Robspur12
John Lacy
I think it is far more likely that it is impossible to keep up the same level of intensity for the full 90 minutes rather than any conscious thing.
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OMT: Everton vs Mighty Spurs
- Thread starter alekaras
- Start date
braineclipse
Willie Hall
Another good performance. This time a great result to go with it.
For me these were game conditions that suited him and thus he did well. Time and space on the ball, space to move into, against an opponent that at least tried to play football that we could at times counter attack against. Other players to do the job on the ball with skill and creativity. Even tweaked the formation to suit him and getting Eriksen next to him box to box covered for a lot of Sissoko's weaknesses.
Despite that he did no more than alright. And let us down with end product again, as has been a pattern in his career.
Yes it's better than he's played before. By his own low standards this was good. By the standards of any other player in the squad this was at the very best barely acceptable.
If I thought there was a good reason to say that he's improving that would be fair.
For me these were game conditions that suited him and thus he did well. Time and space on the ball, space to move into, against an opponent that at least tried to play football that we could at times counter attack against. Other players to do the job on the ball with skill and creativity. Even tweaked the formation to suit him and getting Eriksen next to him box to box covered for a lot of Sissoko's weaknesses.
Despite that he did no more than alright. And let us down with end product again, as has been a pattern in his career.
Yes it's better than he's played before. By his own low standards this was good. By the standards of any other player in the squad this was at the very best barely acceptable.
That the best you can come up with? England consistently underperform as a collective, has nothing to do with a coach consistently playing one player who is doing sweet FA which is what some make out on here. No matter how well we are playing someone always has to have a pop at Sissoko, give it a rest - it's boring....
ricky2tricky4city
Tom Huddlestone
I'm just worried what it might 'hurt' if he plays 30+ games for us this season, that is all.
He is 10% of our outfield players....and we play in a era of small margins.
He did play ok yesterday, but even then he demonstrated he had a 50 pence head when it came to finishing and run off-side twice shouting 'look im free, i'm in the clear, i'm free' like a kid from an under 9's team.
I could focus on the positives but it's futile, i'd literally being doing it out of kindness. He really is an outlier in this team, and if that costs us, none of us will be happy.
Kandi1977
Terry Dyson
STOP IT! JUST STOP IT FFS! Give the guy a break! He played a good game yesterday. Full stop! Just acknowledge it and move on. I'm fudging fed up of you people harassing Sissoko. It's both unfair and unnecessary! So just shut the fudge up now! You don't even have to praise him, just stop the bloody unfair criticism.
Nothing he said in that post is unfair or inaccurate
Baleforce
Ron Henry
seems he's being held to a standard others aren't
can't give him any credit as he's not as good as our best players at their best, irrespective of how far off their best they are playing in the same game
how many players have we seen take 30/40 games to get there, give the guy some time
ultimately it's down to Levy and Poch that he's on the pitch, if you've got your pitchfork out you should be waving it in their direction not Sissoko's
can't give him any credit as he's not as good as our best players at their best, irrespective of how far off their best they are playing in the same game
how many players have we seen take 30/40 games to get there, give the guy some time
ultimately it's down to Levy and Poch that he's on the pitch, if you've got your pitchfork out you should be waving it in their direction not Sissoko's
Just the first I could come up with.
Of course it's right to be concerned about major weaknesses in our team, even when we're winning. Not all teams will be as bad as Everton were, we won't always be able to carry a passenger.
Baleforce
Ron Henry
there will always be a weak link, the next man up to be replaced
Objectively he didn't.
He lost the ball more than all but Alli (who most acknowledge had an absolute stinker), he passed less than all but Kane, touched the ball fewer times than any outfield player, etc.
And in typical Sissoko fashion he had his usual "how the fudge did he do that?" moments too.
He passed the ball off his own leg to a defender, handballed it in trying to get it back and gave it away again all in the space of about 1.5 seconds.
He passed the ball to a player that was very clearly keeping himself out of play because he was walking back onside, and managed to get about 5 yards offside himself and just stand there shouting for the ball.
Oh, and he missed a sitter when it was more difficult to hit the defender than it was the goal.
Is there always one that far behind the rest of the team though?
Baleforce
Ron Henry
do the stats back up that his performance yesterday was that far behind everyone else?
we won comfortably, yet you could still argue that the only player on our side who did hit his marks was Eriksen
I've been through the stats in the posts above. The only player who had a worse game was Alli (which is debatable because he was far more involved) but he's shown his ability to be far higher than that. So for Alli, it's a bad day, that was one of Sissoko's best games and he's still arguably the worst on the pitch.
