Moussa Sissoko

[SteveAWOL]

@Squawka

Moussa Sissoko's game by numbers vs. Chelsea:

100% tackles made (4)
100% aerial duels won (2)
100% take-ons completed (1)
10 recoveries

 

[Robspur12]

I wouldnt go that far, but he did play well. Problem with him in CM though is that you need a proper DM like Dier alongside him, but that leaves you with a CM pairing with no real creativity.

I still dont see a future for him at Spurs, and would sell him in Jan or the summer, but its good that he's adding a lot more than before. Perfectly feasible though that he's at Spurs next year ggiven that Dembele and Wanyama's injuries might mean that they need replacing more urgently

Absolutely not the case. It actually gives a very solid platform from which our creative players work. We created lots of chances yesterday and against a palace team who tend to play very defensively. Dier is creative while Sissoko can play the Dembele role. Winks partnering either is also effective. I love Winks and mostly he will play the Sissoko role but there are several games when Sissoko will play . I would love us to become as solid defensively as Liverpool have become.

I still don't understand your point of not seeing a future for him when he is playing so well. Some posters unfortunately will never acknowledge that not only is he a squad player but at the moment a particularly valuable member of the first team. No way will he be sold in January.

 

[90291Spur]

Somewhere the 'real' Sissoko is tied to an old whicker chair in a basement while his robot doppleganger plays proper professional player.

 

[Lemonade Money]

Lol. The ever diminishing reasons why we won in spite of Sissoko.

 

[Robspur12]

It is, but he needs to be next to a very strong ball player. If we play him instead of Dier then we lose a lot of on the ball ability and gain little defensively. If we play him instead of Winks or Dembele then we gain a bit defensively but lose a lot of creativity.

Chelsea are a very good example of what happens if you want to press, keep the ball and play a pure destroyer (Kante) all at once. You end up with 10 men when you have the ball (and someone getting in the way of the talent), and you end up having to play a specialist creator, just to make up for their inability on the ball. That means you either have your creator pressing (meaning he's not in space if you turn the ball over) or you have him as the destroyer, negating the point of your destroyer.

If you want to play ultra defensive long ball like Chelsea and Leicester did that's fine. If you want to be a team that plays more football, you need all your midfielders to be passers.

Arsenal for years had only passers in their midfield and won 2 FA cups but came no where in the big competitions. Poch likes his destroyers. The key to everything is defensive solidity.

 

[greatwhitenorf]

Just to blow the bullschnitzel out the back door:

 

[greatwhitenorf]

 

[greatwhitenorf]

 

[greatwhitenorf]

 

[greatwhitenorf]

 

[greatwhitenorf]

I want to actually post 96 of these to reflect the quality minutes he played vs. Chelsea. But then I'd have to do it for other matches. You catch the drift. Oui?

 

[scaramanga]

As much as I agree with the gist of your post, I have to be pedantic to a point. As much as i agree Kante is 400% a destroyer (no argument there) my challenge is that that is simply not how he was employed today.

It baffled me completely that Jorginho was the DM and yet completely out of his depth, and Kante was 30 yards further forward and unsurprisingly useless.

I get that Jorginho is supposed to be a Carrickesque ballplayer, but he is certainly not a DM. And it seems obvious Chlesea should be in a 4321 type set up with Kante AND Jorginho in the 2.

That they werent seemed to me like a tactical shoot yourself in the foot by Sarri.

Sissoko? Its absolutely no surprise to me theres an over reaction in here. Entirely predictable.

I think this was probably his best performance yet for us.

And it comes as no surprise that I would think that when he was played exactly how Ive been saying (for fudging ages) how he should be played.

It was notable how disciplined he was, he was clearly set out to play as a DM and nothing more. And he did well.

Exactly as I said he would ages ago.

That was the "or you have him as the destroyer, negating the point of your destroyer" option I posted.

Chelsea used a passer as their defender, making it virtually pointless having Kante on the pitch. Kante should have been where Jorginho was, but Darrin obviously realised the press would destroy him on the ball.

Chelsea's options (and ours with Sissoko) are as I laid them out - play as a defensive team on the counter, or drop Kante.

 

[harr1984]

Of course, but it was a game which we could play on the counter with pace (they had 60%-odd possession). If we were against a team which sat back, I dont think it would have worked. I'm not taking anything away from Sissoko's performance today, but a Dier-Sissoko partnership in CM wouldnt work against non-top 6 teams which park the bus

Which is why Sissoko has been playing with other CMs this season, depending on the opposition - it hasn’t just been Dier he’s played with. Don’t buy that he doesn’t create anything either, he’s created quite a few chances and should have had another assist yesterday was it not for Kane missing another sitter....

 

[scaramanga]

The only problem with your theory is that today we created more clear chances than any other game this season.

