Sissoko off to Qatar as well..? | Page 2 | Vital Football

Sissoko off to Qatar as well..?

Wijnaldum was the Newcastle player that controlled the midfield whilst Sissoko was... there. When we signed Sissoko it was possibly the angriest I had ever been over a transfer.

In his defence he did play a lot better in the year we reached the CL final, but he still did very little.

Last season he was simply appalling.
 
For a player who can't pass, he has a pass accuracy of 86 % over 2075 minutes. In his last game against Leicester for us he had 53 touches, 39 passes with accuracy of 95 %.
 
Nick Real Deal said:
For a player who can't pass, he has a pass accuracy of 86 % over 2075 minutes. In his last game against Leicester for us he had 53 touches, 39 passes with accuracy of 95 %.
Click to expand...
I take those stats with a pinch of salt NRD. The vast majority of passes that Sissoko makes are short, simple passes to a teammate a couple of metres away. His job is to get the ball and let somebody else do something with it.
 
Gary Onedaysoon said:
I take those stats with a pinch of salt NRD. The vast majority of passes that Sissoko makes are short, simple passes to a teammate a couple of metres away. His job is to get the ball and let somebody else do something with it.
Click to expand...

There is some truth in that but numerous more qualified coaches than us have played him including his national coach. While I accept he is not technically good, he must offer something to get so many minutes. I have no problem with him moving on but I won't accept he has not contributed over the years.
 
Gary Onedaysoon said:
I take those stats with a pinch of salt NRD. The vast majority of passes that Sissoko makes are short, simple passes to a teammate a couple of metres away. His job is to get the ball and let somebody else do something with it.
Click to expand...
I thought that was Winks's remit!

I classed Sissoko as a utility player. Captain chaos or a bull in a china shop. Breaking up play. Unfortunately he forgot he was meant to only break up the opposition's play. He often found himself in some great final 3rd positions only to become 10x worse than Bergwijn in execution!
 
Last edited:
Nick Real Deal said:
There is some truth in that but numerous more qualified coaches than us have played him including his national coach. While I accept he is not technically good, he must offer something to get so many minutes. I have no problem with him moving on but I won't accept he has not contributed over the years.
Click to expand...
I've never said he hasn't made a contribution but his passing statistics aren't the way to demonstrate it.

He's a very limited player who, when given a very limited role, has, at times, done reasonably well in the past. But the fact that a limited player like him has got so much game time in the last three or so years is indicative of how far we have fallen in that time.

I take your point about far-better qualified coaches than me having given him regular game time though.
 
I think it's fair to describe him as a spoiler in both halves. He covered the RB position when ( usually Aurier ) got forward. He stayed deep on our corners to stop the break. He is fairly good in the air defensively.
In the opposite half he ain't great but there is a stat that highlights how many important attacks he starts but not necessarily an assist.
It took me a while to understand why he kept getting picked. Its not easy to appreciate
I admit. Maybe a culmination of his strengths just outweigh his weaknesses ? A lot of games he played as injury cover remember as he was the best squad option we had.
 
I cannot wait to see the back of him. A truly terrible player and one that doesn't deserve to wear the shirt. Compare his effort and diligence to the likes of Lamela.

Sissoko will not be missed by many.
 
Critical_Spur said:
I thought it that was Winks's remit!

I classed Sissoko as a utility player. Captain chaos or a bull in a china shop. Breaking up play. Unfortunately he forgot he was meant to only break up the opposition's play. He often found himself in some great final 3rd positions only to become 10x worse than Bergwijn in execution!
Click to expand...

Sissoko thrived for 18 months with his limited ability in a dual role as a defensive cornerstone and an offensive outlet breaking opposition lines and getting us up the pitch attacking. With a couple of well-taken goals thrown in. His efforts were rewarded; by the Spurs Legends, who named him their Player of the Season.
He put Alli and his wishy-washy game of nothingness for three long seasons into perspective. Sissoko has freely admitted he is not the most talented of players, Alli, meanwhile, with his sloppiness and poor attitude, is wasting his.
 
Poch really did make some really idiotic decisions. Signing Sissoko was one thing, but to reward him with a new deal was insanity.

Mind you he did the same with Lamela and gave Gaz a poor GK a contract when he was never good enough.
 
Nick Real Deal said:
For a player who can't pass, he has a pass accuracy of 86 % over 2075 minutes. In his last game against Leicester for us he had 53 touches, 39 passes with accuracy of 95 %.
Click to expand...

Gary Onedaysoon said:
I take those stats with a pinch of salt NRD. The vast majority of passes that Sissoko makes are short, simple passes to a teammate a couple of metres away. His job is to get the ball and let somebody else do something with it.
Click to expand...

The better question was when Hojbjerg played with Sissiko in centre mid, why Hojbjerg had 50% more touches of the ball every single week.

The answer is that the opposition could pass around Sissoko as he just runs around with no purpose. 53 touches is a disgraceful stat for a centre mid. It should be nearer a 100, like Hojbjerg is. He was often up in the 80's / 90's. Winks could also slot in there and get close to a 100 touches, admittedly sideways and backwards, but at least he could get on the ball.
 
Real Deal said:
Poch really did make some really idiotic decisions. Signing Sissoko was one thing, but to reward him with a new deal was insanity.

Mind you he did the same with Lamela and gave Gaz a poor GK a contract when he was never good enough.
Click to expand...

Didn't Jose give him the new deal?
 
Real Deal said:
Poch really did make some really idiotic decisions. Signing Sissoko was one thing, but to reward him with a new deal was insanity.

Mind you he did the same with Lamela and gave Gaz a poor GK a contract when he was never good enough.
Click to expand...
To be fair to Poch I thought he wanted Georginio Wijnaldum but was given Sissoko as a sop.

To think we could have had players like Mane and Wijnaldum with a bit of flexibility with the financial reins and really kicked on when we needed to.
 
Real Deal said:
It was Poch. A leaving present a few months before he got the chop.

Jose gave Toby a new deal.
Click to expand...

Fair enough. Gary's point is still the big one. Poch was always a compromised manager when it came to getting the players he ACTUALLY wanted. All that incremental revenue he made by the 4 years CL. Never saw a penny of it until 2019 when it was too late, even though Levy was posting over £100m profit.
 
muttley said:
Fair enough. Gary's point is still the big one. Poch was always a compromised manager when it came to getting the players he ACTUALLY wanted. All that incremental revenue he made by the 4 years CL. Never saw a penny of it until 2019 when it was too late, even though Levy was posting over £100m profit.
Click to expand...

He was but he was all so very average at spotting a player at the right age for the right price.
 
Real Deal said:
He was but he was all so very average at spotting a player at the right age for the right price.
Click to expand...

He no doubt spotted and endorsed De Ligt, De Jong, Fernandes, Dybala, Pulisic, Ziyech, Kovacic, Sancho etc. Not that was his job to spot talent but we were linked with all of them in his tenure. The problem was that the people around him had no ability to close deals and always left it one or two years too late. Then he had to move onto list B, list C that you refer to and then took the bullets for the purchases as if they were his making. He couldn't win, even when he changed his stance and started refusing them. The narrative was just there to "always blame Poch" even though the guy was stuck between a rock and a hard place.

It always amazes me that the people that slate Poch can never come up with a single credible name of a player that he turned down. I've asked for years. The only logical one I see is Tielemans, when he was available on a loan to buy from France. I can perhaps see how he slipped the net.

Now in 6 years of being in charge, you'd think they'd be loads of names. It's like an unsolved crime :-)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.