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Player Watch: Pierre-Emile Højbjerg

Univarn

Lost. Probably Not Worth Finding.
Jul 20, 2017
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Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg transfer hijack as Manchester City ready to rival Tottenham for in-demand midfielder
Was just saying the other day what this forum has been missing is Transfer Guru extreme Duncan Castles information and his immense and close relationship with Jose...
 

Univarn

Lost. Probably Not Worth Finding.
Jul 20, 2017
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Duncan castle accurate?
Not really, I'm mostly being sarcastic since he sells himself as a transfer guru but is comically wrong and mostly just repeats news stories outside UK. One thing I will say is he does absolutely love Jose Mourinho, like a really creepy crazy amount, and Jose Mourinho loves being loved by him so like there's the odd chance he actually does have some real info in our world so I'm not ignoring him 100% like I normally do.
 

Cornpattbuck

Well-Known Member
Jul 23, 2013
6,873
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I still don't know whether it's Hojbjerg but someone like him could be the making of our team. Despite the performances, there's a lot of talent in our squad, we just need a couple of additions and some fight to glue it together. I'm still surprised how much some of our guys have lost it in the last couple of years really.
 

arunspurs

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
8,807
35,543
Not really, I'm mostly being sarcastic since he sells himself as a transfer guru but is comically wrong and mostly just repeats news stories outside UK. One thing I will say is he does absolutely love Jose Mourinho, like a really creepy crazy amount, and Jose Mourinho loves being loved by him so like there's the odd chance he actually does have some real info in our world so I'm not ignoring him 100% like I normally do.

Duncan Castles almost always have good info on Mourinho signings, as he is close to Mourinho's agent and couple of other key agents. Doesnt mean he is always right. But, he will certainly be one of the Journo's I will listen to until Mourinho is in charge at the club
 

Montalbano

Well-Known Member
Jan 29, 2018
3,917
18,686
The City links just seem like 1+1 = 2 journalism. The classic “ former player / manager” link up speculation.
 

joey55

Well-Known Member
May 20, 2005
9,675
3,092
When you look at the most successful Prem DM purchases in recent years, they all seem to have similar physical attributes. Kante, Ndidi and Gueye were all bought for little money from France. They all have the most incredible engines and have these kind of wirey physiques, like middle distance runners. During our best years 2015-18, I always though our weak spot was DM, as first Dier and then Wanyama, both lacked that incredible mobility, the best DM's have. I just see PEH being in that same bracket.

I'd much rather we went after someone like Florentino Luis, even if it means we have to sacrifice one of our more talented players to raise the transfer fee. As much as I like watching NDombele, for example, if getting our money back on him, meant we were able to prize Luis from Benfica, I'd do it. I think PEH is decent, but if we have serious ambitions of going to the next level and to actually start winning things, we need players on par with the best teams. If you can pass the ball around like Carrick could, you don't have to be the quickest, but a ball winning DM, with limited technical ability, needs to cover a hell of a lot of ground in my opinion. I want an Kante/Ndidi type and think Luis is the best out there at the moment.
 
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King of the Lane

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Dec 3, 2010
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When you look at the most successful Prem DM purchases in recent years, they all seem to have similar physical attributes. Kante, Ndidi and Gueye were all bought for little money from France. They all have the most incredible engines and have these kind of wirey physiques, like middle distance runners. During our best years 2015-18, I always though our weak spot was DM, as first Dier and then Wanyama, both lacked that incredible mobility, the best DM's have. I just see PEH being in that same bracket.

I'd much rather we went after someone like Florentino Luis, even if it means we have to sacrifice one of our more talented players to raise the transfer fee. As much as I like watching NDombele, for example, if getting our money back on him, meant we were able to prize Luis from Benfica, I'd do it. I think PEH is decent, but if we have serious ambitions of going to the next level and to actually start winning things, we need players on par with the best teams. If you can pass the ball around like Carrick could, you don't have to be the quickest, but a ball winning DM, with limited technical ability, needs to cover a hell of a lot of ground in my opinion. I want an Kante/Ndidi type and think Luis is the best out there at the moment.

