Will the real Hojbjerg please stand up.. | Vital Football

Will the real Hojbjerg please stand up..

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It's a funny old game; two views of his performance yesterday...


View no.1 :

https://www.footballfancast.com/tot...stats-jose-mourinho-signing-pl-gossip-rumours

Spurs midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg had a stinker vs Newcastle


by Lewis Blain lewisblainsport share



2 minute read 27/9/2020 | 07:10pm



In a game embroiled in controversy, one Tottenham Hotspur player may have let his team down irrespective of the circumstances that ensued on the pitch.




Jose Mourinho’s side looked to be heading towards all three points against Newcastle United, courtesy of Lucas Moura’s 25th-minute goal but in the final minute of the match, the new handball regulations threw the game on its head.

Eric Dier was adjudged to have handled it inside the area with seconds remaining on the clock despite not even looking in the direction of the ball and after a lengthy VAR review which resulted in Peter Bankes taking a look at the monitor and awarding a penalty.


Callum Wilson stepped up to convert it to salvage a point for the visiting Magpies.

Aside from all that questionable decision, Spurs should maybe take a look at themselves having notched 23 shots in total with just one goal to show for it.

Mourinho ought to look at his summer signing Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who put in another questionable display at the base of midfield.

Per SofaScore, the Danish powerhouse lost possession 16 times, won just 22% of his duels, was dribbled past one and failed to record a single successful dribble. He also committed four fouls, including the one that led to the penalty call.

Against Everton on the opening day, Hojbjerg was quite poor too managing a rating of just 6.45 on WhoScored.

Considering the 25-year-old cost £15m from Southampton, a team he captained, as well as wages thought to be around £100k-per-week, he should be doing ten times better.


View No.2 :

https://www.football.london/tottenh...ayers-brilliant-performance-shouldnt-19007556

The Tottenham player's brilliant performance that shouldn't be overshadowed by VAR handball mess
The Danish midfielder was in top form in the middle of the pitch for Tottenham Hotspur in the draw against Newcastle United


By
Alasdair GoldTottenham Hotspur correspondent
  • 19:55, 27 SEP 2020
  • Updated00:23, 28 SEP 2020
Spurs


Amid all the controversy and drama of the final minutes of Tottenham Hotspur's 1-1 draw with Newcastle United, the performance of Pierre-Emile Hojberg should not be overlooked.

The 25-year-old has been warming up gradually to life at his new club and he was rested for the midweek trip to Shkendija after reportedly picking up a little knock during the victory at his former club Southampton.

The fresh Dane showed against Newcastle exactly why Spurs pursued his signature for a couple of transfer windows, following up on interest in him years ago before he first came to the Premier League from Bayern Munich.



Hojbjerg, who recorded the most ball recoveries in the Premier League last season, dominated the midfield at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

He mopped up everything that came his way in front of the back four and had the energy to constantly raid forward to press opponents in the Barcodes' half.

Everything went through Hojbjerg. He had 122 touches of the ball and made 109 passes, the only Spurs players to get into triple figures. Harry Winks was second with 92.


Newcastle United's right-back Javier Manquillo had their most passes with 37, with 53 touches of the ball.

Hojbjerg's partnership with Winks, which has been criticised by Tottenham fans for being too defensive, worked perfectly to dominate the midfield against Steve Bruce's side.

The duo worked in harmony to allow each to take turns in pressing further up the pitch.

While neither are the most forward thinking of players, they used the ball well whenever they got into the opposition half, setting the more creative players on their way, and Hojbjerg played a terrific, curling cross which Kane should have headed home from.

If anything those attacking players should have put the game to bed long, long before the late drama and Callum Wilson's added time penalty.

That they didn't should not reflect on Hojbjerg's performance and his own involvement in the incident that led to the handball decision against Eric Dier was equally baffling.

Joelinton appeared to throw himself at the Dane in the Tottenham half, pushing him backwards, only for the referee to award the free-kick to Newcastle which led to the handball.

That incident aside, Tottenham have got a voice in the centre of the park and their long-needed midfield general.

Victor Wanyama and Dier's first seasons respectively in the defensive midfield role were the last time Tottenham had a dominating defensive presence in the middle.

Hojbjerg has the potential to become that player with further moulding by Jose Mourinho but with a big voice on the pitch and in the dressing room.

In the empty stadiums you can hear him constantly talking his team-mates through the games, instructing and praising.

At one point in the second half, Ben Davies dealt with a defensive situation well and Hojbjerg bellowed across the pitch 'Bravo Ben' and applauded.

Being a vocal leader on the pitch is only important if you can back it up with your own performance.

The Denmark international did just that on Sunday afternoon and it's no coincidence that his best performance of the season so far coincided with Tottenham's.

Unfortunately at the final whistle neither of them ended up with the result their display deserved.



So what is it, a defensive goliath in the making or alot of noise, but no substance?!!?
 
I always think you really need to be at the game to really be able to judge a player, but I thought it was a much improved performance from him. He made himself a real nuisance breaking up play and a couple of nice forward passes

I tend to agree. I'm going to re-watch the game today and simply focus on him for much of it as I'm hearing these sort of extreme view in many places now and personally I thought it was such a lack lustre one sided game I really didn't think his overall game drew my attention this much either way!
 
