Player Watch: Moussa Sissoko

[dimiSpur]

first time i saw him live (CL match at Wembley) i thought i was watching the football version of 'faking it' i.e he was an imposter faking it as a profession footballer or we'd signed his brother by accident.
IMO its a transformation of miracle proportions based on what i witnessed that night.

Totally agree. That's exactly what I used to say, that he looks like someone from the crowd who's won a competition to play 15 minutes in an ex-player's testimonial.

It's the absolute example of zero to hero. Not even zero, minus 15 to hero.

 

[Teemu]

Voilà

Anyone know the rules on selling merchandise at Wembley? Thinking of ordering a million of these and flogging them outside the stadium before the next home game

 

[Ossie'sAardvark]

Sissoko is the second player Ive completely misjudged. BAE was the other. His name goes on the teamsheet no questions for me now.

 

[MyNameIsNicolaBerti]

Sorry. Of all the current players Kane is closest to attaining legend status, and that will get bestowed at the end of his career. You don’t get close to the likes of Blanchflower, Perryman, Hoddle and King by having a decent run of 5 or 6 games. It’s great he’s now showing he’s a real asset and has a role in our team / squad, and we should show him some love, but let’s keep legend status for the true greats.

Oh FFS. Don't you know hyperbole when you see it? I'm simply saying he's proving his doubters wrong and winning over the fans as a result.

 

[Phomesy]

Anyone who couldn’t see Sissoko was terrible in the first years of him being here is rewriting history.

He was not "terrible" last season. He was effective, solid and important to the manager's plans.

That's what some people here - and the manager - kept trying to point out to people like you but you wouldn't accept it.

He's had to turn into a latter day Viera just to get some brownie points. But the turnaround was from the start of last season.

 

[allatsea]

Maybe Jenas. Although he was better technically than Sissoko, when confident they will both run with the ball and power past opponents. When not confident they’ll do f-all.

Jenas when full of confidence could do almost anything. He seemed to float at speed across a football field. Unfortunately those days didn't happen very often.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

Jenas when full of confidence could do almost anything. He seemed to float at speed across a football field. Unfortunately those days didn't happen very often.

Jenas would probably have done well in our current side. He'd most likely take Dele's role. Back in the day, we (and everyone else) pretty much played a rigid 4-4-2, with no space for the likes of JJ. He was always better when allowed to do most of his work off the ball - win it, play a simple pass to a teammate, then not see it again until he turned up in or on the edge of the box. It's our flexibility that get's the most out of Dele, and JJ would probably have benefitted also.

 

[degoose]

Bit of jenas in terms of the driving runs but reality is he does it far more. Bit like zokora and terms of the ball cardyung at pace but with more substance, offensively and defensively. Bit like palacios or more recently Wanyama with the sheer determination but far more pace and forward thrust. Truth is, he not like any of them really, he’s probably the first true box to box player we’ve had. As I’ve said a few times, the only really similar player I can think of is Essien before the injuries. I wouldn’t go as far as saying Vieira as Vieira was very skilful to boot, more like Yaya Toure.

I was thinking this around the box to box player type. You don't get many of them these days but he really fits that role well. He can do a good job defensively, he can push forward well and can turn defence into attack in a matter of seconds all by himself. Just damn happy he has turned his spurs career around.

 

[Ossie85]

He had this in him. When he shared the middle with Capoue in Toulouse, they were one of the best CM partnerships in France. Both were 20/21 yrs old.
Then they started putting Sissoko further up, and his game changed.

Nonetheless, this turnaround is completely unexpected.

 

[archiewasking]

I never thought I’d see the day when I actively want Sissoko to start against Arsenal - even if he’d had a nice rest let alone it meaning he would’ve played 3 massive high profile games in a week!

Still shocked by his turnaround in form and still loving every minute of it. 89th minute winner on Sunday please.

Rather it was the icing on the cake 10th. With the Goons abject at zero and 3 sent off.

 

[danielneeds]

Bit of jenas in terms of the driving runs but reality is he does it far more. Bit like zokora and terms of the ball cardyung at pace but with more substance, offensively and defensively. Bit like palacios or more recently Wanyama with the sheer determination but far more pace and forward thrust. Truth is, he not like any of them really, he’s probably the first true box to box player we’ve had. As I’ve said a few times, the only really similar player I can think of is Essien before the injuries. I wouldn’t go as far as saying Vieira as Vieira was very skilful to boot, more like Yaya Toure.

Mate, Jenas did a lot of defensive work once Carrick left and he was left with Zokora, who was absolutely useless positionally. Infact Jenas’ Spurs career never really recovered post-Carrick and our failure to get him a midfield partner who could complement him. By the time Modric got into CM he was on rbe way down with injuries.

