Hojbjerg - Is he actually holding us back? | Vital Football

Hojbjerg - Is he actually holding us back?

L

Littlest Hobo

Vital 1st Team Regular
I found myself enjoying the game last night. Until Hojbjerg came on. As soon as he came on i found myself feeling more nervous than any other period. Even the first 2 mins.

There is something i find unsettling about him for Spurs. He seems to over complicate the basics and does it in positions that tend to result in massive issues when they go wrong. Don't get me wrong, i like him and his attitude. He has great stats and he has great stats for other clubs breaking possession further up the pitch. But for us he seems to be doing it on the edge of our box and i believe he thinks this makes him more valuable to the team so is doing it more and more.

Watch him closely, he sits as almost another CB demanding the ball that our CB can quite easily have. Then he dictates to the players that he gives it a short pass and receives it back. Allowing the oppo to reform and us to risk losing the ball in our final 3rd. It instills nervous play from others. It also effects our ability to control games as the middle of the park disappears from the game unless we have ND to basically carry the ball 30yards himself.

One more thing i have noticed is his lack of trust in his own ability. I watched him recently win the ball. Run 20yrds and when he realized there was a pass on, he just put the ball out of play to get himself back in position. It was plain weird.

I dont doubt JM has input into this but i am starting to dislike watching him and preferring Sissoko and that just shouldn't be possible
 
It's a system and manager problem for me.

Until we get a good enough back line with the right midfield I doubt we will ever see the best of him.

He would have been perfect under Poch. With the high pressing game.

He just isn't a natural out and out DM. We don't have one.
 
Am not sure about your statement RD "he just isn't a natural out and out DM" I think he is and he probably takes the position with over the top responsibility, as in knows best, most important to the team, and thus we get what LH referred to as slowing the game down, then add him not having enough confidence in his back line behind him, so which ever way we look at it somewhere in the middle is the answer to all 3 posts. I hope I have explained myself correctly lol!
 
Iceberg is one of the best signing we have had in years. JM just needs to do a better job of utilizing him.
 
A big part of me thinks that Hojbjerg is a 2-3 season solution. If he had joined us when Wanyama and Dembele were strutting their stuff then he would have been on the bench. He wouldn't be keeping Prem players like Fabinho or Ndidi out of our side but he is what we need right now in the 20/21 season. For the 21/22 season it might be the same. I'm a big fan of his football brain and leadership.

However, you always dream of having a quicker, stronger and more talented player than Hojbjerg eventually. You'd like to think he'd accept his squad role, but just like at Bayern, a manager's flattery probably won't be enough to keep him in that capacity if he's not first choice.
 
Littlest Hobo said:
I found myself enjoying the game last night. Until Hojbjerg came on. As soon as he came on i found myself feeling more nervous than any other period. Even the first 2 mins.

There is something i find unsettling about him for Spurs. He seems to over complicate the basics and does it in positions that tend to result in massive issues when they go wrong. Don't get me wrong, i like him and his attitude. He has great stats and he has great stats for other clubs breaking possession further up the pitch. But for us he seems to be doing it on the edge of our box and i believe he thinks this makes him more valuable to the team so is doing it more and more.

Watch him closely, he sits as almost another CB demanding the ball that our CB can quite easily have. Then he dictates to the players that he gives it a short pass and receives it back. Allowing the oppo to reform and us to risk losing the ball in our final 3rd. It instills nervous play from others. It also effects our ability to control games as the middle of the park disappears from the game unless we have ND to basically carry the ball 30yards himself.

One more thing i have noticed is his lack of trust in his own ability. I watched him recently win the ball. Run 20yrds and when he realized there was a pass on, he just put the ball out of play to get himself back in position. It was plain weird.

I dont doubt JM has input into this but i am starting to dislike watching him and preferring Sissoko and that just shouldn't be possible
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I've been saying for a long time now.

He plays too deep at times and that vacates the midfield to the opposition, when he plays and stays 10-15 yards ahead of our backline, we don't have the same problem.

He's a good player, but how he plays in a defensive set-up kills us, play him when we play off the front foot, you see a whole different dynamic in midfield,.

I'm glad that others recognise it too!
 
There is no two ways about it the Iceman is very important to us, esp as our defence is/has been a bit iffy/panicky at times, though I do believe its getting better.

I am having trouble writing down what my thinking is off him, in that I really believe he thinks his mantra in the team is pressure on shoulders "I must, I must, get it right" thus maybe even trying to hard which we all know can in the end eff things up.
 
Personally I think he's been brilliant for us, is he the most complete DM of course not. But if we could get someone like Marcel Sabitzer next to him it would allow us to accommodate 4 attacking players in the side for most games
 
Spursex said:
Amazed there haven't been more comments on this view - I think it's critical to our hopes of achieving anything this season.
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Ex, you would know from my posts, I am in agreement with you and muttley on Hoj's role - often too deep a DM and now I concur with RD that it's either dictated by the coach or for some reason, forgiven by him. I can't believe, with all the technology, the coaches fail to see it.

I think it goes back to the early defense first approach under Jose and I recall him facing up to Hoj after the City win (great photo), when we all crowed he's the Captain designate.

Now that we are flexing our muscles, his role should be more flexible and especially v mid and lower table oppositions, he should be tasked to make his presence felt higher up.

To be fair to him, he does pop up higher up the pitch even gets a pop at the goal now and again!

Furthermore, his role is also dictated by whom he is paired with. Seriously, it would be too risky playing higher up with Sissoko, less so with Winks and he should feel unshackled alongside ND + Dele. So I don't think we are seeing the best of him with all the swapping and changing.

He has great stats for his role but could offer us a lot more. Over to Jose.
 
I've been saying for a couple of months that he either sits too deep at times but he also gets caught too far forward a lot too. His desire to win and have an impact on games tends to see him force the issue. He lacks a bit of discipline but I have no idea if his positioning is Jose's instructions or because of that lack of discipline.
 
He is a 5-10 yards pass master. Anything further he shits himself. Get the hell out of our defence and stop showboating on the edge of our box. Is pussy play. Men take it to the opposition and trust themselves to play against the opposition in the middle of the pitch. I’m surprised alderwiereld and Sanchez haven’t told him to get lost
 
I have said this all along. He is a mid table steady dm with a good attitude . He is just so slow and easy to play against. Today there Arsenal just ran by him. So we saw him foul and give the ball away but what do you expect for 15 mill. Boring and average
 
Hojbjerg had no right to leave the field without a yellow. He worked the ref brilliantly to say out of the book.
 
The lad can thread a pass but he's also a little rash at times, both in the challenge & in his reactions. He's a good player but if we want to move forward we need better.
 
steveperryman said:
The lad can thread a pass but he's also a little rash at times, both in the challenge & in his reactions. He's a good player but if we want to move forward we need better.
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There's always the knock-on effect. ND decided it was to be a 'lie on a deck chair' day, of all the days, a Derby day ffs. So the focus shifts else where. I accept that pride should ensure you keep your level up, but with ND AWOL, the gap between the defence and front 3 became a chasm. So expecting Hoj to create most of the forward movement seems unrealistic when he's conditioned to maintain a tight ship at the back.
 
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