Liverpool FC Forum

[Kopjon]

He can certainly disrupt the opposing attacks, but his tackling is clumsy and his passes are far too casual and sloppy. He needs to work on those. While he does that, Crouch can also work on adding muscle mass to his bony frame and get some power and accuracy into his heading. LFC's free-kicks need work and so do our crossing and corner techniques. Too many times they float into the box, which requires the attacker to do a little too much before getting closed down. Crosses and corners need to be whipped right into the six yard area and the striker need only divert the ball into the right direction using the power of the cross/corner itself. Some work on closing people down and not backing off and giving the opponent space to cross or shoot is essential too.

That's what they need to do over Summer.

Spot on.  Too much airy fairy indecisiveness at times last night.  We need to be a bit quicker and a bit more positive with regards to passing and movement.  There were several occasions rafa came running out of the dug out screaming for more movement.

[Big Niall]

Did Pennat win some Jim will fix it competition to play for LFC?

Can somebody explain why Rafa took Bellamy off for Pennant?

[stmichael]

Its all about pros and cons with Momo. and what sacrifices you are prepared to make to gain in other areas.

His workrate is immense. Much more, I suspect, than any of the other players. His distribution, and creative ability/awareness however, is a long way below that of our other midfielders.

As Rafa likes to control the opposition I think he is chosen simply to do this. The only negative I see with it is that with Momo in doing all the spoiling work, along with Xabi, it should be the perfect foil to allow Stevie to be a bit more headstrong and afford him to be less restricted. This, for me anyway, hasn't happened. Stevie is still expected to be a lot more disciplined than he ever was before, and unfortunately this takes away an awful lot from his game.

When Momo arrived and was such an instant hit I thought it would be the catalyst to let SG do what he does best, releasing him from shackles. unfortunately this hasn't happened. Thats not a critisism by the way, just the way I see things.

The question that needs adressing really is the fact that Momo adds nothing to us creatively outweighed by the fact that he can effectively stop an opponents midfield from being creative. A hard one to call. And a problem that I can see Mascherano having a big impact on. Rafa likes to use the counter attack and unfortunately momo isnt suited to expansive, quick, accurate, free flowing football.

Can he get better? Well realistically the more you practice the better you get. A long stint of 5 a sides would do the lad no harm in progressing his basic passing, awareness and decision making IMO.

At present he has the attributes and the ability to be a great midfield breaker upper. He's no holding midfielder, and it remains to be seen if Rafa can make him into "the next Vieira".

To all intents and purposes he's like Luis Garcia to me. I spend half the game thinking "f#cking brilliant lad" and the other half thinking "f#ckin hell lad".

[The Manhattan Project]

To train Sissoko to pass, get a group of players and make them stand in a huge circle around him, each of them with one ball. Then they have to pass the ball to him and he must pass the ball directly back to them. If he misdirects a pass, he gets hosed with cold water.

Then, part two of his training will involve players running past him with the ball at their feet. He must tackle them by getting the ball, but not bringing down the player. If he fouls the player, he gets hosed with cold water.

Repeat that every day for four months, and he'll be fine by August.

[Raoul]

To train Sissoko to pass, get a group of players and make them stand in a huge circle around him, each of them with one ball. Then they have to pass the ball to him and he must pass the ball directly back to them. If he misdirects a pass, he gets hosed with cold water.

Then, part two of his training will involve players running past him with the ball at their feet. He must tackle them by getting the ball, but not bringing down the player. If he fouls the player, he gets hosed with cold water.

Repeat that every day for four months, and he'll be fine by August.

Manhattan, it bewilders me why you aren't managing one of Europe's top club sides.  Clearly genius overlooked.

[Big Niall]

Sissoko would drown by April.

[stmichael]

With Momo now suspended for the first leg of the quarter final, the signing of Mascherano is looking even more inspired by Rafa.

[Bad Bob]

For me it comes down to a lack of composure when on the ball.  When he's got the ball at his feet (or, as Sabre notes, 4 feet away after one of his leaden touches ) he seems desperate to be rid of it.  More often than not, this leads to an intercepted pass if there isn't someone in a red shirt open within 5 feet of him.  If he could learn to take a breath and survey options when on the ball, he might learn to make some better decisions with his distribution.  Likewise, if he could learn to move into space more effectively with the ball at his feet, he could create openings for his passes. 

