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Moussa Sissoko

braineclipse said:
Worked a treat against Leicester. So many quality passes to our creative players in dangerous positions I lost count.

Remember when he played that perfectly weighed, perfectly aimed pass for Aurier to cross to Llorente? No, right, that was Lamela.

I think Pochettino is mainly putting Sissoko in the team because others have been injured. I'm guessing Lamela will join the list of players that, returning from injury, rather quickly replace Sissoko in our line ups.
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What are you talking about - for starters everyone was rubbish vs Leicester so pointless using that as an example. As for ‘quality passes’ that is what the creative players are there for. He’s there to get about the pitch and give it simple to those who can create in right areas, he doesn’t need to make amazing passes - if you can’t comprehend that I can’t help you.

Sissoko will be playing plenty more games between now and the end of the season, and I look forward to reading plenty more of your pointless whinging about him...
 
harr1984 said:
What are you talking about - for starters everyone was rubbish vs Leicester so pointless using that as an example. As for ‘quality passes’ that is what the creative players are there for. He’s there to get about the pitch and give it simple to those who can create in right areas, he doesn’t need to make amazing passes - if you can’t comprehend that I can’t help you.

Sissoko will be playing plenty more games between now and the end of the season, and I look forward to reading plenty more of your pointless whinging about him...
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What I'm talking about...

We've seen some good games with Winks anchoring our midfield, a player that's good defensively, but has his strengths on the ball. For years we've seen the clear as day evidence of propper ball playing centre backs. The once upon a time discussion on ball playing centre backs has gone extinct.

Every week the crossing and ability on the ball of our wing backs is discussed. We obviously want them to contribute going forward. The old "full backs are there to defend" argument has gone the way of the "centre backs don't need to be good on the ball argument. Even our goalkeeper, repeatedly his distribution is being discussed. Because obviously that matters.

But somehow Sissoko... He's not there to be creative. He's not there to assist or score goals. He's not there to make quick accurate passes. Just run around, be quick and strong. We don't need amazing passes from our box to box midfielders, just leave that to Eriksen and Alli - surely they'll be in form all season.

Somehow our issues this season are entirely unconnected to the fact that one of our box to box midfielders is someone one shouldn't criticise for not being able to pass, shoot, cross or control the ball particular well. Someone whose bar is set to high by saying that he's not delivering creative passes.

I can comprehend that some people think that having players in our team in attacking positions that are mediocre at the very best when it comes to the foot and ball part of football is a good idea. The evidence is too obvious to ignore. But I cannot agree.
 
braineclipse said:
What I'm talking about...

We've seen some good games with Winks anchoring our midfield, a player that's good defensively, but has his strengths on the ball. For years we've seen the clear as day evidence of propper ball playing centre backs. The once upon a time discussion on ball playing centre backs has gone extinct.

Every week the crossing and ability on the ball of our wing backs is discussed. We obviously want them to contribute going forward. The old "full backs are there to defend" argument has gone the way of the "centre backs don't need to be good on the ball argument. Even our goalkeeper, repeatedly his distribution is being discussed. Because obviously that matters.

But somehow Sissoko... He's not there to be creative. He's not there to assist or score goals. He's not there to make quick accurate passes. Just run around, be quick and strong. We don't need amazing passes from our box to box midfielders, just leave that to Eriksen and Alli - surely they'll be in form all season.

Somehow our issues this season are entirely unconnected to the fact that one of our box to box midfielders is someone one shouldn't criticise for not being able to pass, shoot, cross or control the ball particular well. Someone whose bar is set to high by saying that he's not delivering creative passes.

I can comprehend that some people think that having players in our team in attacking positions that are mediocre at the very best when it comes to the foot and ball part of football is a good idea. The evidence is too obvious to ignore. But I cannot agree.
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You need some physicality in our midfield. Dembele cant be relied upon, Wanyama has been out for a long time and Dier is more of a CB these days which is why Sissoko is an ever present. Until the mentioned are playing consistently Sissoko will always be involved. Winks anchoring the midfield is irrelevant, Sissoko has still been playing when he's been there because you need that presence around the midfield area. Every top team has some physicality in their team and like it or not he's going to be there until others are back. If he wasnt doing the job Poch has been asking him then he wouldnt of been included in practically every game to date this season, he just wouldnt - no matter how stretched personel wise we are....
 
