"I don't think we'd have lost if we didn't have Stevie because we have played a lot of games without him," he said.
"Maybe we would have needed to have done different things, but I am very clear on that.
"He has scored 23 goals this season and it is outstanding for a midfielder to get that many.
"We know that we need to leave him to go forward and play his own game. That is the reason why we have Xabi Alonso and Sissoko.
"You talk about Stevie but if you don't have Sissoko working as hard as he has been, the balance of the team would be impossible.
"If you want to win trophies, you need a good team and some top class players after that. Stevie is one of the best players in the world, but we have a good team."