Now, people might feel that Momo will never learn to have composure on the ball given that there seems to be no composure whatsoever in his game.  After all, he's constantly bombing about like a freight train breaking up play so how can you expect him to put a stopper in that all-action approach once on the ball?  But, he has shown improved composure in the past two years.   Look at his tackling.  He used to be a card waiting to happen and more often than not, would take the player rather than the ball.  He still makes many rash challenges but he can curb that recklessness when he puts his mind to it.  After all, how many times has he picked up an early card--like yesterday--and still managed to see out the game while, most importantly, still be effective?  He's found ways to break up play without threatening to break legs and, to me, that shows he's learned some composure in his defensive game.  Now, if he could just cultivate some composure on the ball, we'd have a heck of a player on our hands.  Until he does, though, he'll always be a liability when it comes time to move the team forward.

[Espionage]

GERRARD SHOULDN'T BE TAKING CORNERS BECAUSE HE IS ACTUALLY A GOOD HEADER OF THE BALL. ALONSO AND AURELLIO WHEN HE PLAYS WHIP IT IN BETTER LOW AND FAST.

AS FOR MOMO THE LAD IS VERY YOUNG AND WELL NO WHERE NEAR XABI AND STEVIE THE LAD WILL GET BETTER. HE RUSHES TOO MUCH NOW BUT LAST NIGHT HE WAS GREAT. ASK YOURSELF WOULD THE YOUNG VIERA HAVE STAYED ON PITCH WITH A BOOKING SO EARLY AND STILL BECOME YOUR MIDFIELD DESTROYER?

I think that the reason why Alonso does not take corners is because he plays as a holding player and is needed to hang around the edge of the box and be ready for any counter-attack.  As for Aurellio, he does take them on occasion.

[Espionage]

What I think is amazing about Sissoko is the options that he gives Alonso.  When the ball is with the opposition keeper they usually man up on the other central midfielders.  But if the ball goes to the side that Xabi is closest to then often Xabi drops and relies on Momo to make the hard yards to get there and be the second man putting pressure on the ball.  So to those who say that Momo has no positioning sense I think that you should look again.  The telepathy that he has with Alonso about when he should go for balls and when he shouldnt is fantastic.  I always used to marvel at the way Hamann or even Makelele used to just run out and intercept balls played through the middle like they saw it coming a mile away.  The same way you could always trust Hamann to chase down the attacking-midfielder when they had space and lay down a solid professional (often yellow card) foul.  We see Alonso go into this role when we have Momo on the pitch and I think that it brings out the best in Alonso.  When Momo is close to the ball and play is switched, you often see Momo run from one side to the other while Alonso stays fairly central.  You could argue that this is poor positional sense.  But we all know that Rafa thinks very highly of Momo, so he be following strict instructions from Rafa telling him to do this.  Rafa is not someone who would tolerate a headless-chook.

When your midfield is being dominated, and you watch your team and they look like they are chasing shadows all game you are generally facing a team with good movement or your team has bad positioning.  If Momo can disrupt Barca's fluid stlye, he is not doing it my pure speed alone.  The way I see it, if Momo looks like he is running around like a headless chook and not getting to the balls, then its the other players fault for not putting enough pressure on the ball that he can do his job of providing additional pressure as that extra man.  If he can read the movement of the best teams in the world (he shut down Chelsea on a number of occasions and recently Barca) then he should be one of the last places when looking to allocate blame.

Offensively he looks like he cant believe that he has the ball and usually wants to either get rid of it as soon as possible or, go for a run and not end up holding on too long.  He is young and will gain more composure as time goes on.  I think that Momo is so strong in other areas that he deserves our patience while he matures in this area.

[stmichael]

To use an analagy:
Momo is a tank. he destroys things.

yeah normally the local gardens flower arrangements with one of his shots.

who says he isn't a threat in the final third? he's certainly a threat as far as i'm concerned.

