Newcastle: Expect Sissoko To Play Centre-Midfield (For Now)

By Simon Gallagher / November 1, 2014

It's hard to over-state how important Moussa Sissoko has been in the past few days: it was his central midfield performance in the second half of the Spurs game that was the driving force behind victory, and when he came on against Man City in the cup in mid-week he made an immediate, powerful impact. It's no surprise then to note that Alan Pardew says he is likely to continue in that position - especially given the performances of Gabriel Obertan:

€œI don€™t think, with the team at the moment, that he€™s going to play out there (on the right) when (Gabriel) Obertan is playing so well, so it€™s about him adapting his game."

Pardew insists that Sissoko is one of his first chosen names when he puts the team together, no matter where he's playing - and he's played a significant number of roles already - but he has not really had a run of consistency despite some great moments. He is likely to play at the front of a central midfield three, with two deeper lying players behind him (whether that is Jack Colback and Ryan Taylor, or the former and Vurnon Anita), but Pardew refuses to accept that a central position is better for Sissoko:

€œI think a driving force from midfield is something that he does very well. The right-hand side of midfield, if we didn€™t need him through the middle, is probably his best position... I think he was probably the changing force of the Tottenham game. €œWe€™ve talked about this and that, (Ayoze) Perez and that, but Moussa was the one who really changed it when he went into a deeper role. He€™s got that ability to change the game, and I do think he is a top, top player here, and one of the first names on the teamsheet.€

Scatter-gun praise, but the key point is that he will play Sissoko in the middle only as long as he needs him there, and then he will revert back to the right-hand side. That is a shame to be so rigid, considering Sissoko has done so well in the middle, and how frightening a powerful midfielder in his mould who is happy to run at central defenders can be for the opposition. Centre-halves are used to defending deeper against centre-forwards, while it's the full-backs who expect to be ran at by someone as direct as Sissoko - when forced with those runs from deeper, the defenders are sucked out (we see it also every single game when Coloccini does it for us) leaving space for the centre-forwards, rather than the more predictable play from wide. Quite why that would be ruled out simply because Pardew cannot accept that he might be wrong about Sissoko is dismaying, but at least he should have some opportunity to prove himself in that position with Siem De Jong out and Remy Cabella currently unfancied. Where do you think Moussa Sissoko should play?