Deal for Cissokho's return agreed?

Reports are emerging that he's coming back

Loaned out to Porto for the season over the summer by Tim Sherwood, Aly Cissokho’s second spell with the Portuguese club didn’t quite go as planned.

Today, Sport Witness can exclusively reveal that the player’s loan has been officially cut short by Aston Villa, with the left-back returning to the Midlands club for the remainder of the season.

Talk of this happening has been circulating for a while now, especially since Jordan Amavi’s cruciate ligament rupture, and the deal has now been finalised.

HERE

I think this is a great move for us. Let's be honest defensively he's a quality left-back who has international, champions league AND premiership experience!!..and i think he'll toughen up that defence because left-back is obviously an area of concern for us since Amavi's injury.

It's also good that we won't have to spend money on a new left-back and Remi will be able to put all the funds into other areas of the team.

Richards-Okore-Lescott-Cissokho

All in that defence have international and champions league experience and i'd argue that it's a midtable defence and not a bottom half one.

If he's fit to play then there's a good chance he could be in the side when we got to Sunderland on January 2nd which is good news i think.

He's awful going forward and has one of the worst crosses on a fullback I've ever seen, but he can defend very well. He's a huge step up on Bacuna and Richardson. I'm glad he's back for the remainder of the season.

I don't care if he crosses like Sandy Richardson as long as he doesn't defend like Kieran Richardson.

I posted before about him to the tune of let him defend solidly and pass it simply to somebody who can do something productive or dangerous with the ball.

Can someone remind me why he was loaned out...?

AstonThriller wrote:
Richards-Okore-Lescott-Cissokho

Christ alive.....Richards is no longer a full back....why do some fans persist with this?....and to switch him out for Lescott?

laughable!

Richards has been our best performing defender, is our captain, shows real passion for the club, and was brought in to play CB. Shoving him to RB to play Lescott doesn't solve a problem, it creates 2.

Great news about Cissokho though. Fucking shite as an attacking fullback but rock solid defensively

We don't really attack down the left with Bacuna and Richardson anyway so it's not like we're taking 2 steps forward, 1 step back.

This is a good deal. I hope he's got a sensible haircut on him though.

ViewFromT2 wrote:

AstonThriller wrote:
Richards-Okore-Lescott-Cissokho

Christ alive.....Richards is no longer a full back....why do some fans persist with this?....and to switch him out for Lescott?

laughable!

Well imo he either plays right-back, which by the way IS HIS NATURAL POSITION, or get gets out of the defence altogether. Because for me his positional sense at centre-half leaves a lot to be desired and it's cost us one sloppy goal too many.

Villa_Dan wrote:Richards has been our best performing defender, is our captain, shows real passion for the club, and was brought in to play CB. Shoving him to RB to play Lescott doesn't solve a problem, it creates 2.

Great news about Cissokho though. Fucking shite as an attacking fullback but rock solid defensively

Okore and Richards both prefer to play on the right side...so no it doesn't "cause two problems" putting Richards in a position he's played in for the majority of his career including last season. Time to do what's best for the team now and not one individual.

Lescott is a left sided CB, Richards and Okore, in my opinion, won't be able to play together, its one or the other?

Okore might be able to play RB?

I would play Hutton at centre forward instead of the fucking midgets that we have up front now.

Okore plays on the right but until Richards returns we won't know if Okore can also play on the left. We know, for example, that Clark really can't play on the right but we've not (AFAIK) seen Okore play on the left. I still think Garde knows what he's doing in selecting the defence, Bacuna has been surprisingly good and might still give Cissokho a run for his money.

Good news on Cissokho though, he's not as good as Amavi but he can defend. If he can be taught how to a) hit the ball in first time on the break rather than take a couple more touches (allowing the opposition to compose themselves) and invariably losing the ball and b) use his right foot as well, he could be a very good player. Too often though when we broke down the left and we had Benteke in the middle ready and waiting for a ball into the box to run at Cissokho would slow down play again. A bit like Grealish running to the edge of the box and stopping. The two of them are going to have to do a load of work together but I think in a 4-1-4-1 Cissokho's selection will allow Grealish to be played too.

I do still wonder if Bacuna will carry on in defence though. No, he's not a defender but he's done a good enough job and he's very good going forward. Cissokho gives us options though.

I think I echo the sentiments of everyone here when I say he's a shite footballer but a good defender. Glad to have him back provided he's not allowed past the halfway line.

Glad he coming back Richardson kills me.

As for Richards at rb no thanks his been a beast at cb by far!!

Good move even though I have been impressed with Bacuna in the last two games.
I still think there's a spot somewhere in this team for Bacuna because things tend to happen when he's there. He might be useful in a wing role on either side to help protect the fullbacks and he still has the ability to have a pop from long range or play a decent through ball. Gives us more physicality than Grealish, Gil or Sinclair.

I'm happy to see Cissokho given another shot and equally would be happy to never see Bacuna in a Villa shirt again, definitely one for the out-tray rather than the some-day-maybe pile.