THE GAME DAILY | JAMES GHEERBRANT
february 15 2019, 12:00pm, the times
Relegated with Newcastle, Moussa Sissoko and Georginio Wijnaldum now thriving at the top
In the summer of 2016, the fax machines were running hot at Newcastle United. The club had been relegated from the Premier League, and were finding plenty of suitors for their best players. Andros Townsend, Daryl Janmaat and Remy Cabella all fetched useful fees, but the headline transfers were two midfielders, Georginio Wijnaldum and Moussa Sissoko, hoovered up by two of the league’s established powers, Liverpool and Tottenham, for the sums of £25 million and £30 million respectively. Even now, those figures seem considerable; at the time, they were genuinely substantial.
The thing about moving from a relegated team to an elite team though, is that in all but exceptional cases, players do not come trailing contrails of excitement; instead they arrive carrying the baggage of ignominy. Can a player who couldn’t keep his club above the waterline really be good enough for the rarefied upper echelons of the Premier League? In the mind of fans and pundits, transfers are often about status, about the sort of club you want to be and the sort of player that befits those ambitions.
It’s fair to say that the general reaction to the signings of Wijnaldum and Sissoko was somewhat underwhelmed. For two clubs looking to move to the next level, were they really the sort of next-level players they should be targeting? And in the subsequent seasons, both players have struggled hard to overturn the notion that they’re not quite good enough. Sissoko has at times been a figure of fun, Wijnaldum probably more appreciated, but neither was what you’d call a resounding success in their first two campaigns. Instead, they have shifted perceptions slowly, with a gradual thaw leading, in their third season, to a sudden and simultaneous torrent of acclaim.
Wijnaldum has played more minutes than any other Liverpool midfielder this season (1851 in the league, more than 400 ahead of James Milner in second); Sissoko, with 1556, is second only to Christian Eriksen among Tottenham midfielders. He was integral to Wednesday night’s superb performance against Borussia Dortmund. Perhaps, as Liverpool and Spurs both continue to excel, we have simply reached a tipping point where these two players have been central, quite literally, to so many impressive and crucial wins that it has become impossible not to recognise their worth. For whatever reason, the qualities that they offer seem to have gained much more widespread appreciation in recent months.
Perhaps we shouldn’t be so hard on ourselves for taking a while to wake up to the virtues of Wijnaldum and Sissoko, though. In fairness, it can be quite hard to work out exactly what they do. They don’t score or assist very much at all: each has just two direct involvements this season (Wijnaldum two goals, Sissoko two assists), fewer than Isaac Hayden or Mark Noble. But neither are they notably disruptive defensive players: Wijnaldum is averaging 1.2 tackles and 0.5 interceptions per 90 this season, Sissoko 1.1 and 0.6. Instead, they belong to that class of knitting, shuttling, balancing midfielders who underpin the fabric of a modern team and whose influence is often unseen.
There was a mildly amusing incident involving Wijnaldum on social media a few weeks ago (stick with me here). The Dutch midfielder was spotted boarding a plane by an overexcitable fan, who opened his Twitter and wrote: “I’m 99% sure Georginio Wijnaldum is on my EasyJet flight.” What he didn’t realise was that Wijnaldum was at that moment sitting right behind him, recording the whole thing on his own Instagram. The anecdote felt like a nice metaphor for Wijnaldum the player: someone whose presence you can be aware of, without ever really noticing him.
He was outstanding in Liverpool’s win over Bournemouth on Saturday, scoring a sublime goal after making a valiant recovery from illness, but without being critical, that sort of performance is unusual: it is rare for Wijnaldum to be the most eye-catching player on the pitch. You might expect him to at least account for a lot of touches, but with just 74.0 touches per 90 this season, he ranks well below any other Liverpool central midfielder. Sissoko averages 68.2 touches in the league, below Harry Winks, Christian Eriksen and Eric Dier (although slightly above Dele Alli and Mousa Dembélé). They are the ghosts in the machine.
I realise that I’m lumping Wijnaldum and Sissoko in together here, and they are different players: Wijnaldum is a better passer, Sissoko a more prolific dribbler. Both are good at progressing the ball in different ways. But there is a sense that they share several similarities.
Neither of them, for example, are what you would call natural footballers. They don’t have the sleight of foot, the playground skill, the gossamer touch of many elite central midfielders. Sissoko often looks gangly and ungainly on the ball; Wijnaldum, meanwhile, was not a footballer at all in his childhood years, and instead aspired to be a gymnast. If you squint, you can see the traces of that passion in his playing style: smooth, kinetic, balanced. Both players rely a lot on their natural athleticism, but also their intelligence, their feel for the systems and rhythms of modern football, especially in the transition from defence to attack, a phase of the game in which both excel.
They have in common a ductile dependability which endears them to their managers and can manifest as an extreme versatility. Wijnaldum, who started his career as a goalscoring No 10 or winger at Feyenoord, played in a back three against Brighton last season. Sissoko has played on both wings for Tottenham, as an attacking and defensive midfielder, and as a wing back. This is the paradoxical predicament of the player that excels in the liminal, transitional, unquantifiable moments of the game: the thing that makes them hard to appreciate also makes them hard to pigeonhole, and thus immensely valuable. They can seem to be nowhere, and they can be anywhere.
Obviously, Jürgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino deserve credit here: for refusing to conceive of a player’s “quality” as a fixed state, and instead as something latent, malleable, ready to be drawn out given the right instruction, the right nurturing.
Perhaps these two formerly unappreciated players are simply enjoying an evanescent moment of critical acclaim. Or maybe, just maybe, something more evolutionary is going on. As modern football becomes more system-based, the value of players like Wijnaldum and Sissoko, players whose contribution falls between the statistical cracks but who glue the system together and can be plugged into multiple positions, will only increase. In football, the peacocks will always draw the eye; but sometimes, it’s important to stop and admire the magpies too.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/relegated-with-newcastle-moussa-sissoko-and-georginio-wijnaldum-now-thriving-at-the-top-s2d8hv6ls?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_102&utm_medium=email&utm_content=102_5194230&CMP=TNLEmail_118918_5194230_102
Thought this was interesting cos that's exactly what I do at work, keep shit working without being noticed. Including by my many bosses, unfortunately.
Thread title ffs.