Zakaria is the best out there and would be perfect for us but we wont pay the money for him when PEH is cheap and prem proven
 

TEESSIDE1

Married, new job and Spurs on the up!
Jul 3, 2006
15,089
18,780
Zakaria is the best out there and would be perfect for us but we wont pay the money for him when PEH is cheap and prem proven

considering the reduced budget we can potentially get Hojbjerg and a RB for less than Zakaria would cost. It’s better to be sensible with our money than splashing out on another foreigner who will take time to settle in the EPL.
 

joey55

Well-Known Member
May 20, 2005
9,675
3,092
considering the reduced budget we can potentially get Hojbjerg and a RB for less than Zakaria would cost. It’s better to be sensible with our money than splashing out on another foreigner who will take time to settle in the EPL.

I think we are going to have to accept selling some players that wouldn't ordinarily be available for transfer. I mentioned NDombele, who ideally I'm sure we'd all like to be seen given time to develop. But also the likes of Ali, Lamela, Sissoko and Lucas. To be honest, I think it's only Kane, Son and Gio that are untouchable in our squad. The rest of them are either ageing or not exactly of the quality that would interest the likes of Liverpool, Utd and City, which is the level we need to be on.
 

roy@SC

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
282
1,046
Agreed, if we were to move ndombele & dele out this summer you would expect that to create funds even in this depressed market, and I don't think any of us could 100% rule that possibility out.
 

Tiffers

Well-Known Member
Aug 7, 2011
574
1,577
This this this.

You cannot honestly compare Winks now to how he was playing before we were forced into a Winks-Sissoko midfield last season. He is playing a drastically different role. He is our holding midfielder, but it's not his natural position. For what it's worth he has really improved in the role and at Spurs it might possibly be his long term future. But you cannot expect him to be doing the same kind of thing, it's not his role for us anymore.

In my book his best position will always be n.8, but we actually have a lot of number 8s right now, who probably offer more than what he does. I can see his future being in n.6 but he does need someone else to compete with him, and someone we can use in games where defensive solidity is more important than keeping the ball in transition.

Winks is very good at keeping the ball, he is very good at rotating into space (all our youth players are, they are coached to that from a young age) and making the right (boring) pass. His positional play when on the ball is very good, when off the ball he is improving, but he will never really have the frame and presence to be a natural in doing so.

For what its worth, statistically there are few better players at keeping the ball than Winks, and this is an important part of the role (namely, taking the ball under pressure from the defence and finding the free man). His passing accuracy puts him 4th in central midfielders and second in the league if you don't count man city. Only Wijnaldum is ahead of him. And he makes the 12th most passes in a game from midfield or 7th if you remove Man City (Or 4th if you remove the top 3 possession teams in the league, not a single player ahead of him comes from a team that keeps less possession than us). So lots of passes, high accuracy.

Meanwhile Winks is 10th lowest rate of not being dispossessed but needs to work a bit on unsuccessful touches as he is 21st out of 64 from midfielders. Which is good, and is the best in the team, but not excellent. But overall this is very good possession stats are very good.

If looking at just players who are listed as playing DM (this is complicated as frankly whoscored is very bad at understanding position) Winks comes 4th/27th in unsuccessful touches (much better! Btw Hojbjerg is rock bottom by a long shot 2.2 a game, more than four times as much as top DMs in that stat Neves and Fabinho, and more than twice as much as Winks on 1) and 2nd for not being dispossessed. Good numbers.

Looking defensively it's a bit meh, though stats are misleading as most of defensive work is positional play. Blocked passes can be a very useful stat to look at harry Winks is 33/64 (19/27 in listed DM). 20th for not being dribbled past (or 13/27). 32nd for interceptions (21/27) and 5th in lowest fouls given per game (6/27, there is a discrepancy because Winks isn't always listed as being a DM and I've set the new limit to 5 appearances or more instead of 10 for DM) and 24th in winning freekicks (9/27).

So pretty middle of the road., defensively, though generally the worse the team the better the stats for defensive stats. If you need to defend more you make more defensive moves! But this is where he needs to work on.

For me as a DM he needs to improve in two main things. Defensive positional play and he needs to be more aggressive, more aggressive in pressuring players in particular. Even so, these things can be worked on and are seeing signs of improvement, but ultimately his size and body shape count against him, and he isn't quick or mobile enough to offset that. So I don't think he will ever be a top quality holding midfielder, but he could develop into a very competent one that could be particularly useful in certain games and situations.

I’d like to bet that 90% of his passes have been sideways or backwards.
winks, IMO, is just not a PL league quality player And he wouldn’t get into any of the current top 6 PL teams .
 
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