 

[GutBucket]

Sissoko has shown that he has good self-awareness, he knows that he is limited techniqually so he worked hard on his conditioning, stamina and basically any other physical attribute. He was terrible on right wing for us but that helped him learn defensive duties and covering for full-backs which is very useful for him now in DM role. He and Aurier completely shut down anything on the right wing for Chelsea, Kovacic had no business going there and Hazard didn't enjoy that side of the pitch either. I knew he would struggle with us when we signed him because he was in awful shape and players need a proper preseason to play pressing football. He is in perfect form right now, has great chemistry with Aurier and plays like he stole powers from Wanyama and Dembele, great stuff and it shows what hard work can do. He will never make passes like Busquets or prime Yaya Toure but he's a great versatile squad member now.

 

[nattydredd]

Weird to think that if Levy decided to cash in on him this January [He won't] he'd probably make a handsome profit on his original investment.

Funny ole game..

 

[tooey]

Again with the price - we had this with Lamela if anyone actually bothered to see what kind of player Sissoko was when we purchased him and didn't base their opinions off how much we paid for him and how much he's earning then maybe the opinions would have been different and expectations wouldn't be so high in the first place.

But the again I wouldn't expect casual football fans to do that so...

Are you serious? You can't honestly be taking the "you nasty people judged him but I didn't because I'm more of a football fan than you" angle, embarrassing. Sissoko was crap, he was called out for it, that's not because of how much he cost or his wages, that was because he was crap.

 

[Shadydan]

Are you serious? You can't honestly be taking the "you nasty people judged him but I didn't because I'm more of a football fan than you" angle, embarrassing. Sissoko was crap, he was called out for it, that's not because of how much he cost or his wages, that was because he was crap.

Well maybe you're talking about it from your point of view, from what I saw there was plenty of warranted criticism and at the same time plenty unwarranted criticism which is what I'm taking aim at.

He wasn't always crap he did have some good games like the examples I've given but as per usual people go OTT unable to give a fair appraisal because of confirmation bias, if that wasnt you then fair enough but there was a lot of shit like that flying around, not sure why we're acting surprised because it happens with every player who goes through a bad run of form.

 

[DJS]

Mate, Jenas did a lot of defensive work once Carrick left and he was left with Zokora, who was absolutely useless positionally. Infact Jenas’ Spurs career never really recovered post-Carrick and our failure to get him a midfield partner who could complement him. By the time Modric got into CM he was on rbe way down with injuries.

This.

Jenas didn't really reach his full potential as we just didn't partner him with anyone decent for a while after Carrick left.

Then when we finally signed Palacios he started to really step up again and they were a very good partnership.

Unfortunately he then got injured and Huddlestone got in and had a good spell (although personally at the time I would have put Jenas back in over Huddlestone).

Then Modric moved inside from the left and pushed Palacios out.

 

[chinaman]

Now I visualize Moses driving his way through a Red Sea next Sunday and delivers his team.

 

[Ben1]

Are you serious? You can't honestly be taking the "you nasty people judged him but I didn't because I'm more of a football fan than you" angle, embarrassing. Sissoko was crap, he was called out for it, that's not because of how much he cost or his wages, that was because he was crap.

A huge part of the criticism of Sissoko was cost related i'm sure of it.

EDIT: He wasn't good enough, no, I understand people thought he was shit and would have no matter the price. But it got mentioned a lot and there was a lot of pressure from the start because of the fee. He was a record signing at the time and his price tag ALWAYS got mentioned by journalists and fans.

 

[Lilbaz]

I completely agree but if you turn up at a club for £30 million and are on £80k a week then fans are quite right to expect you to be able to trap a ball first time, control a football and be able to pass it to a teammate 5 yards away with no pressure on him from an opposing player.

I’ve absolutely nothing to apologise for berating a player on SC for that and neither should anyone else who complained about him for these things.

He appeared to be an athlete rather than a footballer. Nobody can despite that. But also nobody can dispute that both the player and coaching team deserve a massive pat on the back for turning into the player we’ve seen in the last month. Hopefully he can keep it up.

I'm not disputing that he had poor games for us, i'm not disputing that he's playing well for us now. What i am disputing is that he was the worst player on the planet and i am disputing that he is now the second coming of jesus christ.

I am saying that fans go ott one way or the other. They used to focus on every mistake sissoko made now they focus on everything he does that is good.

 

[Lilbaz]

A huge part of the criticism of Sissoko was cost related i'm sure of it.

Also that he wasn't isco who we were meant to be after at the same time.