I agree that Dier is a massive massive part of all this (we have always agreed there in the face of doubters)...

I think today was as much about balance as any single factor. I will say that Aurier and Sissoko both linked really well, but it was the whole shape.

Moussa actually created a few chances, and was robbed of an assist when Hazza inexplicably fluffed his line late on (what a game he had BTW, free to roam as he likes with Dele, Eriksen and Sonny off him)...


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

Today we played on the break against a team happy to pile forward. That allowed us to play on the break the way I described in my initial post.

That's something that was already going to be a vanishingly rare opportunity - teams just don't attack us that way. After how we just picked Chelsea apart, I don't think anyone will be doing that again for a while.

This is starting to resemble the Parker/talented midfielder discussions all over again.

 

[Pirate55]

Today we played on the break against a team happy to pile forward. That allowed us to play on the break the way I described in my initial post.

That's something that was already going to be a vanishingly rare opportunity - teams just don't attack us that way. After how we just picked Chelsea apart, I don't think anyone will be doing that again for a while.

This is starting to resemble the Parker/talented midfielder discussions all over again.

But our losses this season are largely against the big teams that DID attack us - Pool, City, Inter, Barca. Even Watford had a go at us and didn't sit back. They were in their purple patch and their confidence was high. We need to adapt the way we play and not have a one size fits all approach. Sissoko has shown himself (at last!) very valuable in certain games.

 

[scaramanga]

But our losses this season are largely against the big teams that DID attack us - Pool, City, Inter, Barca. Even Watford had a go at us and didn't sit back. They were in their purple patch and their confidence was high. We need to adapt the way we play and not have a one size fits all approach. Sissoko has shown himself (at last!) very valuable in certain games.

His performances are only valuable as a last ditch backup. If Winks or Dembele were fit, they could do everything Sissoko is doing plus all the good stuff midfielders are supposed to be able to do.

 

[thfcsteff]

To be fair to Nayim, it was he arguing that Sissoko should have something of a Palacios role a couple of pages back was it not?

Although on the other hand, I’m sure I’ve had some debates where I’ve said Sissoko is excellent defensively and ive had it said that he is bad...alongside being a terrible footballer and up until only recently a complete liability, it is quite the change to now say it was always the case that he’d play well in the position. *insert smiling emoji here*

Quite possible, I lost total track of the ding-dong debates there, so will happily hold my hand up if that is the case. I have actually believed -and still believe- that his best work is done as a central midfielder working box-to-box as he has room to move/is supported defensively by the likes of the much-underrated Dier. It worked supremely well today because our creatives - Kane/Dele/Eriksen/Son - got to play together with freedom and relative fitness/freshness for the first time I remember this season. I actually believe that if Sissoko was deployed in the Dier position, it would not be the best use of him at all. I am simply glad that he is finally showing that there has always been a player in there, albeit one who lacked confidence and did not play in his preferred position for a while due to being a squad player.

 

[thfcsteff]

Of course, but it was a game which we could play on the counter with pace (they had 60%-odd possession). If we were against a team which sat back, I dont think it would have worked. I'm not taking anything away from Sissoko's performance today, but a Dier-Sissoko partnership in CM wouldnt work against non-top 6 teams which park the bus

But it worked against a team who came to play and got outplayed. And for those "bus parking" games we have the Winks, Lamelas and Mouras who can conjure things if need be.

 

[thfcsteff]

Today we played on the break against a team happy to pile forward. That allowed us to play on the break the way I described in my initial post.

That's something that was already going to be a vanishingly rare opportunity - teams just don't attack us that way. After how we just picked Chelsea apart, I don't think anyone will be doing that again for a while.

This is starting to resemble the Parker/talented midfielder discussions all over again.

I think we played Chelski off the pitch for 25 minutes. I trust you're not attempting to say that was us playing on the break? We pressed them high and hard. Yes, they tried to play football, but we prevented them from doing so and everyone did their bit in that first 20-25. I think we lost a bit in the second-half as we knew we had the job done and simply needed to manage the game/not over-tire ourselves. I guarantee Arsenal will try to do the same next week. I would be shocked if they put men behind the ball and invite us on.

This conversation can never resemble Parker convos. Sissoko has already done more for us than Parker ever did (unless a turn, run and pirouette in your own back third of the field when you simply need one more goal to beat the division's worst team away in order to qualify for CL counts...we both know "that" moment, I sadly witnessed it!)...

 

[thfcsteff]

His performances are only valuable as a last ditch backup. If Winks or Dembele were fit, they could do everything Sissoko is doing plus all the good stuff midfielders are supposed to be able to do.

Nope. I could not disagree more. In fact, Dembele would've been a total liability today simply because he does not release the ball quickly enough. We need to move on from him, and would've done so in the summer if someone had paid his wages. Winks? Wonderful player.