nayimfromthehalfwayline
Andy Thompson
Unless we have major long term injuries again, I dont see him playing much.
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Moussa Sissoko
- Thread starter Jordinho
- Start date
Unless we have major long term injuries again, I dont see him playing much.
Fair enough, I thought they had a decent level of understanding last season as when Aurier went forward Sissoko would cover etc and they played the ball to each other quite comfortably. But it was quite a small sample size so can’t really conclude too much from that I guess....
Gutter Boy
Tim Sherwood
Counting down the seconds till any of Wanyama, Winks and Onomah are back
Finney Is Back
Luka Modric
What do you mean by ‘trouble’? He played today and, again, we won. He is a reasonable reserve to have.
Bullet
Andy Thompson
No no no, he and Aurier were embarrassingly poor. If you can't see that, I can't take your opinion seriously on any performance. Sissoko playing football is like being stranded on a desert island and trying to hammer in a nail with a wheelbarrow... it can be done but it's just...
You chose to take a nail and a wheelbarrow to a desert island? Damn, I'd of taken Scarlett Johansson and some custard.
Legohamster
Ian Walker
He was poor, I’m not sure how anyone can not see that.
What part of his game stood out today for you?
BrainOfLevy
Michael Carrick
It’s comments like your last one there...and ‘Sunday League Player’ and ‘trips over the ball’ in the previous page. It’s just nonsense. They are the ones that shouldn’t be taken seriously.
BrainOfLevy
Michael Carrick
I was taking with a Chelsea fan the other day, and they made an interesting comment on Willian - I was interested because I thought he was highly rated by their lot but they seemed to have gone off of him.
They said Willian is essentially an average player. He works hard for the team. He runs a fair bit. He only really has one trick and if that doesn’t work he’s screwed. But the interesting thing was they said when the whole team was bad, Willian stood out as a player because his level would never drop. He would he consistently a 6 or a 7, and in a team of 4 and 5s, he looks good. But, when the team is doing well, he’s still a 7 but everyone else is looking like an 8 or a 9.
It’s not a perfect comparison, because they play different roles but I think there’s something in that as it relates to Sissoko. If people want to say most of the team were poor today, and that’s the scale they want to use, fine. No issue there, and Sissoko won’t stand out. But Sissoko also never gets the credit for doing his job when the team is performing well. Again, not saying he is ever great (8+) but he is always consistently a 6 or a 7, and people always talk about him like he’s a 3 or a 4.
He’s never going to be the standout. He’s essentially there to clear up danger before it happens when the team is committed, win his individual battles, and shuffle the ball to more talented players when in possession. But if that role was easy, or anyone could do it, we would have just played Amos or Skipp today. Or signed someone from League 2 to do it. But there is clearly some complexity of which Sissoko is capable.
If he’s ever dog poor, and can’t even make simple passes to team mates (Leceister away last season springs to mind) then yes, have at him. But he cannot win with some people. He’s poor if everyone else is poor, and he’s poor if everyone else is good. The reality is, most of the time, in terms of the role he fills which he does very well, he’s usually always a median performer. Because he’s not asked to be a standout in attack, and he’s not asked to be the last line of defence. He enables others and covers for their mistakes or commitments.
For what it’s worth I can see Amos being a very similar player. And I bet he will put in the exact same performances (just slightly worse at first because of lack of experience, nous and physicality compared to Sissoko) and people will rave about him if he does. Even though the net result is exactly the same or slightly worse. Which would just show people hate on Moussa because of his fee, and because they expected something else, which we can all admit he didn’t live up to. But it is irrelevant when assessing his current value to the squad.
Based on Sissoko's level of performances since he came to Spurs, he was actually ok today. Not at the level which I'd want a CM for Spurs to be, or at the average level for Dembele or Winks, but it wasn't one of his worst performances. The highlight for him was almost scoring in the second half - he made a sweet connection with the cross, but it was straight at the keeper. I dont remember many instances where he put the team in trouble; there were clumsy touches in the middle of the park but, again, relative to his typical performance, wasn't off the charts.
More generally for this season, given our inability to improve the depth of the squad during the window, Sissoko will get a reasonable amount of game time. I'd settle for today's level of performance from Sissoko when he plays given that I think he can often put in far worse performances, and realistically isnt likely to ever be a game changer...so him not screwing up or costing us goals, is ok. Hopefully we'll sign someone better in Jan, but that window is always a lottery.
How many people who didn't want Grealish are now revisiting their views??!?
Legohamster
Ian Walker
Depends on Winks and Dembele's fitness really. I really cant believe we weren't able to upgrade Sissoko, GKN, LLorente or Janssen this summer.
Selling Aurier would have been nice, but we were always going to give him a second season
nayimfromthehalfwayline
Andy Thompson
And you think he did this well?
You have to strip his role back to the very basics of what a midfielder should do just to accomodate what he actually does do - are you going to argue he did this well today?
He's not a good footballer, but he did a job. He fills in, he runs and keeps running. He covers for the never-ending injury issues we are having at centre-midfield, with Winks, Wanyama and Dembele. Hopefully, Winks and Wanyama will come back strong this season, or at least one of them anyway.
BrainOfLevy
Michael Carrick
I think broadly, if a player is out of position (not necessarily their fault, just may have been committed on an attack), it’s always Moussa that smells it. I’ve seen it so many times. We also don’t ever concede because Moussa has made a mistake tracking a runner, or because he’s lost an individual battle. We’re a solid team that rarely gets beaten heavily, we’re physical, we’re disciplined, and we don’t stop running. Those are all qualities he embodies and why he has a role.
I’ll try and watch the game again tonight to pick out some specific examples, but I would just say that for someone that’s supposedly so bad on the ball, playing in an era where the high press is drilled well into a lot of teams, it’s pretty notable how often I’ve seen him lose the ball dangerously in a deep area because of his lack of ability. That is to say it barely ever happens. I’ve seen Dier lose it way more. And I love Dier, I think he’s so important for us. But Moussa has to deal with these standards whereby every game he’s rated as terrible by so many people, regardless of what’s actually happens. And when you look at his performance dispassionately and consider what he is supposed to be bringing to the team, he’s fine. I always feel confident with him starting.
nayimfromthehalfwayline
Andy Thompson
I didnt see much of that today. Saw a couple of times him just walking while a player is running in on goal though.
Ive said before, in an almost exclusive defensive capacity, think Scott Parker before he decided he could dictate games - dont leave our half and just stop anything that comes through - he is pretty good. (that said, this team has evolved beyond such a role now)
I think ask anything more than that and the fact is he simply isnt anywhere near as good as his team mates, at the most fundamental things, let alone the more complex or difficult.
Ive nothing against him personally, its just painfully obvious he isnt good enough every time he plays. I dont hate him or anything like that, I can see he does his best, its just painfully frustrating to watch.
Ive said before, in an almost exclusive defensive capacity, think Scott Parker before he decided he could dictate games - dont leave our half and just stop anything that comes through - he is pretty good. (that said, this team has evolved beyond such a role now)
I think ask anything more than that and the fact is he simply isnt anywhere near as good as his team mates, at the most fundamental things, let alone the more complex or difficult.
Ive nothing against him personally, its just painfully obvious he isnt good enough every time he plays. I dont hate him or anything like that, I can see he does his best, its just painfully frustrating to watch.
NoLimits01
Goran Bunjevcevic
So who was our worst player then, apart from Aurier who was gash
If our team ever has a match when everyone's a 2 then I'm sure we'll be glad of Sissoko's consistent 3s and 4s.