Articles
Rock-solid Malian may prove to be Rafa's superman
HIS legs stretch across the turf like a snooker cue rest lying on the green baize. And they have a similar effect as that piece of apparatus - reaching things that mere mortals find physically impossible.
It's the incredible extending limbs of Momo Sissoko that give him that bit extra.
And they could provide the added leg-up Liverpool need to catch, and indeed overtake, Chelsea for real. Yesterday proved once again that they can do it over one game. But it's the 38 coming up that they need to be worried about. You need a squad to cope with such demands and, to that end, players who will take responsibility when their mates aren't around to do it for them.
Here's where Sissoko steps in. Analysing the individual pieces of magic dust that he sprinkled throughout the game gives encouragement enough.
Michael Ballack was forced into an early booking as Sissoko somehow squeezed the ball down the line just when the German thought he had him cornered. When the roles were reversed and Ballack finished up on his backside, it was courtesy of a perfectly-timed piece of good old-fashioned ball winning from his midfield opponent.
Arjen Robben must have felt he was under some sort of octopus attack as Sissoko wrapped his leg around the Dutchman to halt one of his trademark speed surges. And the hit list was then complete when Andriy Shevchenko suddenly appeared invisible as the big man strode through him and casually waltzed off with possession.
But the bigger picture paints an even more attractive landscape for Liverpool.
Sissoko's snuffing-out of opponents with such efficiency will surely reap more rewards when Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso are available to exploit it.
As it was, neither of them were alongside him for the majority of yesterday - and Jose Mourinho thought his side was operating at 50 per cent!
But half fit or not, a team that featured Lampard, Essien and briefly, Ballack, never dominated in a way that they might have expected when they saw that Gerrard and Alonso's names weren't in the top 11 on the team sheet.
It was largely thanks to Sissoko and his mere presence alone in the hour that he was without his chief allies that laid the foundations for more silverware-snatching at the expense of the champions.
The overall importance of the youngster to Liverpool's bid to return to the summit of English football has been buried in many aspects of summer holiday hype. Being from Mali, there was no World Cup in which to enhance his reputation, then fervent transfer speculation has taken further attention away.
It's natural that most pre-season patter focuses on the new men and how, or if, they will adapt to Rafael Benitez's masterplan. And given the risks Benitez has taken in this area it's little wonder that most anticipation is surrounding the summer signings.
But it's how Sissoko fits in that might be more relevant.
For a start, he has secured the man of the match award in both yesterday's Community Shield showdown and the first of the week's 2-1 victories in Wednesday's Champions League win over Maccabi Haifa.
Secondly, having him in such form is like bringing in a new signing anyway because of the nightmare he suffered in the last campaign when an eye injury, at one stage, threatened his career.
And thirdly, unlike Craig Bellamy and Jermaine Pennant, he has nothing to prove at Anfield because his first season was as smooth a settling-in period as you could wish for.
Yesterday also highlighted something that might have previously been unthinkable.
It involved Benitez, whether it was intentional or not, almost matching Mourinho's playing-down of his team's chances by leaving out the two chief playmakers that many thought they couldn't do without.
By sending Sissoko out into no man's land stripped of their support, he had to prove the team could cope without them.
It was a day when the boy from Africa had no choice but to go out and become a man.
Keep this up and he will soon become Liverpool's main man.
Copyright - Liverpool Echo
It's the incredible extending limbs of Momo Sissoko that give him that bit extra.
And they could provide the added leg-up Liverpool need to catch, and indeed overtake, Chelsea for real. Yesterday proved once again that they can do it over one game. But it's the 38 coming up that they need to be worried about. You need a squad to cope with such demands and, to that end, players who will take responsibility when their mates aren't around to do it for them.
Here's where Sissoko steps in. Analysing the individual pieces of magic dust that he sprinkled throughout the game gives encouragement enough.
Michael Ballack was forced into an early booking as Sissoko somehow squeezed the ball down the line just when the German thought he had him cornered. When the roles were reversed and Ballack finished up on his backside, it was courtesy of a perfectly-timed piece of good old-fashioned ball winning from his midfield opponent.
Arjen Robben must have felt he was under some sort of octopus attack as Sissoko wrapped his leg around the Dutchman to halt one of his trademark speed surges. And the hit list was then complete when Andriy Shevchenko suddenly appeared invisible as the big man strode through him and casually waltzed off with possession.
But the bigger picture paints an even more attractive landscape for Liverpool.
Sissoko's snuffing-out of opponents with such efficiency will surely reap more rewards when Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso are available to exploit it.
As it was, neither of them were alongside him for the majority of yesterday - and Jose Mourinho thought his side was operating at 50 per cent!
But half fit or not, a team that featured Lampard, Essien and briefly, Ballack, never dominated in a way that they might have expected when they saw that Gerrard and Alonso's names weren't in the top 11 on the team sheet.
It was largely thanks to Sissoko and his mere presence alone in the hour that he was without his chief allies that laid the foundations for more silverware-snatching at the expense of the champions.
The overall importance of the youngster to Liverpool's bid to return to the summit of English football has been buried in many aspects of summer holiday hype. Being from Mali, there was no World Cup in which to enhance his reputation, then fervent transfer speculation has taken further attention away.
It's natural that most pre-season patter focuses on the new men and how, or if, they will adapt to Rafael Benitez's masterplan. And given the risks Benitez has taken in this area it's little wonder that most anticipation is surrounding the summer signings.
But it's how Sissoko fits in that might be more relevant.
For a start, he has secured the man of the match award in both yesterday's Community Shield showdown and the first of the week's 2-1 victories in Wednesday's Champions League win over Maccabi Haifa.
Secondly, having him in such form is like bringing in a new signing anyway because of the nightmare he suffered in the last campaign when an eye injury, at one stage, threatened his career.
And thirdly, unlike Craig Bellamy and Jermaine Pennant, he has nothing to prove at Anfield because his first season was as smooth a settling-in period as you could wish for.
Yesterday also highlighted something that might have previously been unthinkable.
It involved Benitez, whether it was intentional or not, almost matching Mourinho's playing-down of his team's chances by leaving out the two chief playmakers that many thought they couldn't do without.
By sending Sissoko out into no man's land stripped of their support, he had to prove the team could cope without them.
It was a day when the boy from Africa had no choice but to go out and become a man.
Keep this up and he will soon become Liverpool's main man.
Copyright - Liverpool Echo
