. Bang average at best, and yet worse quite often as well.
He has improved in his time. He is a more regular 5-6 now, his first season was regularly lower.
7/10 though? Thats a high bar for him. If hes a 7/10 then the rest of the team are 9/10 and 10/10 every game, which Im sure you will agree is rubbish.
Nobody is looking for opportunity to hammer him, thats your weird lens that you read everything through. Ive no doubt if Sissoko played a genuine blinder - by SPURS standards, those "hammering" him would be utterly delighted. Yet Im also sure you have already convinced yourself the opposite is true and are already arguing against the perceived injustice.
Mate, I would just say to you that it still very, very obvious that there is an under current against him. It’s not my weird perception. It’s clear. Maybe people aren’t consciously looking for an opportunity to hammer him, but it happens. It’s just blindingly obvious. If you and I are arguing over whether he’s a 6-7/10 or a 5-6/10 most times, I don’t think that’s a very interesting or worthwhile debate. But he gets hammered. He only has to do one thing that isn’t perfect for a lot of people it’s say he was ‘awful’. Decent people have said he cannot pass and control under pressure and I don’t think it is a stretch to say that if a player who cost less, didn’t have such a poor start and had a better reputation among his old club’s fans, put in the exact same performances, he wouldn’t get as much stick as he does. I think his performances are rated unfairly in relation to every other player, and I think to most people that is pretty clear.
The tide seems to be turning a bit. There seems to be a lot more people now actually watching the games and saying ‘hang on a minute, he wasn’t that bad’ where as before he was treated as a joke across the board. I don’t think he’s ever going to play a blinder by the Spurs standards you are talking about, I’ve always ever argued he’s going to be a 6 or a 7, enabling our other players and spoiling the opposition. He’s never going to take individual plaudits, but it doesn’t mean he isn’t doing a good job for the balance of the team. Dembele is better - more penetrative passes, better ability to dribble past players - but Sissoko is tarred with an unfair brush because he was bought for a role he wasn’t suited for, and I don’t think people readjusted their expectation of him. And answer me this - I think last season I can remember 5 times Dier giving the ball away in our half, resulting in a one on one chance for the opposition. Sissoko has never done that, and Dier has done it repeatedly. What do you think the reaction would be if Sissoko did it? Because you say that other players get more rope because they have shown more, but other players have actually made way more glaring errors than he has too, and on a regular basis. Why is it that Sissoko gets such hate from his own fans given this? I maintain, it’s his fee, it’s his poor start with us, and it’s that a lot of our fans didn’t want him in the first place given his reputation with Saudi Sportswashing Machine. Given that he’s a physical player in the team for balance rather than a technical player in the team for goals and assists, he never stood a chance to turn that around and get a fair shake.
And as always, maybe my argument isn’t with you. We disagree which is fine, but it’s against the general vibe of saying he is awful when he wasn’t, saying he shins the ball out of play constantly when he doesn’t, saying he trips over himself when he doesn’t. This happens every game, regardless of how he actually performed. And whether or not people are joking, Moussa is aware of that vibe, because he was asked questions about the negative fan reaction towards him in pre season. It’s great that he doesn’t care, but I’ll maintain it would be better if he got the level of support from our own fans that he deserves, rather than being treated like a joke, because it is what happens.
I would say though, I feel like you’ve even changed your tune slightly. I could have sworn last season you were insisting he was in go way good enough for the league. Now at least he can do a job for a PL side, although maybe I have this wrong. Not us though, not a top 3 side. Even though he played the majority of games in us finishing top 3 and progressing to CL knockout stages with a near perfect group record.
