Arsenal Transfer Rumors: Is Moussa Sissoko the Answer?

After watching Arsenal’s midfield get devoured by Liverpool on Sunday, I did some investigative work into what we need as a holding midfielder. To my surprise, Mathieu Flamini’s stats actually prove that he is a very capable holding/defensive midfielder. His two main downfalls are that he doesn’t contribute to the attack at all and his take-on success is a bit down due to his size.

But compared to other targets like Morgan Schniederlin and Romulo, he was superior.

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The latest holding midfielder to be linked to Arsenal is Moussa Sissoko, who has declared his love for the Gunners, claiming them as his favorite club and announcing that Patrick Vieira is his idol. I don’t know how that makes Newcastle feel about the situation, but it happened, so let’s look at it.

Sissoko is an all-purpose midfielder that can play attacking or holding roles. At 6’2″ he has the frame of a holding midfielder, at least moreso than Flamini does.

But according to the stats, Sissoko only has the upper hand on Flamini in terms of attacking numbers (chances created, key passes, etc.) In fact, his defensive and possession scores are abysmal and his successful take-on percentage is even less than Flamini’s.

However, he has been forced to do a lot of attacking for Newcastle, so maybe a defensive role would make all the difference.

Either way, his price tag makes him a rather unattractive option. With Arsenal rumored to have a 20 million pound transfer budget (which is still painfully small), Sissoko is supposed to fetch 16 million pounds. That leaves us 4 million to find a first class defenseman with.

I don’t like it. Do you?

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