Player Watch: Pierre-Emile Højbjerg

[Erm33]

People trying to justify his performance by saying oh he crossed the ball for the goal ???
we just gonna forget all about the amount of times he gave away the ball before and after that


one swallow doesn’t make a summer

No one is justifying his performance. We're simply saying both positive and negative. It's you naysayers who always look to bash him that overlook any positive contribution he makes in your biased posts.

Winks was also fucking awful tonight. Bentancur was silky when he came on, on the ball but we still let in two goals when Pierre was off the pitch. In fact we were never losing when he was.

 

[Erm33]

Was the only time he made a positive contribution - his passing accuracy was not even Sunday League standard

It was a pretty big positive contribution. I'm just saying it deserves mentioning if you're gonna make a non biased post about his performance.

 

[fishhhandaricecake]

Probably should be a squad player not a starter if we want to be back in CL but the stick he gets is out of order. The guy puts in 110% match in match out and he’s no where near as bad as some people make out.

 

[sidford]

Last night seemed a real turning point for the crowd with him. Late in first half and then into the 2nd half the crowd really got onto his back over pretty much any pass including the successful passes he made backwards.
He certainly seems the new scapegoat for alot of people. Yea he wasn't great last night but him and winks are a mid table (at best) partnership so hopefully we won't be seeing them in a two for much longer

 

[tiger666]

Was the only time he made a positive contribution - his passing accuracy was not even Sunday League standard

82.9%

 

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

He can’t play under pressure. He has no press resistance at all as he lacks athleticism and technical ability.

We desperately need Skipp back so we can partner him with Bentancur and drop Hojbjerg and Winks.

In the summer I’d sell Hojbjerg and buy Bissouma. Hugeeeee upgrade.

 

[Wsussexspur]

Last night seemed a real turning point for the crowd with him. Late in first half and then into the 2nd half the crowd really got onto his back over pretty much any pass including the successful passes he made backwards.
He certainly seems the new scapegoat for alot of people. Yea he wasn't great last night but him and winks are a mid table (at best) partnership so hopefully we won't be seeing them in a two for much longer

I’m not sure scapegoat is the correct word for the crowds reaction. I just think people are starting to wise up that the hype generated around Hojiberg by a lot of people is really not justified. He really is just a bang average player who isn’t terrible at anything but doesn’t stand out at anything either.
To be fair he isn’t the only one in our squad like this we have few players this applies to.

 

[Adrian Mepham]

Whenever I watch him I see him running towards our defense with his arms wide wanting the pass, he gets the pass, proceeds to fire the ball straight back and point randomly upfield. I think to myself, why didn't you play that pass if you could see it? He is really not top PL standard, and I can't think of a worse midfield pairing in the PL than him and Winks.

 

[Aphex]

I don’t care about stats, I only use them to back up what my eyes tell me.

For example, Kante is class. If I look at stats they will probably I am sure back it up.

PEH is a very very average CM that isn’t going to be good enough to start for us if we want to win and achieve things.

He’s been here long enough and I’ve seen enough of him to form an educated opinion.
He has the odd game where he looks good, but when he reverts to mean it’s a very low level.

Him and Winks are one of the worst CM partnerships I’ve seen for spurs in decades. No exaggeration. No pace, no agility, poor technical ability, no finesse, no vision. No courage to play. No ability to beat a press. Awful. Everything you don’t want in a modern midfield.

 

[GutBucket]

Can't start 2 games in a row, once he gets tired he becomes really really bad.

 

[Rosco1984]

He kept Ward-Prowse quiet. Then he went off and, well, we know what happened then.

ward-prowse ran the whole game they just took two of the chances he created second half rather than wasting them. If anything we released the pressure and had more of the game second half when he went off. You would have to be blind to not see that we are more fluent without him.

 

[Rosco1984]

High block and interception stats because when he plays we end up constantly parked in our own half because he has no way to beat the press. That's not his fault and he's not alone. He's a decent player when on the front foot with time on the ball and has good tactical awareness and vision. But he absolutely cannot be part of a two man midfield with any partner I don't care if its prime Pirlo, Dembele anyone he doesn't have the mobility to find space or avoid pressure when pressed and he moves the ball far too slowly. DONT PLAY HIM WHEN WE ARE GOING TO BE PRESSED.

We have a massive problem under pressure because of the following.

Emerson... cant beat a man down the outside always passes backwards and inside re inviting the pressure.
Hojbjerg.. Moves the ball slowly and lacks mobility to find space and turn out of pressure
Sanchez... Totally devoid of technical ability on the ball and visibly panics which spreads to those around him.
Davies... same as Sanchez but with better technical ability.

All those things combined are a recipe for disaster under high pressure and you get what we have seen against chelsea (which was even worse because Tanganga is similar to sanchez with less experience) and last night against saints.

 

[hughy]

He was terrible, but I don't think there was a single person who could leave the pitch with their head held high. Maybe Lucas, but that's it. They were all largely gash.

 

[Aphex]

He was terrible, but I don't think there was a single person who could leave the pitch with their head held high. Maybe Lucas, but that's it. They were all largely gash.

