No cunt off from me, but I'm confused by where you're seeing those stats (maybe they're in the spoilers, those are all showing up blank for me for some reason)? I don't particularly hate Sissoko and I think it's worthwhile to have different views of a player's value in a team (there is probably a good reason why managers keep picking him, he follows instructions like covering the FB well, and I've seen him slowing down opposition attacks without tackling/intercepting in a way that shows up in the stats) but on
fbref I see (ignoring the likes of Dele Stevie and Vinicius because they haven't played enough):
- 1.85 players tackled per 90, less than Aurier, PEH, Lamela, GLC, Sanchez, Winks
- 1.48 tackles won per 90, less than Lamela, PEH, Sanchez, about same as GLC
- 0.74 interceptions per 90, less than Aurier, Moura, ignoring Dele and Bale but this is relatively good
- 14.4 presses per 90 (4.8 successful), less than GLC, Ndombele, Lamela, Aurier, Sonny, Moura, PEH, and a bunch more (interestingly Ndombele has the highest successful presses, right up there with Lamela)
- 1.3 blocks per 90, less than Aurier, Doherty, Reggie, Ndombele, Toby, Bale, Winks
- in terms of % passes completed, he's the same as PEH on top (90%), but I think there's a critical difference in every other factor of passing:
- PEH has double the total distance covered (1387 vs 767), double the progressive distance (367 vs 147), nearly double the passes completed (72 vs 43), touches (90 vs 55), carries (63 vs 35), and receiving passes (69 vs 40) per 90.
Those passing stats are the fundamental issue for me, because he doesn't have to be creative or super technical, certainly no more so than PEH, but a CM for me always has to be getting some touches on the ball, even if they're just the most basic destroyer. But Sissoko's not a destroyer or presser who wins the ball and gets it to our more creative CMs, and he's also not a ho-hum passer who can at least help us keep the ball. He's literally just ... not getting on the ball, our own players avoid passing to him. We are playing with literally two legs of the triangle and wondering why we keep getting overrun in midfield in so many games this season.
The other thing that I think having a player with his weakness in passing exposes is that every team knows they can just ignore him. As the video I shared in the match thread mentions, everyone knows to just focus all their attention on Ndombele and Kane because they're our primary (and only) real creative threats:
Stop those two, and you stop Bale and Sonny. I think that makes it even more critical to have someone who, even if they are not a traditional creative playmaker, is at least mobile, technical, and skillful enough to offer a press-escaping outlet and attract some attention from the opposition so that Ndombele can get some breathing room. It is unfortunate that GLC has not been fit this season, and perhaps it is simply the case that we don't have good alternatives to Sissoko right now, but I really hope it is a position we look at closely within the next two transfer windows because I can't fathom that it is *that* difficult to find an upgrade on what he does while offering more in possession.