Moussa Sissoko

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I feel like people are forgetting how fucking galactic we were in 2016-17

That spine of Jan, Toby, Dier, Wanyama and Dembele totally ruined elite opponents with regularity.
Absolutely but Dembele was also a ditherer no two ways about it.
Brilliant at dispossessing and a monster on the ball....but rarely moved the ball forward.

A lot of the time it felt like all the sublime work was undone by going back for no reason
 
Sissoko will never be on peak Dembele level. Just isn't a good enough footballer to be so.

That's taking nothing away from Sissoko though. He's been alot better this season than he was the last few seasons that's for sure.
 
Absolutely but Dembele was also a ditherer no two ways about it.
Brilliant at dispossessing and a monster on the ball....but rarely moved the ball forward.

A lot of the time it felt like all the sublime work was undone by going back for no reason

Hmmmmm....

Do you honestly think with him playing the exact same role Sissoko has played this season at the same age and number of games, we would have lost 10 times?

I agree in part with your analysis but Sissoko's excellent season is highlighted maybe because of the lack of consistency and presence of others?
 
Absolutely but Dembele was also a ditherer no two ways about it.
Brilliant at dispossessing and a monster on the ball....but rarely moved the ball forward.

A lot of the time it felt like all the sublime work was undone by going back for no reason

Eh, I disagree. Dembele dribbled past a player effortlessly all the time, and that is a super valuable thing to do on the field, it breaks down the opponent's lines in one move. The other defenders aren't positioned anticipating that their teammate is gonna get their soul snatched by the Belgian genius they're marking.

That's the distinction with Sissoko, who surges into open space, but doesn't have the same ability to beat a man.
 
Absolutely but Dembele was also a ditherer no two ways about it.
Brilliant at dispossessing and a monster on the ball....but rarely moved the ball forward.

A lot of the time it felt like all the sublime work was undone by going back for no reason


Dembele also very difficult to dispossess and did well for us but all too often the end product of a shot or a telling forward pass was missing

I still think they were different types of player and unfair on either of them to compare them
 
Eh, I disagree. Dembele dribbled past a player effortlessly all the time, and that is a super valuable thing to do on the field, it breaks down the opponent's lines in one move. The other defenders aren't positioned anticipating that their teammate is gonna get their soul snatched by the Belgian genius they're marking.

That's the distinction with Sissoko, who surges into open space, but doesn't have the same ability to beat a man.

Like I keep saying different players

Dembele used to beat players with skill and trickery but often turned round to do it again whereas Sissoko surges past players and releases the ball quickly

Both had a reluctance to shoot
 
We can't compare Sissoko with Dembele. Sissoko is an absolute machine and offers us so much defensively by covering both full-backs, while Dembele was a monster on the ball who very rarely got dispossesed (can only remember the FA Cup semi-final last year when he lost the ball to the dab-machine which led to their first goal). Sissoko excels defensively, Dembele exceled offensively.
 
Hmmmmm....

Do you honestly think with him playing the exact same role Sissoko has played this season at the same age and number of games, we would have lost 10 times?

I agree in part with your analysis but Sissoko's excellent season is highlighted maybe because of the lack of consistency and presence of others?
Sissoko is playing well in his own right.

He would look worse if Dele or Trippier had been great all season
 
Eh, I disagree. Dembele dribbled past a player effortlessly all the time, and that is a super valuable thing to do on the field, it breaks down the opponent's lines in one move. The other defenders aren't positioned anticipating that their teammate is gonna get their soul snatched by the Belgian genius they're marking.

That's the distinction with Sissoko, who surges into open space, but doesn't have the same ability to beat a man.
Yes Dembele did that, but then went back and tried to do it again.
He didn’t burst forward and eat up the space
 
Dembele also very difficult to dispossess and did well for us but all too often the end product of a shot or a telling forward pass was missing

I still think they were different types of player and unfair on either of them to compare them

I love both....it’s just an interesting comparison no more no less.

Not sure why people are uncomfortable with it
 
I love both....it’s just an interesting comparison no more no less.

Not sure why people are uncomfortable with it

I love both too and not uncomfortable but for the reasons I’ve said I think it’s a mistake to compare them
That’s all

Like comparing Dele and Sonny

No big deal
 
Dembele was alot better than Sissoko defensively too.

Sissoko has a bigger engine than Dembele. That's probably about it. Fitter too (in terms of being less injury prone)
 
Dembele was alot better than Sissoko defensively too.

Sissoko has a bigger engine than Dembele. That's probably about it. Fitter too (in terms of being less injury prone)


I don’t know how you think that as no-one tackles like Sissoko but Dembele was better at marking I suppose
Sissoko occasionally loses his man

Agree your second part though
 
I don’t know how you think that as no-one tackles like Sissoko but Dembele was better at marking I suppose
Sissoko occasionally loses his man

Agree your second part though

Because Dembele was an absolute monster defensively. At his peak for us, he was on average making over 3 tackles per game (Sissoko makes less than half of that), constantly helped his full back and rarely lost his man in midfield.

Not sure they'd have worked together though. Especially not in a 4231 - Dembele, whilst was great defensively, always excelled when he was a defence minded midfielder next to him (Dier or Wanyama). Sissoko isn't that. However, he would have been excellent Dembele back up to ensure we didn't run him into the ground like we tended to do during his peak years for us.

Glad Sissoko stepped it up this year though. Feel the praise for him is a little over the top, though pleased for him in that regard because he received some horrible abuse in his first few years with us and I agree that without him (and Winks stepping up), we would have fared a lot worse this season.
 
I thought he was great last night, showed up all over the place, kept it simple and did his job really well. Was great to hear his name being sung so much.
To me, he and Winks won us the game yesterday. They sticked to Pochs plan, which was fight for the first and second ball and if you don't get it, turn back immediately and defend. They turned Citys most fearful part, which is their midfield, to their most useless part yesterday.
 
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