Moussa Sissoko

[TimothéeAtouba]

So you'd take Sissoko over Kante, who's even smaller physically than Skipp?

No, because obviously Kante has much better positional sense, distribution, anticipation and technique.

But if I saw a player who was as good at Kante but had the build of Sissoko, would I take him over Kante? Yes of course, because physical ability and athleticism does mean something in professional sports.

 

[Airfixx]

Works hard. Good footballing physique. Follows instructions.

It certainly isn't for his footballing ability.

Fair play to him. He's managed to gain trust from one of the best managers of all time and is working hard for him. That's all we ask from all of our players.

Of course, when you say "we" that is in no way all encompassing.

 

[Totti]

Ok lets look at the evidence, on one side we have a player who has played

526 senior club games.
of which
242 were in the premier league.
192 were in ligue 1
48 were in ECL/EL
Hes scored 40 times
He played at every age level for France
65 times for the national side
48 times for under age national sides
He played in the ECL final
He played in a world cup winning squad.
He played in the Euro finals
He was the Spurs Legends player of the season 2019

On the other side we have you saying he is 'frankly useless'.

Its close .......

Do you rate Ozil?

 

[Totti]

I don't fully agree. Kane was more or less non existent because of the shape of the Chelsea midfield generally. We created a number of opportunities through areas that Kante should have been patrolling. I like Kante as a player and I'm far from knocking him but he didn't have a particularly great game yesterday and had we been just a tiny bit more clinical we may have punished them in the first half because we had the better chances.

His game was to literally shut down Kane and Son.

Would you say Kane and Son were shut down? Or were they at the same level of previous games?

Kante wasn't as good as Kovacic who was arguably the best performing midfielder on the pitch - but he had a great game

 

[Bazali]

I wonder why he gets picked every week.

By one of the most successful managers in World Club football

 

[Totti]

By his own standards I didn't think Kante was a standout at all.

Let's be clear here. I think he is better than Sissoko by a fair margin, as an all round footballer. Make absolutely no mistake.

Kane and Son were indeed kept fairly quiet yesterday but then so were a succession of Chelsea players.

Chelsea created their best opportunities from crosses from the right, as you'd expect against a team deploying the tactics Spurs game against them.

Where was Werner? That's right, more or less rendered useless by the work of Sissoko.

By his usual high standard, no.

But I do think Ndombele going passed him a few times is clouding peoples judgement. Ndombele would walk through prime Makelele too such is his ability. But Kante mopped everything up in a Chelsea midfield that dominated for basically 90 minutes.

Of course, the way we approached the game was always going to have Chelsea dominate the ball and try and pick them off - except it didn't work much for us because of the likes of Kante who worked tirelessly to limit Kane's time on the ball.

Chelsea's best chances were actually from our right hand side. Cross in the box that Abraham should have scored, the Werner disallowed goal and Giroud right at the end....

Sure, we let James cross in numerous times from our left hand side, but I don't really remember too many attempts that troubled us from it.

Werner had a quiet game, sure. Like I said, he had the on form Aurier to deal with as well as Sissoko, who kept up with him all game.

Again, I didn't say Sissoko didn't do a good job on Werner. I said it was a job that anyone who's disciplined, physical and fit could do and that it wasn't anything special. Sissoko at the moment is lucky that his competition for a place in the team right now is Harry Winks - because he ticks a lot more boxes than Winks in games like Chelsea where we need that physically fit and disciplined runner to stay out of the centre of the park (due to his poor limitations) and follow a wide man instead.

 

[bus-conductor]

No, because obviously Kante has much better positional sense, distribution, anticipation and technique.

But if I saw a player who was as good at Kante but had the build of Sissoko, would I take him over Kante? Yes of course, because physical ability and athleticism does mean something in professional sports.

Physical can be a factor but in a midfielder it's no more vital than tenacity, dynamism, stamina, intelligence and none are very viable without some technical footballing ability because....you know.....this is football first and foremost.