Lloris was quality. I don't think Kane and Son were that bad, obviously not at their best though.

Romero showed moments of proper class, but he suffered from the panic which was contagious from the rest of the team. Playing in between Royal, Sanchez and Davies he must have been thinking wtf is this.

 

[cozzo]

High block and interception stats because when he plays we end up constantly parked in our own half because he has no way to beat the press. That's not his fault and he's not alone. He's a decent player when on the front foot with time on the ball and has good tactical awareness and vision. But he absolutely cannot be part of a two man midfield with any partner I don't care if its prime Pirlo, Dembele anyone he doesn't have the mobility to find space or avoid pressure when pressed and he moves the ball far too slowly. DONT PLAY HIM WHEN WE ARE GOING TO BE PRESSED.

We have a massive problem under pressure because of the following.

Emerson... cant beat a man down the outside always passes backwards and inside re inviting the pressure.
Hojbjerg.. Moves the ball slowly and lacks mobility to find space and turn out of pressure
Sanchez... Totally devoid of technical ability on the ball and visibly panics which spreads to those around him.
Davies... same as Sanchez but with better technical ability.

All those things combined are a recipe for disaster under high pressure and you get what we have seen against chelsea (which was even worse because Tanganga is similar to sanchez with less experience) and last night against saints.

Winks?

 

[Rosco1984]

Winks?

Winks is far better under pressure than Hojbjerg. He's not the answer and he is a squad player but he moves the ball quicker and does have the mobility to turn out or pressure. He does get caught when trying to do it at times and is no way the final answer but I would much rather have him next to bentancur and Conte agreed as it was Hojbjerg he dragged (finally). The one time all season we have consistently beaten the press was agaisnt the team thats the best at doing it probably in the world in Liverpool. Winks had an excellent game that day without Hojbjerg in the side.

 

[faze_coys]

Winks?

everybody knows winks ability and limitations now, I think the key bit in roscos post is that neither of them can play in a 2 man midfield. It’s been glaring obvious since PEH was bought.

He is always going to be that ‘3rd Midfielder’ because he isn’t great at holding, he isn’t great at progressing play, he’s the player you use to press in both directions and try to disrupt any possession the opposition has, while you have 2 more in with him that are focused on a particular role (Dm/transition).

There are very few players that can perform at a high level in a 2 as your break up player whilst being expected to offer more.

It’s just poor tactics tbh and he’s a victim of it

 

[Nebby]

ward-prowse ran the whole game they just took two of the chances he created second half rather than wasting them. If anything we released the pressure and had more of the game second half when he went off. You would have to be blind to not see that we are more fluent without him.

Maybe we were more fluent when Bentancur came on. Problem is, we were also far more open. People can hate on PEH all they like, but he diligently occupied the left-hand channel and kept Ward-Prowse from crossing. We had nullified their best opportunity to score - WP's deliveries from deep and his free kicks around the box. PEH went off and we stopped doing the ugly stuff.

I get that Conte felt he had to gamble and go for the win, but the moment we went 2-1 up he should have brought on Doherty, flooded midfield, and killed the game.

 

[faze_coys]

Maybe we were more fluent when Bentancur came on. Problem is, we were also far more open. People can hate on PEH all they like, but he diligently occupied the left-hand channel and kept Ward-Prowse from crossing. We had nullified their best opportunity to score - WP's deliveries from deep and his free kicks around the box. PEH went off and we stopped doing the ugly stuff.

I get that Conte felt he had to gamble and go for the win, but the moment we went 2-1 up he should have brought on Doherty, flooded midfield, and killed the game.

Your just saying stuff that has no reality to the actual game, Southampton could of had 4/5 goals in that first half, he didn’t nullify anything. JWP was dictating play and Armstrong was running us ragged in that first half.

they had 14 shots in the first half ffs.

 

[Aphex]

Winks is far better under pressure than Hojbjerg. He's not the answer and he is a squad player but he moves the ball quicker and does have the mobility to turn out or pressure. He does get caught when trying to do it at times and is no way the final answer but I would much rather have him next to bentancur and Conte agreed as it was Hojbjerg he dragged (finally). The one time all season we have consistently beaten the press was agaisnt the team thats the best at doing it probably in the world in Liverpool. Winks had an excellent game that day without Hojbjerg in the side.

Nah can't agree with this at all.

Winks is dire when pressed, he's literally terrible. One of his worst attributes, and there are many.

Please remember that Liverpool midfield we were up against that day. Even Alli looked good which says it all. If Winks couldn't get the better of a Liverpool youth player and 40 year old Milner we really would have issues. Context is eveything. Just saying we got the better of LIverpool, the best pressing team around, and ignoring who they actually had in their midfield that day is silly.

And taking PEH off for Bentancur does not mean that Conte thinks Winks is the answer as his partner lol. How do you know PEH wasn't dragged because of fitness issues? carrying a niggle? I'm not defending PEH at all, I don't rate him, but you can't use a sub in a match situation as evidence to back up any of your claims about players and what it means.

Winks should never start another game for us in all honesty.