Player Watch: Moussa Sissoko

[Mr Pink]

No mate - I just see the team selection and watch the games and put two and two together.

Sissoko is clearly being asked to play limited and defined role. He played that role fine on Thursday night.

Just because you don't like the role (I don't particularly either btw) doesn't mean he played badly on Thursday. He didn't. The system and set up led to an almost complete dominance allowing us to play pretty much in their half for the entire game and try and score by overwhelming numbers and attrition. The defensive side of it worked (apart from a worldy screamer of a goal) - and that's clearly Sissoko's remit.

I know it's annoying that he only seems to pass sideways and backwards but seeing as its pretty much all he ever does when playing that role in that system yet he keeps being selected - then Occam's razor suggests that he playing to instruction. And playing it to the Coach's acceptance.

So, yes he played fine on Thursday night. You are angry at the role not the performance.

But if you can't see that by now, there's not much point going over it again and again.

West Ham were happy to cede territory and possession, choosing to double up on Son and Eriksen etc

When Dier and Sissoko were on the ball they wernt exactly being pressed by West Ham.

There was no need for two defensive minded midfielders the other night, all it did was reduce our chances of breaking them down.

There was no midfield battle to win, West Ham never set up to take us on in the middle of the park. Moyes parked two buses and we needed more quality on the ball to help break them down.

In no way was that Sissoko's fault. I actually think Sissoko works very well for some games, but the other night was not the game for him and for me we were somewhat tactically flawed.

But even after getting it wrong, Pochettino should of acted a lot sooner than he did.

 

[Phomesy]

I largely agree with you but surely Poch wouldn't actually, literally tell him to not pass it forwards? He might say "keep it simple". Maybe I'm wrong.
.

No I’m sure you’re right and the instruction is to keep it simple. But when faced by 10 defenders I suppose the only way to keep it simple is to give it to the RB, CM or Eriksen if he’s presenting.

From watching it seems obvious he’s been told to be risk averse. No charging forward leaving gaps in behind. Occasional one-two’s with Aurier but never over committing etc...

We don’t have a Modric and Sissoko certainly ain’t and should never try to be. So creativity and risks are left to the front four and wide backs. If Sissoko is going to play I guess it’s wise strategy. The question is “should Sissoko play” - and most people would say “no” but the coaches often disagree and I would suggest they would argue Sissoko wasn’t the reason we didn’t get a result against West Ham. Just my onions of course.

 

[Streetspur77]

I know it's only highlights but looks like he played alright today, constantly driving forward

I'm happy for him to stay as a squad player tbh and definatly think he has his uses even if he's technically limited

 

[Hengy1]

I know it's only highlights but looks like he played alright today, constantly driving forward

I'm happy for him to stay as a squad player tbh and definatly think he has his uses even if he's technically limited

He was very Sissoko first half but second half was really good. Started driving forward much quicker and it upped the whole team imo

 

[Insomnia]

I was at Wembley yesterday, he played well

 

[HildoSpur]

He get's way too much grief tbh. He has done really well to recover from what was a complete disaster last season. He may never be a great player but he is more than good enough to be a solid squad player for us. Poch obviously rates him and he has chipped in with the odd assist and goal. I still feel he is lacking confidence but he has been decent for us this season.

 

[coys200]

He’s just hugely frustrating because in flashes you can see he could be really good. Physically he’s an absolute beast. Although not his greatest fan I can still see how he can be a useful squad member because he’s also quite flexible position wise.

 

[Streetspur77]

I don’t really want to go over this again but I don’t think he did enough to stop that Obiang shot, personally.

You’re right, though, to just blame the result on him wouldn’t be entirely fair, however, as you say, he was bad so what do you expect the thread to be like? Full of comments about how great he was?

Thought I should reply in sissoko thread because as someone said we weren't really talking about transfers.

But no I don't think that, I just think criticism should be proportionate as opposed to sissoko getting all of it for no real reason other than that he's an easy target to just post a lil "fuck sissko he's so shit I hate him" in the sissoko thread and you probably won't get called out in it

 

[E17yid]

Thought I should reply in sissoko thread because as someone said we weren't really talking about transfers.

But no I don't think that, I just think criticism should be proportionate as opposed to sissoko getting all of it for no real reason other than that he's an easy target to just post a lil "fuck sissko he's so shit I hate him" in the sissoko thread and you probably won't get called out in it

Fair enough, 2 Sissoko threads are a bit pointless perhaps this link could’ve been posted in there rather than a brand new thread.