Sometimes being a "unit" is actually a hindrance in football, as it hinders movement, dexterity, stamina and the ability to turn quickly - all vital in football for a player playing in midfield - a position that requires 360 degree thinking and movement.

 

[bus-conductor]

Sissoko's job was to shut down Werner .... anyone watching would have seen that, even JJ spotted it.

Werner - 0 Goals, 0 Assist, 1 shot blocked, no KP's, no dribbles, no headers won, completed just 70% of his attempted passes, Werner was substituted after 74 minutes with his lowest rating of the season ...

Who gives a fuck about Kante? Sissoko's job was to stop Werner, so ask yourselves did he succeed?

Sure he didn't save a penalty nor did he score a hat-trick, nor did he paint the Mona Lisa at half time ... that wasn't his role so why talk about it?

Nor did he enable us to get out of our half for massive chunks of the game. Anyone watching hing saw that too.

He did his space filler job well. Nobody is denying this. He did nothing else well though, which heavily contributed to us doing nothing and having an X/G of 0.23.

It's great that he played a part in our second bus park of the week. But some of us would just like to advance to bus park plus 2.0 where we get out of our half more than 3 times. To do that we need to upgrade to a player who can shuffle par excellence between RB and RCB but also pass it forwards more than 4 times in 94 minutes.

Which for the record, JJ has also pointed out about Sissoko n MOTD.

 

[Matt1882]

You are kind of right but in terms of offensive contribution massively wrong. Kante didn't touch the ball in our our box, and Sissoko touched it once in their box, well it was on the line of the outer corner of their box. But ing terms of who contributed more in terms of attack Kante pisses it - despite playing as the lone defensive pivot in their 433 with two 8's either side.

Kante successfully received the ball 21 times in our defensive third.

Moussa Sissoko successfully received it 2 times in theirs.

Kante completed 67 passes, 21 in the attacking third, 39 middle, 14 backwards, 24 square, 29 forwards

Sissoko completed 20 passes, 2 in the attacking third, 12 in the middle, 12 backwards, 4 square and 4 forwards in 94 minutes.

Defensively

Kante 3 tackles, 1 interception, 17 pressures, 6 successful

Sissoko 0 tackles, 0 interceptions, 11 pressures, 3 succesful




With regards to your previous notion that we'd have to spend 90m to upgrade him. There are players playing for clubs at the bottom of this league and throughout it that could offer physicality, carry out simple defensive remits, but also an improvement in what they could offer interns of "football". I don't overly rate Berge for example, but if we just wanted a "unit" who could fill space between the CB/FB but then also play some football and be a modicum more press resistant on the ball he's at the bottom club. Anguissa same (2nd bottom), Bissouma, Phillips, Rice, McGinn, Allan, Dacoure, Neves, Romeu, Ndidi, Mendy,

Most of those aren't world beaters who cost much, and I'm not saying I wan't us sign all or even any of them, I'm just saying we wouldn't have to spend a fortune to find a player who could be a space filler in Mourinho's bus park system who could also offer a modicum more football.

You list good players who could fill that role. We couldn't get any of them though unless they were in the last year of their contract. They're all regulars for their team and Levy just doesn't do those kinds of deals with premier league teams.
PEH - last year
Doherty - last year
Hart - Free
Bale/Reguilon/Rodon/Vinicus/ all from outside the premier league.

If you scout those kinds of players outside the premier league, or they get to 1 year left then I'm sure Levy and Jose would love to know.

 

[Totti]

You list good players who could fill that role. We couldn't get any of them though unless they were in the last year of their contract. They're all regulars for their team and Levy just doesn't do those kinds of deals with premier league teams.
PEH - last year
Doherty - last year
Hart - Free
Bale/Reguilon/Rodon/Vinicus/ all from outside the premier league.

If you scout those kinds of players outside the premier league, or they get to 1 year left then I'm sure Levy and Jose would love to know.

