May I ask-
What do you think Sissoko's strengths (if he has any) are?
At what level do you think he should be playing?
& what do you think his instructions are & does he carry them out?
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What do you think Sissoko's strengths (if he has any) are?
At what level do you think he should be playing?
& what do you think his instructions are & does he carry them out?
Fucking hell. You’ve opened Pandora’s box there with Blakey. I’m not sure the forum has the bandwidth to cope with the reply you’re likely to get
Jokes aside it does seems like BC genuinely thinks he is a Galileo type free thinker who can see the truth. Sounds extreme but if everything re: Sissoko is how he says then in the world of football literally only him and a few internet bloggers have such views.
Every one knows that Sissoko plays the deeper of the 2. His job is not to press but to sit there.
PEH got beaten easily 3 times in the first 15 minutes. One of those he gave away a foul, which led to their attacker having a free header on target.
We all know what you would of said if that was Sissoko.
No he can’t
Ridiculously simplistic and in many ways very wrong ...
Hojbjerg's role is the aggressive midfield defender, far from just "protect the back 4" it's all about breaking up the oppositions play by getting in their faces with tackles and interceptions, the amount of times he runs forward/wide to attack a threat, and in fact risks leaving the back four exposed should he fail (as he did three times early doors against City) is the very antitheses of Sissoko who stays very much in his lane.
Sissoko's main role now is supporting our right side either doubling up on the opposing fullback or covering as our fullback goes forward ... nothing like the Hojbjerg role, and a role that right now only Sissoko in our squad is experienced in playing.
The fact you can't see that when Poch, Deschamps and Mourinho clearly all can says more about your football acumen that it does about Sissoko.
Sissoko may not be a 'worldy' but he does an excellent job when used correctly.
Your "if my auntie had balls she'd be my uncle" negative punditry every week has gone from mildly amusing to just plain irritating ... we get it you hate Sissoko, why not just post that every week and have done with it?
Everyone who "knows" that Stevee are the same ninnies who "Know" Sissoko was great.
In this game we started in a medium block early, but ended in a deep block, with Sissoko and Hojbjerg playing as a double pivot midfield with both CM's in tandem, doing identical jobs on either side, both with progressive FB's outside/behind them, which was fundamentally protecting the channels between their FB's and CB's, here you go, average positions from the game:
And in a tandem double pivot both are supposed to help counter transition (I mean that's supposedly one of Sissoko strengths according to his fanboys, and lets face it, I've proved beyond doubt his strength isn't defensive actions like pressing, tackling, preventing dribbles, intercepting) otherwise you can only counter down one side, which would be pretty shit as a tactic wouldn't it, especially when you have put Son, your best counter attacking outlet down that side.
As I've said many times, I'm not Hojbjerg's biggest fan either, he did get slipped a couple of times early, not great, but after that early few minutes he was probably our best player after Kane, in terms of his all round contribution without and with the ball, carried out the left side deep block tactical lane covering remit, had the martial their best player (KDB) and kept him pretty quiet, and also pressed better and was far more available to receive the ball (again, if Sissoko had been playing deeper you'd expect him to receive the ball off the defenders more, he received it 6 times in 90 minutes, only 2 times off his CB, compared to Hojbjerg's 12, 5 from his CB). And he didn't lose his man in the box who scored either.
Neither of their almost identical remits were rocket science complex, it was covering a very small area of a pitch condensed into our half/third for much of the game. I wouldn't call either of them "great" performances, and I didn't call Sissoko's shit, I just think Hojbjerg did his pretty simple tactical remit a bit better whilst also offering a hell of a lot more in terms of the occasions we had the ball, or enabling us to have occasions where we could have the ball, which Sissoko offered absolutely fuck all in that respect.
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You’re on your own BlakeyEveryone who "knows" that Stevee are the same ninnies who "Know" Sissoko was great.
In this game we started in a medium block early, but ended in a deep block, with Sissoko and Hojbjerg playing as a double pivot midfield with both CM's in tandem, doing identical jobs on either side, both with progressive FB's outside/behind them, which was fundamentally protecting the channels between their FB's and CB's, here you go, average positions from the game:
And in a tandem double pivot both are supposed to help counter transition (I mean that's supposedly one of Sissoko strengths according to his fanboys, and lets face it, I've proved beyond doubt his strength isn't defensive actions like pressing, tackling, preventing dribbles, intercepting) otherwise you can only counter down one side, which would be pretty shit as a tactic wouldn't it, especially when you have put Son, your best counter attacking outlet down that side.
As I've said many times, I'm not Hojbjerg's biggest fan either, he did get slipped a couple of times early, not great, but after that early few minutes he was probably our best player after Kane, in terms of his all round contribution without and with the ball, carried out the left side deep block tactical lane covering remit, had the martial their best player (KDB) and kept him pretty quiet, and also pressed better and was far more available to receive the ball (again, if Sissoko had been playing deeper you'd expect him to receive the ball off the defenders more, he received it 6 times in 90 minutes, only 2 times off his CB, compared to Hojbjerg's 12, 5 from his CB). And he didn't lose his man in the box who scored either.
Neither of their almost identical remits were rocket science complex, it was covering a very small area of a pitch condensed into our half/third for much of the game. I wouldn't call either of them "great" performances, and I didn't call Sissoko's shit, I just think Hojbjerg did his pretty simple tactical remit a bit better whilst also offering a hell of a lot more in terms of the occasions we had the ball, or enabling us to have occasions where we could have the ball, which Sissoko offered absolutely fuck all in that respect.
Sissoko is King
Are there any Spurs players you do rate that aren't in the headlines every day like Kane/Son?
