• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

Moussa Sissoko

Anyone ever feel like they're wasting their life having these kinds of discussions on a computer with faceless people that they've never met in real life?
 
elltrev said:
Anyone ever feel like they're wasting their life having these kinds of discussions on a computer with faceless people that they've never met in real life?
Click to expand...

I thought it had been established on the AI thread that most of the posters here are bots of one kind or another. A piece of code which uses deep neural network learning to interject meaningful comments, trained and refined by the resulting replies, can hardly be accused of wasting its life. And if in five years time it suddenly says "that Putin, you know, he's not a bad old stick" in a conversation about Sissoko, its entire existence has been justified.
 
Just going to leave a couple of these articles here - pretty much explains why I believe quite strongly that making a joke figure out of a player we are supposed to support as fans is actually just a negative thing to do. This is not to say criticism is wrong, or that players should not be somewhat thick-skinned to deal with it in a public profession, just that when it comes to creating a negative atmosphere around a particular player, it does get back to them, and it can affect them. In Sissoko's case, he seems to not be the slightest bit arsed, but that's probably because he has his confidence back and his team-mates believe in him, but it doesn't alter my belief that it's entirely unhelpful to create joke figures out of our own players, who will quite obviously benefit from confidence and support.

https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ics-twitter-carlos-carvalhal-fa-cup-tottenham

''So I thought to myself that I had to block it out because it was getting to the point where I was losing confidence going into games, thinking I was going to get slated. Now I’ve turned all my Twitter notifications off, so if I have a bad game I don’t see: ‘Clucas was rubbish, get out of my club.’

“Fans are obviously trying to vent their frustration but they don’t realise the knock-on effect it has on the player. And obviously if that player is going to a game not full of confidence, it has a knock-on effect to the team. It’s the most frustrating part of being a footballer because, to be honest, it’s hard to bite your tongue at times. Some of the tweets, I think: ‘I wouldn’t say that to anybody.’ So if you’re going to be on social media, you’ve got to develop a thick skin, because it can be a vicious place.”

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport...-health-stigma-champions-league-a8255231.html

"The Camp Nou is Europe’s ultimate footballing theatre, but it is an unforgiving place to fluff your lines. The crowd’s derision reached tipping point last week in Barcelona’s 2-1 win over Atletico Madrid, when Gomes was sent on to replace the injured Andres Iniesta in the first half. Discontent swelled in the stadium as he came on – little wonder he nervously scuffed his first cross into the goalkeeper’s arms."

"“I don’t feel good on the pitch,” Gomes told Panenka magazine. “I am not enjoying what I am doing. The first six months were pretty good but then things changed. Maybe it’s not the right word to use, but it has turned into a kind of hell, because I have started to feel more pressure... The feeling that I have during games is bad."

Now Gomes is to some extent talking about something more serious, but I think it is a relevant point. There are other articles which talk about the murmuring of the crowd when he is brought on and how Valverde was seen swearing because they weren't backing him.

But my point is this - a negative atmosphere around a player from the fans can only contribute negatively. Sissoko was clearly lacking confidence when he first joined, and put it some terrible displays. No doubting that. Thankfully Sissoko seems to have not let this negative atmosphere around him actually affect his performances this season, which speaks well of him. But making him a joke figure can only be a negative, it cannot be a positive. And if he plays well, it is in spite of the section of his own fans that could help by supporting him, and it doesn't mean that it's fine to make him a joke figure anyway.

There has been something of a tide shift I feel over recent weeks, with Sissoko being out of the team, so this post is not entirely timely. These articles this week I thought were somewhat relevant though. Clucas more lighthearted and Gomes more serious. Sissoko isn't getting people's backs up as much, but my stance on it is always that he deserves our support, to be treated and analysed like any of our other players, and that creating a joke figure just is in no way helpful.
 
He was fine. Did nothing exceptional, did nothing wrong. Just did a job.

He wont have a game as easy as that again in his entire career, mind. Swansea simply didnt try.
 
It was an easy game for him today, but it’s funny that a lot of the criticisms he was getting, like ‘not being able to trap a ball’ and ‘not being able to pass more than 5 yards’ (which were always clearly nonsense) are now being parked for ‘did nothing special today’.

We’re getting somewhere. He’s now at least being viewed as a human being and a footballer.
 
That’s twice now he’s started as the base 2 in midfield that we’ve been awesome as a team in, the other being Burnley away.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back