I reckon Bissouma could quite easily fill the role. Physical. Strong. I'm sure he can follow Mourinhos instructions. He can also play abit too.

Though he'll have 2 years left on his deal in the summer.

Doherty wasn't in his last year by the way - his contract was up in 2023.

 

[Matt1882]

"played in the.." .. "played in a.."

bravo..quite an achievement.

Will he play in any of the top 6 teams starting XI ? ..... i guess it's "close"

He starts every week for the team top of the table mate.

TOP.
The other 5 couldn#t get him if they wanted him.

 

[Matt1882]

I reckon Bissouma could quite easily fill the role. Physical. Strong. I'm sure he can follow Mourinhos instructions. He can also play abit too.

Though he'll have 2 years left on his deal in the summer.

Doherty wasn't in his last year by the way - his contract was up in 2023.

So how the fuck did we get him for next to nothing? Must have been some kind of get out clause, surely?

 

[Yiddy]

I don't think we'll get rid of him - but he'll be benched for a superior player who does the exact same job but can play football too.

I think the player you speak of wouldn't come cheap. Unless jose works another miracle like he has done with PEH.

 

[Matt1882]

Come on, you know it doesn't work like that.

Wes Morgan played centre half for a team that was top of the league and won it. And he wouldn't have got into anyone in the traditional top 5.

It was a joke, a play on the other posters commebt "would get get in any of the top 6's starting 11"

Well he gets in ours, and we're above all of them.....

 

[bus-conductor]

You list good players who could fill that role. We couldn't get any of them though unless they were in the last year of their contract. They're all regulars for their team and Levy just doesn't do those kinds of deals with premier league teams.
PEH - last year
Doherty - last year
Hart - Free
Bale/Reguilon/Rodon/Vinicus/ all from outside the premier league.

If you scout those kinds of players outside the premier league, or they get to 1 year left then I'm sure Levy and Jose would love to know.

But there are dozens like that out there, where those teams got them from and didn't pay much. We may even have a kid who is an upgrade already for nothing.

 

[Bazali]

Nor did he enable us to get out of our half for massive chunks of the game. Anyone watching hing saw that too.

He did his space filler job well. Nobody is denying this. He did nothing else well though, which heavily contributed to us doing nothing and having an X/G of 0.23.

It's great that he played a part in our second bus park of the week. But some of us would just like to advance to bus park plus 2.0 where we get out of our half more than 3 times. To do that we need to upgrade to a player who can shuffle par excellence between RB and RCB but also pass it forwards more than 4 times in 94 minutes.

Which for the record, JJ has also pointed out about Sissoko n MOTD.

Perhaps that was part of Jose’s plan
To play large chunks of the game in our own half and hit them on the counter

It worked

 

[Bazali]

Come on, you know it doesn't work like that.

Wes Morgan played centre half for a team that was top of the league and won it. And he wouldn't have got into anyone in the traditional top 5.

But Wes was good at committing one tactical foul after another disrupting the opposition and mostly getting away with it ably assisted by Huth

 

[Totti]

But Wes was good at committing one tactical foul after another disrupting the opposition and mostly getting away with it ably assisted by Huth

And that makes him good enough to get into the top 5 teams ?

 

[Matt1882]

And that makes him good enough to get into the top 5 teams ?

Would some one buy him to do that? Probably not (at least not now with VAR to catch him out)
Would some one who already has him in their squad and has limited ability to replace him, use him to his best and suit the team? 100%

And he deserved a call up to the England squad according to Redknapp.

 

[Totti]

Would be awfully harsh to discount Morgan playing his part tho....

Of course - they all had their roles to play.

But that doesn't mean that

A) They are good footballers
B) Can't be upgraded

Surely, that's what most of us think of Sissoko?

He has his role. And can perform that role to the best of his ability. But we also agree that he isn't the best footballer and can be upgraded.