As a box to box midfielder he is not what we need because he doesn't offer anything worthwhile when he does arrive in forward positions

My question is can he play a simple defensive destroyer role, like Wanyama. Basically sit in front of the back four, break up attacks and play simple passes to those who have more creativity. That is what we need right now if Dier is to play in defence and Wanyama continues to be out. Other than this he is simply of no use to us. Not his fault but it is what it is.
 
harr1984 said:
You need some physicality in our midfield. Dembele cant be relied upon, Wanyama has been out for a long time and Dier is more of a CB these days which is why Sissoko is an ever present. Until the mentioned are playing consistently Sissoko will always be involved. Winks anchoring the midfield is irrelevant, Sissoko has still been playing when he's been there because you need that presence around the midfield area. Every top team has some physicality in their team and like it or not he's going to be there until others are back. If he wasnt doing the job Poch has been asking him then he wouldnt of been included in practically every game to date this season, he just wouldnt - no matter how stretched personel wise we are....
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He has around half the PL minutes Eriksen and Vertonghen have. They have been virtually ever present.

Sissoko has 18 minutes more than Son in the PL. Would you classify anyone with more minutes than them as ever present too?

We haven't played with Winks anchoring the midfield without Sissoko? News to me. My contention is that if Winks hadn't had his injury problems this season he would have played more and Sissoko less. Same is true for Dembele and Wanyama.
 
braineclipse said:
He has around half the PL minutes Eriksen and Vertonghen have. They have been virtually ever present.

Sissoko has 18 minutes more than Son in the PL. Would you classify anyone with more minutes than them as ever present too?

We haven't played with Winks anchoring the midfield without Sissoko? News to me. My contention is that if Winks hadn't had his injury problems this season he would have played more and Sissoko less. Same is true for Dembele and Wanyama.
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He's made appearances in practically every league, cup and CL game whether off the bench or starting - that makes him an ever present yes. You can name as many players with more minutes as you want, you are allowed to have more than one player who always plays funnily enough.

I just mentioned Wanyama's injury and Dembeles fitness as reasons why Sissoko is always picked - Winks is irrelative as he compliments a Sissoko style player. Dembele/Sissoko, Wanyama/Sissoko doesnt go, Winks/Sissoko does.....
 
He's playing because he works hard and we're short on numbers in the middle of the pitch - he hasn't been playing well though, had a brief run of games where he looked like he might have turned a corner but ultimately he has been poor.
 
billyiddo said:
He's playing because he works hard and we're short on numbers in the middle of the pitch - he hasn't been playing well though, had a brief run of games where he looked like he might have turned a corner but ultimately he has been poor.
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I don’t think it’s fair to characterise his entire first team run this season as poor just because his worst run has come when the entire team has also been poor. Was he bad at Leceister? Absolutely. Does his inability to dominate a game and drag the rest of the team with him when everyone else around him is poor preclude him from ever really being more than a 7/10 player? Again, absolutely.

But he’s been a good contributor to our team this season. He will still have bad games, but that doesn’t mean his critics get to use them as proof that they were right all along. He is a solid hand and provides physicality and energy in a team that is expected to do a lot of running. In possession he is clearly tasked with giving it simply to more creative players. His touch and passing is nowhere near as bad as some make out, and if we all just accept him for what he is everyone will be a lot more aligned.
 
BrainOfLevy said:
I don’t think it’s fair to characterise his entire first team run this season as poor just because his worst run has come when the entire team has also been poor. Was he bad at Leceister? Absolutely. Does his inability to dominate a game and drag the rest of the team with him when everyone else around him is poor preclude him from ever really being more than a 7/10 player? Again, absolutely.

But he’s been a good contributor to our team this season. He will still have bad games, but that doesn’t mean his critics get to use them as proof that they were right all along. He is a solid hand and provides physicality and energy in a team that is expected to do a lot of running. In possession he is clearly tasked with giving it simply to more creative players. His touch and passing is nowhere near as bad as some make out, and if we all just accept him for what he is everyone will be a lot more aligned.
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I didnt say he had been poor all season i said asides from a brief run of games he has been poor...and i stand by that
 
BrainOfLevy said:
I don’t think it’s fair to characterise his entire first team run this season as poor just because his worst run has come when the entire team has also been poor. Was he bad at Leceister? Absolutely. Does his inability to dominate a game and drag the rest of the team with him when everyone else around him is poor preclude him from ever really being more than a 7/10 player? Again, absolutely.

