- Dec 9, 2006
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Sissoko definitely has his value in the right system. Physically he is still levels above most players in this league and he has the positional discipline (and knowledge that he isn't really useful going forwards) to where if he plays alongside Hobjerg it allows the attacking fullbacks we have to push up very high, along with Ndombele/GLC and whatever front 3 we have out there.Thought he wasn’t going to be much of an influence this year but he was another standout today. Thought he and N’Dombele were on the same wave length and he was all over the place. Well done, Moussa.
Sissoko definitely has his value in the right system. Physically he is still levels above most players in this league and he has the positional discipline (and knowledge that he isn't really useful going forwards) to where if he plays alongside Hobjerg it allows the attacking fullbacks we have to push up very high, along with Ndombele/GLC and whatever front 3 we have out there.
Today at 11v11 it was basically Dier/Sanchez/Sissoko/Hojbjerg fully entrusted with staying deep and cleaning up, as well as covering for the fullbacks when they did go forward. That allow the other 6 outfield players to focus on attacking and working space on the counters. Obviously the whole team still had to play defense, but no doubt the primary duties fell to those 4. Sissoko and PEH were extremely effective today.
Sissoko played an important role without the ball when we needed to defend. I’d be happy for him to partner Hojbjerg in tough games, and then pair Lo Celso and Ndombele in front of Hojbjerg in the ‘easier’ games.
I’m afraid I don’t see much game time for Winks at the moment.
Winks will get a lot of matches - Plenty of rotation to be had
Unless he recaptures his form from 2 years ago he is our weakest CM player. Offers nothing defensively, even when he gets in the right position he often is waltzed past with ease, and is way too slow and cautious in possession. I hope I am wrong as he was a cracking prospect and I'd always rather see one of our kids play over any expensive signing. But he needs to start attacking space when he has the ball. He needs to look for the quicker vertical pass.
But yet constantly picked by the manager and the previous one, everyone wants Winks dropped purely because of idealogies of how they want us to line up and wishful thinking but he is obviously doing something right to get constantly picked.
Looks to me like our players are starting to buy into Jose and I think if we carry on like this out players will start to up their levels and improve, I mean Winks was excellent against Newcastle for what he was asked to do (barely got a mention but hey ho).
So yeah he will get a lot of mins because there's a lot of games to play this season.