Simply not true Blakey ... we don't play a true double pivot that's a lazy simplification, it's just click-bait you get from you-tube experts five minutes after the game has finished, it shows zero proper analysis.Everyone who "knows" that Stevee are the same ninnies who "Know" Sissoko was great.
In this game we started in a medium block early, but ended in a deep block, with Sissoko and Hojbjerg playing as a double pivot midfield with both CM's in tandem, doing identical jobs on either side, both with progressive FB's outside/behind them, which was fundamentally protecting the channels between their FB's and CB's, here you go, average positions from the game:
And in a tandem double pivot both are supposed to help counter transition (I mean that's supposedly one of Sissoko strengths according to his fanboys, and lets face it, I've proved beyond doubt his strength isn't defensive actions like pressing, tackling, preventing dribbles, intercepting) otherwise you can only counter down one side, which would be pretty shit as a tactic wouldn't it, especially when you have put Son, your best counter attacking outlet down that side.
As I've said many times, I'm not Hojbjerg's biggest fan either, he did get slipped a couple of times early, not great, but after that early few minutes he was probably our best player after Kane, in terms of his all round contribution without and with the ball, carried out the left side deep block tactical lane covering remit, had the martial their best player (KDB) and kept him pretty quiet, and also pressed better and was far more available to receive the ball (again, if Sissoko had been playing deeper you'd expect him to receive the ball off the defenders more, he received it 6 times in 90 minutes, only 2 times off his CB, compared to Hojbjerg's 12, 5 from his CB). And he didn't lose his man in the box who scored either.
Neither of their almost identical remits were rocket science complex, it was covering a very small area of a pitch condensed into our half/third for much of the game. I wouldn't call either of them "great" performances, and I didn't call Sissoko's shit, I just think Hojbjerg did his pretty simple tactical remit a bit better whilst also offering a hell of a lot more in terms of the occasions we had the ball, or enabling us to have occasions where we could have the ball, which Sissoko offered absolutely fuck all in that respect.
Just jumping on a system to support your conviction that Sissoko is rubbish, that's beneath you Blakey ... go look at the actual data properly then try again
Sissoko attempted 23 passes - of which 22 were on the right hand side of the pitch, if you look at his heat map it is entirely on the right hand and side, mostly in our half. His job was to stay narrow right and force City to play out wide.
Hjobjerg on the other hand is all over the pitch playing a 'free' role as the aggressive defensive midfielder, his job is to break up City's passing game and recycle the ball as fast as possible, whilst his overall position ends up more left, that has more to do with City's midfield favouring their right side when attacking, than any notional double pivot.
Ndombele attempted 24 passes - of which 18 were on the left, if you look at his heat map it's much more forward than Sissoko but it's still very obviously left sided, his role like Sissoko's was to force City to play out wide.
We didn't play a double pivot at all, we played with Sissoko staying narrow right side congesting the middle, Ndombele staying narrow left side doing a similar role, very deliberately giving City easy avenues to play the ball out wide and fling in crosses whilst giving them no room at all to play through the middle ...
In a double pivot you would expect the two pivot player to have near identical numbers, in a narrow three man midfield you would expect the central player to see far more of the action than the two wide men.
Sissoko - 23 passes - 1 tackle
Hojbjerg - 36 passes - 5 tackles
Ndombele - 24 passes - 2 tackles
What do these numbers suggest to you? double pivot or three man midfield?
Your analysis whilst interesting is flawed when you base it on the premise that Sissoko and Hjobjerg had "almost identical remits" ... that's just plain wrong.
We played a back four and a very narrow midfield three, the fact that Ndombele shows up more forward than Sissoko has more to do with the amount of defensive work put in by Bergwijn covering Walker, than by Ndombele charging forward.
If you watched the game, and I'm sure you did, you would have seen we played with a very clear tactical plan, control the middle of the pitch with nine players nearly always inside the width of the penalty area ... a tactic which in hindsight worked a bloody charm ...
Yeah I'd say more that PEH and Sissoko were assigned to form a "back 6" between the CBs and their respective fullbacks, whenever they were defending, and then patrolled their channels when pressing, with as many have said Hojbjerg being the more aggressive one in terms of making a nuisance of himself.
We saw Dier trade places with both of them a couple of times as needed. It really was expertly done by the whole team. If it was that easy to do, then Manchester City would never beat anyone.
I'm just curious: when we play mobs like Newcastle, and they spend the entire game behind the ball, and we batter their goal with 15+ shots, but their keeper plays his best game of the season (every sodding time), we get nothing, and they poach a cheeky goal at the other end with their only shot on target, tell me, are we shit or were they lucky?
Just want to know how you feel when we're the ones who are being shut down by 'simplistic 5m remits'.
It depends.
You could argue that City were not unlucky because we limited them to nothing.
Newcastle were perhaps lucky, as they were reliant on a good goalkeeping performance to keep us out, notwithstanding the huge slice of luck they had at the end.
The difference is that at no point did City batter us or make Hugo work in any significant way. The opposite can be said of the Newcastle game.
Take the argument back to the City game last season when we absolutely smashed and grabbed a 2-0 win and it's a different story altogether.
Terrible yesterday, thought he was the worst on the pitch.
Hopefully gets it together against Woolwich, which he probably starts in!
Hopefully gets it together against Woolwich, which he probably starts in!
His defensive performance was quite important for keeping a clean sheet
He's not a CB though, I can see his worth usually but thought his midfield play was worse than usual today.
Have a word pal. Sissoko is getting a game for France. Look at the talent they have in that squad.