First off Whoscored ratings are based 100% off stats, it’s a stats based model, so don’t understand the logic of using it when trying to undermine the stats used by others.
Standing on the half way line categorically proves he was playing as a holding midfielder, just like Dier’s heat map you mention but we all know Diers’s position, ask yourself why his heat map is where it is and the answer is he played as a DM, covering Autier allowing Autier to push on without the space vacated to be exploited as they did when we played them a year earlier with Walker!!! When playing against a side sat on their penalty area all game where exactly are you expecting the average position of a DM position to be??? Check the heat maps of Sanchez and Vertonghen, think you’ Find theirs would be on the halfway line too given the entire game was play in the oppo half.
He wasn’t standing in the way of Aurier, the commonly held view is that Aurier was our best player on the night, how did he manage that with Sissoko “standing in his way”. It has also been noted by many others based on many other games that he appears to link up well with Auier, again something he did well that night. The hestmap you mention also proves he was covering Aurier, something that I, a defender of his in this game, mentioned a few times in post match comments as to describe the position and role he was asked to play.
Compare is passing stats to Dier who also played as a DM.
Absolutely NO-ONE has claimed he was one of our best players. The defense of him has come from those re-acting to him being the only player being called out, when there where others, Dier, who were worse on the night. Those defending him said he was playing DM, as your post clearly shows, with your heat map findings, the relevance of this was he played this role, the same as Winks does, Dier does, which largely means the recycling the ball (sideways passes, short passes) the VERY thing he was being slated for.
For the 100th time, HE’s NOT A GREAT PLAYER, but judge his individual performances based on the possition he’s ask to play and the level of slating he gets is totally unwarranted. It proves people A) scapegoat b) find it hard to analyze a game (this isn’t meant as a personal dig to anyone), vast majority of footballgoers don't analyze the game but infuriatingly attempt to and get it spectacularly wrong as in this case. Football still involves opinions which can be debated, but let’s get the basic fundamentals right first and foremost, HE WAS PLAYING AS A HOLDING MIDFIELDER and his performance in this game should be judged in this context alone.
