Moussa Sissoko’s move to Tottenham in the dying minutes of the summer Transfer Window came as a bit of a shock to everyone. The club spent a reported £30m on a player that struggled to shine in a lackluster Newcastle side that was eventually relegated. Barring some magnificent performances in the Euros, his performances for Newcastle have been average at best. The move proved to be fairly divisive within the Spurs fanbase.

Seven games in and Sissoko is making a case for himself. He has shown that he’s not as inept as some (myself included) first assumed. His performances even earned him a start against a perfect-record, Guardiola-led Manchester City.

What has he been doing well?

Sissoko is a player with extreme physical ability. He has pace to run down the channels and a strong frame to hold up play or knock an opposition player off the ball. These attributes are crucial, if not necessary, for a player to succeed in Pochettino’s system. Midfielders are simply required to be workhorses, pushing up to support the attack one second and tracking back or regaining possession the next. Sissoko’s physical prowess makes him an asset in the Spurs midfield, as we saw in his excellent performance against Manchester City.

From the beginning of the game, he showed a phenomenal understanding with Walker. Since both teams started in a frantic but efficient manner (perhaps Spurs more so), Walker and Sissoko were providing under and overlaps to each other within the first 10 minutes, connecting with sleek one touch passing.

This understanding transcended the attacking phase. Sissoko helped Walker defensively numerous times, and both seem to have a good understanding of who to mark when. The lazy and lethargic Sissoko from Newcastle has been nowhere to be seen this season. For Spurs, he has tracked back and helped out defensively in every outing.

Throughout the game, Sissoko showed that he had a good understanding of how he fits into Pochettino’s system. Interestingly, he stuck to the right touchline almost religously when Spurs had possession. This is rare in a Pochettino team as it’s widely known that he likes his attacking players to make outside-in runs. As seen below, Sissoko didn’t really do that.

While Son, Eriksen, Dele Alli, and Lamela were roaming and interchanging positions constantly throughout the match, Sissoko remained a fixture on the right. The reasoning behind this tactical decision is two-fold. First, he simply does not have the technical qualities to effectively interchange with the rest of Tottenham’s attacking players. Second, his constant presence on the right made it easier to target that side of the pitch in attack. Kolarov has been woeful this season and his poor form continued against Spurs – his lack of defensive ability was exploited by Eriksen, Sissoko, and Walker time and again.

It’s important to stress here that this only occurred when Spurs were in possession. In the couple of times that Manchester City were able to retain the ball, Sissoko tucked in to make the Spurs defense more packed. In this way, Spurs gave up the flanks in order to effectively crowd out Aguero and Silva’s contributions down the middle.

Manchester City was Sissoko’s first real test and he exhibited the mental and tactical understanding of what Pochettino wants him to do.

The Frenchman was confident on the ball as well. His short link up play and ball control were crisp, resulting in two nutmegs (in this aspect he’s slotting into the squad quite nicely.) In his best moment of the game, he pulled off a move reminiscent of Dembele. He was able to get around three of City’s players, simultaneously dragging defenders out of position and opening up space for rushing attackers.

Sissoko was fouled before anything threatening could develop, but the move was promising. Attracting the attention of multiple players and dragging them out of position, opening space for willing runners, is perhaps Sissoko’s most important attribute in Pochettino’s system. Lateral dribbling is an essential component to shifting a compact defense and opening up space.

How can he improve?

His passing in the final third. For all the good positions that he finds himself in, his ability to place a dangerous pass into the box is found wanting.

These are two perfect examples of his poor final ball.

1. Sissoko runs circles around Kolarov to get to the byline. He has Son, Dele, and Eriksen to pick out in the box. He opts to drill a pass to Dele, which gets easily cut out before there’s any real danger.

Had he chosen to pass it to Eriksen instead, the move may have resulted in a shot on goal. A low cross to Dele is always difficult to pull off simply because it has more chances of hitting a body.

2. Spurs regain possession in the middle of the pitch and charge forward. Sissoko attempts to pick out Eriksen – he does, but it’s slightly behind the Dane, causing him to miscontrol it and lose possession.

It’s really a simple pass that could have led to a good chance, but Sissoko fails to execute.

Not all of his mistakes occurred in the offensive third – his biggest one in the game actually occurred in Tottenham’s box.

As I mentioned before, Sissoko was tasked with tucking in and crowding out the likes of Silva or any City player looking to pull the strings.Below, we see him clearly recognize his responsibility as he bumps into Silva seemingly purposefully.

As the move develops and the ball is passed outside to Navas, Silva is able to swoop behind Sissoko and between Alderweireld and Vertonghen.

In the following image we see Silva’s darting run towards the box, and Navas is (surprisingly) able to fizz in a great ball. Fortunately for Spurs no City player was able to capitalize but the fact remains – Silva completely lost Sissoko. It was pure luck that City were not up one nill in the first three minutes.

It’s clear that Sissoko was instructed to carry out zonal marking here – in other words, cut off any potential cut-back pass to the top of the 18 yard box. However, Silva coming that close to scoring so early in the game is obviously concerning. The fact that Vertonghen was completely unaware of the run behind him means that someone failed to properly communicate.

As dire as this mistake was, I’m confident that this is something he will improve on the more he trains with the team. When a system requires players to switch from man marking to zonal marking on the fly, it takes some getting used to. It seemed like a bit of a one off, one of those times when the mind slips just for a second, allowing the opposing team a chance to strike.

I find his passing in the final third much more problematic, as its systemic. Take a look at his passing map against Sunderland and Middlesbrough.

Combined with his passing map against City, it paints a somewhat damning picture. He contributes next to nothing within the box. It’s crucial that he improves on this because he plays somewhat as a traditional winger in that he looks to pass the ball into the box from the flank. If he is unable to effectively attack from the wing, it diminishes Tottenham’s overall threat.

Conclusion

Slowly I’ve tried to differentiate between the player and his price tag. It seemed unbelievable that Pochettino, who has been fairly successful with incoming players at Tottenham, would be so interested in someone who honestly seemed like a bit-rate player.

Sissoko hasn’t been a star on the team, and he’s not a nailed-on, dead-set starter just yet. But he has improved Spurs immensely simply by diminishing the shock of Dembele’s absence. He’s a player with similar attributes that will no doubt improve in time with Pochettino – ideally he’ll push for a spot in the starting XI when a fully fit Dembele is available. So far he’s slotted in nicely, and has a shown an understanding of how Pochettino wants him to fit in the system.

As far as the price tag goes, I’ve begun to think about it this way – Pochettino didn’t choose to spend £30m on Sissoko, he chose to spend £30m on making Tottenham a viable contender across all competitions.