But he’s been a good contributor to our team this season. He will still have bad games, but that doesn’t mean his critics get to use them as proof that they were right all along. He is a solid hand and provides physicality and energy in a team that is expected to do a lot of running. In possession he is clearly tasked with giving it simply to more creative players. His touch and passing is nowhere near as bad as some make out, and if we all just accept him for what he is everyone will be a lot more aligned.
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You will never get people to align.

As if how you describe him is true (which it probably is), it's how each of us view that in the grander scheme of things. Many will not see that as not good enough regardless of individual games.

We are meant to be title challengers. Sissoko doesn't fit that remit. On balance it will hinder us more than help us with Sissoko as one of the eleven on the pitch.
 
It's just that Sissoko seems to have his own standards of poor. Lots of our players were poor against Leicester, but Sissoko couldn't place a 2 yard pass right, he kept overhitting the passes time and again, and his ball technique is just ... he doesn't look Premier League quality, at all - at first I thought it was him being nervous, but he's constantly edgy when on the ball, almost shaking, and it's like the ball is trying to stay away from him, you just can't rely on passing to him, as he'll likely fudge it up, which is why it seems a lot of players in our team try to either pass around him or avoid him completely when we play in certain situations. Put a bit of pressure on him, and he'll crumble. He's got his surging runs, where he somehow manages to dink the ball past a few opponents and get going, usually if we get the chance to counter-attack, but that's about what I've seen from him playing for us. That's what he has to offer. And he does not offer it a lot. It might be that his confidence is shot, but he's been with us for a year and a half now, had some OK performances this fall, but there's just not enough there to warrant us keeping him or trying to fit him into the team, in my opinion. A backup at best. I'm just having a hard time trying to figure out what kind of games he'd be good in for us - I can't think of many.

I'd rather we start pretty much everyone in the squad over Sissoko, give the young 'uns a try, I'm sure they can't do much worse than Siss. He just offers us way too little. The least skilled player we've had in our squad for a very long time, in my opinion. I can't think of a worse footballer we've had on our books for quite a while, to be fair.

Yeah, yeah, I'm negative and all that, but just to re-iterate it - I'd never boo him or sing anything bad to him while at a match.
 
Daisuk said:
It's just that Sissoko seems to have his own standards of poor. Lots of our players were poor against Leicester, but Sissoko couldn't place a 2 yard pass right, he kept overhitting the passes time and again, and his ball technique is just ... he doesn't look Premier League quality, at all - at first I thought it was him being nervous, but he's constantly edgy when on the ball, almost shaking, and it's like the ball is trying to stay away from him, you just can't rely on passing to him, as he'll likely fudge it up, which is why it seems a lot of players in our team try to either pass around him or avoid him completely when we play in certain situations. Put a bit of pressure on him, and he'll crumble. He's got his surging runs, where he somehow manages to dink the ball past a few opponents and get going, usually if we get the chance to counter-attack, but that's about what I've seen from him playing for us. That's what he has to offer. And he does not offer it a lot. It might be that his confidence is shot, but he's been with us for a year and a half now, had some OK performances this fall, but there's just not enough there to warrant us keeping him or trying to fit him into the team, in my opinion. A backup at best. I'm just having a hard time trying to figure out what kind of games he'd be good in for us - I can't think of many.

I'd rather we start pretty much everyone in the squad over Sissoko, give the young 'uns a try, I'm sure they can't do much worse than Siss. He just offers us way too little. The least skilled player we've had in our squad for a very long time, in my opinion. I can't think of a worse footballer we've had on our books for quite a while, to be fair.

Yeah, yeah, I'm negative and all that, but just to re-iterate it - I'd never boo him or sing anything bad to him while at a match.
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He'd have fit well in our team during the Graham era and the short while after that.

We'd have been pleased to have him as a slight upgrade on Zokora and/or Toda.
 
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