[JBG]

For me it comes down to a lack of composure when on the ball.  When he's got the ball at his feet (or, as Sabre notes, 4 feet away after one of his leaden touches ) he seems desperate to be rid of it.  More often than not, this leads to an intercepted pass if there isn't someone in a red shirt open within 5 feet of him.  If he could learn to take a breath and survey options when on the ball, he might learn to make some better decisions with his distribution.  Likewise, if he could learn to move into space more effectively with the ball at his feet, he could create openings for his passes. 

Now, people might feel that Momo will never learn to have composure on the ball given that there seems to be no composure whatsoever in his game.  After all, he's constantly bombing about like a freight train breaking up play so how can you expect him to put a stopper in that all-action approach once on the ball?  But, he has shown improved composure in the past two years.   Look at his tackling.  He used to be a card waiting to happen and more often than not, would take the player rather than the ball.  He still makes many rash challenges but he can curb that recklessness when he puts his mind to it.  After all, how many times has he picked up an early card--like yesterday--and still managed to see out the game while, most importantly, still be effective?  He's found ways to break up play without threatening to break legs and, to me, that shows he's learned some composure in his defensive game.  Now, if he could just cultivate some composure on the ball, we'd have a heck of a player on our hands.  Until he does, though, he'll always be a liability when it comes time to move the team forward.

Yes, if he learned to have composure we would indeed have a heck of a player on our hands but I don't see that really happening.

If he cannot trap a ball and pass it five yards at this age he's never likely to learn it in 2, 3 or 5 years time.

Don't get me wrong, Momo is a formidable part of our squad and he's a type of player we can use to break up the opposition, but football isn't just about stopping the other team playing. To win Championships you need to go out and be be creative, and with Sissoko in our side for 30 or so league matches, we aren't going to win the league.

[Ace Ventura]

Yes, if he learned to have composure we would indeed have a heck of a player on our hands but I don't see that really happening.

If he cannot trap a ball and pass it five yards at this age he's never likely to learn it in 2, 3 or 5 years time.

Don't get me wrong, Momo is a formidable part of our squad and he's a type of player we can use to break up the opposition, but football isn't just about stopping the other team playing. To win Championships you need to go out and be be creative, and with Sissoko in our side for 30 or so league matches, we aren't going to win the league.

I think thats pretty much spot on, he is a vital player to have in the squad when you are playing against top sides away from home.
But when you are dominating posession and need someone with a bit of creativity to unlock tight defences then there is no place for Momo.

He is great at what he does but shouldnt be playing in the majority of games, there are 3 better ball playing centre midfielders at the club.

[stmichael]

I think we're right to question every player, and while this doesn't apply to momo 100%, putting players on a pedestal for work rate and effort alone isn't a good idea.  I'm almost schizophrenic when it comes to sissoko, I crave the liverpool side I watch to be masters of possession and creativity (areas where sissoko does nothing but frustrate), yet I know how vital he was at breaking up Barca's midfield and passing movement over both legs. The same feelings apply to Kuyt, his work rate and effort is second to none and he defended from the front the other night, but does he hit the back of the net enough and does he create enough? This season I think Crouch has been the better player, yet he can't seem to get a game. Theres alot to be said about workrate and effort, but we shouldn't forget this club is about beating opponents, not just stopping them beating us.

[redmikey]

alot of this boils down to rafa ethos that no player is bigger that the sum of the parts

momo will run till he dies , so wwill dirk and bellamy put in a mamouth amount of leg work against barca

and while momo may not be pretty on the ball, imo he doesn't need to be with xabi and steve in close quarters as they have the eye for a pass or a shot at goal,

imo kuyt is more of a problem than momo as the lad is all heart and work rate and little on the killer instinct, would owen have run a quarter of what kuyt has this season,    NO  but would he have scored twice as many goals  YES

but rafa likes the whole team to defend and work for each other at all times which is why baros and cisse soon got the elbow, people are calling for eto but rafa won't sign a player that makes demands and thinks they are top dog

imo momo is there as the engine of the team, leaving xabi and gerrard to consevre abit of energy for when it is needed he is vital to the team against the more creative teams as he dosn't give anyone a minutes peace on the ball to hurt us

against lesser teams i don't think he should be used as much as his flaws with the ball are highlighted when we have alot of the ball but rafa has brought in some of the best midfielders in world football in to the middle of the park, just the wings to sort out now and we will be flying