I don’t know if the criticism has been that bad I’d have to go back through it and either way if people want to say that, and equally if people want to call people out on that criticism not being fair, then fair enough.

I don’t really think it helps that in over a season and a half you can count on 1 hand how many average to good performances he’s had. He’s consistently poor, imo, but you’re right I’ll leave it for the other thread.

 

[SpursD22]

Let’s get this straight. Sissoko wasn’t the worst player on the pitch today, I thought Alli and Dier was worse than him but what other fans or at least me think is that he’s continually being average. Yes he can have one or two games where he’s good and some where he’s decent but for the majority of the time he’s either average or below average. I’m going to try and grow up and stop blaming him for everything, he’s probably a nice person in real life and he tries his best. But Poch, you’re the manager of a team you want to compete for big titles but you can’t if a player like Sissoko start as many games as he does. He needs to be real with himself, he can’t develop Sissoko in to a player that will ever be good enough to start for us. I’m not going to say that it’s thanks to Sissoko that we drop points but I feel like the % of us dropping points increase when he starts. And there’s been a few people that say maybe Sissoko is doing what’s Poch is telling him to do, and that’s not good. You need your midfielders to do more than he does. I’ve seen a few people on Twitter that say that they think Poch is trying to prove a point, that he’s stubborn and doesn’t want to admit he bought a flop. I disagree with that.
All I want is Poch to stop starting him in the league and sell him in the summer. And us fans needs to stop blaming everything on him, especially me

 

[bubble07]

Poch is justifying begging Levy to sign him

 

[Scott Spur]

I’m genuinely interested to know what Poch is looking for when starting Sissoko, what does he deliver that Lamela or a.n.other wont?

I’ll back Poch to the bitter end but MS is consistently the worst player to pull on a Spurs shirt for a good long while. Maybe I’m missing something.

 

[dtxspurs]

I’m genuinely interested to know what Poch is looking for when starting Sissoko, what does he deliver that Lamela or a.n.other wont?

I’ll back Poch to the bitter end but MS is consistently the worst player to pull on a Spurs shirt for a good long while. Maybe I’m missing something.

He really is worse than all of those other bust signings. Janssen, Soldado, Paulinho, Chadli, all better than Sissoko. He is honestly like playing with 10 men. I have no idea how anyone can defend him. He's absolutely terrible. I realize other people played bad today but every time out he does nothing.

 

[lukespurs7]

Just fucking get rid already.
Every pass is either over or under hit its fucking embarrassing tbh.

 

[lukespurs7]

He really is worse than all of those other bust signings. Janssen, Soldado, Paulinho, Chadli, all better than Sissoko. He is honestly like playing with 10 men. I have no idea how anyone can defend him. He's absolutely terrible. I realize other people played bad today but every time out he does nothing.

Chadli offered way more than MS, Soldado had quality but it didn’t work for him, Jansen tried hard and has a good shot on him was/is raw, Paulinho had a few games but a lot of shocking ones I think he’s about on par with what MS has offered which is pretty much fuck all 9/10 they play.

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

I've no idea what dirt he has on Poch but there has to be something to keep getting games. He is shite, he doesn't do anything well. He is a championship player at best. He should have gone down with Newcastle, it is his level. We were properly mugged off but it is time to cut our losses and get him out of the club.

 

[Davo99]

Careful guys.

 

[rossdapep]

I think it's fair to say that he's not the right player for what we want to achieve. I don't think he's completely useless as some believe but he certainly doesn't add that guile we need.

Today highlighted how much reconstruction our midfield needs. We're at that point were you can't really be sure who'll play. Most teams who have success generally have a combination that plays every week. We've been hampered by injuries, Dembele' s decline and Sissoko not providing anything different. This has to be our focus for this summer. If that means letting Sissoko go then we should deal.

 

[scat1620]

At this point I'm definitely more upset with Poch for playing Sissoko than I am upset by Sissoko for being Sissoko. I am just genuinely baffled that Pochettino doesn't see any better options available than selecting Sissoko; I am convinced that there are several, and it frustrates the living fuck out of me that Pochettino can't or won't see them too.

 

[Matrix]

He’s just a limited footballer. Just doesn’t fit our style of play. He would flourish at Stoke or West Brom where they need work horses not players who could play a cute pass or thunder a shot after slicing a team open. He would have been a blessing when we had the likes of Michael Brown but in this team he just does not fit and it not on the same wavelength as the rest of the team.
It’s so frustrating that our attacks break down with him not being able to pass quick and accurately or just not seeing an empty space to run into.

Offers nothing in attack and not much in defense. Feel sorry for the guy, he should have gone to Everton.