Edit: In terms of how far behind he was, he was marginally behind in everything. So there's no one stat where he's wildly low (except passes I think) but he's bottom or second bottom of a large spread of them.
Baleforce
Ron Henry
pitchforks out for Alli then?
Alli had a poor game, I think most will admit that.
But Alli has shown himself worth his inclusion in the team by actually playing matches where he looks like a professional footballer for 90 minutes.
BrainOfLevy
Michael Carrick
It's just getting ridiculous now. If we wanted to, we could pick at efud.zzavery player when they didn't do something to absolute perfection and say 'yeah, they did that good thing, but also this thing that was a bit bad, so this proves he's barely ok for us'....it's just like, what is the point? Afraid of admitting that a player has improved when your mind has already been made up?
Alli missed an easy chance to score a goal but tried to be over elaborate. He's previously performed well though, so escapes criticism and picking apart his performance in minute detail. Sissoko hasn't, so even when improvement is shown, we.....don't give him any credit? Not want our player to succeed? Make it even more difficult for him to feel settled? Our favourites can get away with poor decisions but our players that are improving aren't allowed the space to grow into their roles because the minds of a few fans has already been made up? Total gonad*s.
Look, no one is saying he was sensational. He was a decent 7. He has had utterly terrible games. But picking apart his performance in such a way as if to prove you're previous opinion on him still remains correct is just odd. He's our player. He's improving. He played his part in a fantastic win.
BrainOfLevy
Michael Carrick
We can all pick at stats or pick at the time an individual player made a bad pass and claim it's factually accurate, doesn't change the fact that you can tell when the tone of a post is going in unnecessarily hard on a specific player, and holding them to a standard others aren't having to live up to.
Sissoko has his traits. He has his positives. He has his things he needs to improve upon. But anyone that looked at that game yesterday with true objectivity would see he played his part like everyone else. He shouldn't need to play a 10/10 game for people to say 'yeah fair enough, he played well', without also following it up with 'and it was still BARELY an acceptable level of performance'. Let it go guys. He's improving. Why our fans have to pick spacegoats and pigeon hole certain players into boxes that they can never escape is beyond me.
Centre midfield is an area that we don't have weaknesses in terms of personnel at all, we have good depth there. The fact he keeps getting picked whether coming off the bench or starting suggests he is doing as Poch instructs him to. It's not glamorous, but he's clearly doing the job asked of him. We have enough players further forward who can do all the pretty stuff. Some desperately tried to claim he was only getting minutes so he could be sold off, that theory proving to be a load of nonsense and the only logical thing left is that he performs as instructed by Poch whether you enjoy it or not. His finishing could be improved for sure, but he is doing the job asked of him and doesn't deserve to be singled out the way he is by some.....
Not hating on Dele at all BUT he gets away with a hell of a lot. During a game he is actually poor a lot of the time, his saving grace is that he gets goals which is a priceless thing in football. I find it hard to argue with a lot of football fans I've heard say he thinks he's better than he actually is. He is capable of the spectacular but more often than not messes things up and his demeanour also suggests that to be correct. Don't get me wrong I love the guy, but he's got a long way to go before he's at someone like Eriksens level for me....
BrainOfLevy
Michael Carrick
Yourself and Scara are clearly smart guys, but the level you are going to just to frame Sissoko's performance in the negative astounds me. The team being set up to cover for his weakness as if he's a youth team player making his debut. Judging him by the standards of finesse and creativity when that is blatantly not the type of player he has ever been. It's like saying Eriksen didn't do well because he didn't make powerful runs with the ball at pace down the touch line. Of course Eriksen also played well but so did Sissoko. They are different players with doffeeent characteristics.
Can I just say I thought Sanchez wasn't very good yesterday. I know this may be controversial and going against the established groupthink of the fan base but we clearly altered the formation to cover for his weaknesses yesterday. He needs two experienced players alongside him to play well. Some of his touches looked very nervous particularly early on and and he needed to use his pace to cover for his poor positioning on more than one occasion. He has an awkward style with the ball at his feet and I think he has a long way to go to improve.
Oh what's that? It's ok because he's a young debutant? Ahhhhh I see. Apologies for picking holes in his performance unnecessarily and not giving him the room to grow into his role. He deserves our support to give him the best chance to succeed.
Moussa Sissoko on the other hand? Get him out now! He was terrible last year which means he will always be terrible. I don't care if he's improving. It's his fault we spent 30M on him and even though our own squad is littered with players that took more than a year to show their best form, I want him gone. I just don't like him. He doesn't play in the style of my favourite players, and I thought he was bad last year so I don't care if he's improving, he's crap.