I have been critical of him but I thought he played well yesterday, particularly in the first half where together with Winks they pushed the team forward against an attempted bus parking team and we created several goal scoring opportunities, something we have failed to do in the past.

Second half, with Newcastle trying to play I didn’t really notice him too much except for the foul incident which should have been a free kick to us...overall, a big improvement on his previous appearances but then the opposition didn’t pose many problems....I can’t form a long term impression until I have seen him play against better teams that press us and move.
 
Amazed by the lack of appreciation of just how good he was.

Defensively his positioning was spot on, he always dropped back when needed to cover, strong on the tackle and stopped a few counters with a few brilliant tactical fouls. Very difficult to press him and he transitions the balls to attackers with a flash. Put in a shift on Carrol and pushed him away from the CB's to prevent a mismatch in the box.

Offensively he recovered the ball in the final third multiple times, made a peach of a cross to Kane for a sitter, ripped through the Toon's defence with a ball to Kane on the buildup to the goal and has some other solid contributions.

He is a DM, not a bloody striker, so make sure you view him through the right lens.

Winks on the other hand was sub par.
 
I tend to agree. I'm going to re-watch the game today and simply focus on him for much of it as I'm hearing these sort of extreme view in many places now and personally I thought it was such a lack lustre one sided game I really didn't think his overall game drew my attention this much either way!

Please do. He was my MoM.

I've always thought that it would be good to see who is MoM with the ball and who is MoM without it. Hojberg and Davies were our best players without the ball.

Also, when a journo writes this then he doesn't deserve any credibility. It's just lazy "Considering the 25-year-old cost £15m from Southampton, a team he captained, as well as wages thought to be around £100k-per-week, he should be doing ten times better." Lazy, lazy, lazy !!!!
 
I thought PEH had a great game. He did exactly what we have been lacking. Just breaking down play and then getting the ball moving forwards. He doesn't smt do anything fancy just the dirty work
 
Too many silly fouls to be convinced he had a really good game, and if anything his fouling may well have 'unconsiously biased' the ref that the foul that led to ttheir freekick was one.

But overall, much improved, and as has been pointed out work with Winks to clear up and patrol the back 3 / 4 wasn't pressed too hard, but it looked like a solid start to what I think is a long running partnership in how Jose will set us up.

All you can ask at this stage is that he continuous his upwards trajectory, still can't work just how good he is still!
 
Too many silly fouls to be convinced he had a really good game, and if anything his fouling may well have 'unconsiously biased' the ref that the foul that led to ttheir freekick was one.

But overall, much improved, and as has been pointed out work with Winks to clear up and patrol the back 3 / 4 wasn't pressed too hard, but it looked like a solid start to what I think is a long running partnership in how Jose will set us up.

All you can ask at this stage is that he continuous his upwards trajectory, still can't work just how good he is still!


Depends on how one defines good. Any footballer who makes it into the Premiership can probably be considered good, but the really successful Premiership players are more than good.

We have Kane, Son, Bale and an ageing Lloris who are very good players at the highest level. Lo Celso may get to that level over the course of time, and the same may apply to Reguilon we don't know.

The rest of our players are journeymen Premiership pros, no better or worse than many other players in mid and lower PL teams. Hojbjerg looks to belong in that category, and I doubt whether he will progress beyond that.
 
Too many silly fouls to be convinced he had a really good game, and if anything his fouling may well have 'unconsiously biased' the ref that the foul that led to ttheir freekick was one.

But overall, much improved, and as has been pointed out work with Winks to clear up and patrol the back 3 / 4 wasn't pressed too hard, but it looked like a solid start to what I think is a long running partnership in how Jose will set us up.

All you can ask at this stage is that he continuous his upwards trajectory, still can't work just how good he is still!

lol - that old unconscious bias from referees again !!!
 
I thought Hoj had a good game, part of the trouble is that when you are dominant, the position he plays largely goes unnoticed, unless of course you sit and take particular notice of him as ex said he was going to do, watching his recording of the game.

What was noticeable were the little freekicks given away to stop there attacks, as most of us have been screaming out for, when was the last time we did that.

Unconscious bias...mmmm! lol!
 
I don't want pretty from my DM...I want a hard nosed, ass kicking, meat eater with a nasty streak.

If our DM isn't making the ref think about pulling a yellow each and every time he blows something up in the midfield...he isn't doing it right. His job is to disrupt and slow down the other team, then hand the ball off to someone on our team and get the shit out of the way.

PEH played ok this last game, not great but better.
 
Better. Not sure how difficult it is to pass the ball around 40 yds out as the entire opponent stands backed off 10 yds packed in....

When transitioned upon, I felt some anxiety amongst the entire central midfield, certainly didn't think the CB's were helping much w that.

Showed some attacking vision and delivery skills from deep out, woulda been a sweet goal had Kane got it past the Keeper.

Still about a £15m Prem CM for me, not much more. Hope he gets alot better.

.
 
He is better than Sissoko. He at least has a defensive brain. He doesn't leave his CM partner every 10 seconds. He isn't wishy washy like Winks either.

Jose needs to get Ndombele and Lo Celso fit and playing alongside him.

That is easily our best and most balanced midfield trio.