Jamie Redknapp believes that Tottenham missed Mousa Dembele’s presence in midfield against Manchester United and claimed midfielder Moussa Sissoko is “not in the same league” as his teammate.
Although Spurs dominated the midfield battle throughout the 90 minutes at Old Trafford on the weekend, they failed to create many clear cur chances which led them to attempt speculative long-range strikes.
Dembele replaced Sissoko with 30 minutes remaining but he was far from his dynamic best, as the Belgian is still recovering from an ankle injury which has disrupted his game time during the early stages of the season.
Despite failing to impress in his first campaign in North London, Sissoko has become an important member of the Spurs first-team this season, featuring in every single match and contributing with two goals and one assist.
However, Redknapp is convinced that Sissoko does not have the necessary skills to take the game to the opposition and provide an attacking threat for Spurs from midfield.
“Tottenham had to contend with the loss of Harry Kane through injury against United, and they really missed Mousa Dembele until he came on after an hour,” he wrote in his column for the Daily Mail.
“Spurs were crying out for a presence in midfield — someone who would get on the ball and surge with it.
“Moussa Sissoko is not in the same league as Dembele in that respect.
“Even without those two key players, Tottenham still have a decent group of players and yet they did not have a shot on target in the second half.”
OPINION
When match fit, there are very few midfielders who can match Dembele on the field for a combination of strength and skill on the ball. However, it is still very harsh of Redknapp to single out Sissoko for his display on the weekend because the Frenchman has made significant improvements, and he has also added goals and assists to his game since last season. Given his recent injury problems, it might be a while until Dembele is capable of producing his best football which means that Spurs will need to rely not just on Sissoko but other midfielders such as Harry Winks and Christian Eriksen to step up to the plate and be more ruthless in the final third.