Player Watch: Pierre-Emile Højbjerg

Seafordian Spurs · Aug 12, 2020

RichieS said:
Contrary to popular opinion, I don't think that our pre-PEH senior midfield players are that bad. What was missing was a satisfactory partnership - there was no two of the bunch that really complemented one another. I think Pierre is more than capable of forming good partnerships with pretty much any of the others and I also think Winks at the top of the list to partner him (with GLC in front of them). Hopefully Højbjerg gets through the whole season unscathed and then Skipp comes back from a loan ready to understudy/rotate next season.

'Unscathed' is the word. I think at our best we can beat anyone. It's a long, long season though and we don't have much depth.

Hazelton · Aug 12, 2020

TheRevolution said:
Important signing. I see alot of saints fans saying they don't care he's gone but they said the same about Wanyama who was quality for us pre injury. Hopefully Hojbjerg can have a similar impact to him or even to Parker in the 11-12 season.

Players like Højbjerg, Parker, Wanyama, Matic etc are never missed until they're gone, if they do their job well you hardly notice them until they're taken out of the team.

Shadydan · Aug 12, 2020

Hazelton said:
Players like Højbjerg, Parker, Wanyama, Matic etc are never missed until they're gone, if they do their job well you hardly notice them until they're taken out of the team.

Remember when Carrick left, it was like someone took out a battery to a watch, we were clueless the following season.

danielneeds · Aug 12, 2020

Shadydan said:
Remember when Carrick left, it was like someone took out a battery to a watch, we were clueless the following season.

Also, replacing him with Zokora was like putting toothpaste in the watch and expecting it to keep on ticking.

Japhet · Aug 12, 2020

Timberwolf said:
Other than the obvious defensive contribution, I think one of the massive reasons Jose was so keen to sign him was for his leadership, professionalism and willingness to work for the team/follow orders.

Every great Mourinho team has had a midfield general: a player who will do exactly what the manager wants and make sure everybody else does too. This is huge for Mourinho and also something we've really lacked in recent years. None of our current midfielders (or even previous greats like Dembele) seem like great communicators or natural leaders. This is something PEH has in abundance and I think it's a side of the game that's often overlooked.

If Hojbjerg can drag a satisfactory level of application and committment out of Ndombele, he'll instantly become the bargain of the century in my book.

carmeldevil · Aug 12, 2020

Wig · Aug 12, 2020

danielneeds said:
Also, replacing him with Zokora was like putting toothpaste in the watch and expecting it to keep on ticking.

At least Zokora helped us win a trophy

sausage · Aug 12, 2020

Wig said:
At least Zokora helped us win a trophy

Just looked up his other achievements on Wikipedia and was surprised to see who he last played for

gavspur · Aug 12, 2020

C0YS said:
I'm a bit into this stat site today, but I found this quite interesting. Comparing winks and PEH stat wise. So to read the chart you need to know that winks is black and PEH is colours, and that the numbers are not raw stats but percentual of all CMs in the top 4 leagues with over 10 games. So if you have a 90th, it means you top 10% in europe at that particular stat.

View attachment 71457

So, what I see here is, the different kind of players they are, and also they could actually complement each other. Winks is really good at one thing, holding onto the ball. He is rarely dispossessed, all his pass stats are great apart from chance creation, and, contrary to opinion he passes forward a lot more than people realise. Really top stats n that regard. However, his weaknesses. tackles won, and successful pressures in particular. Namely, Winks is very good as a pressure reliever in the defensive position, less good at the ball winning elements of it, including closing down.

PEH shows, interesting stats, his dribbling is good and for his role he creates a lot of chances, now I think some of this is contingent on how Southampton play, but he has defensive stats all round. Where he struggles is passing accuracy, though a change of style might help him here, and also he is dispossessed a lot. Again, Southamptons style influences this, but this is a bit worrying as taking the ball under pressure is a major part of being a DM.

But combine the players and you'd have very good player, so they might really complement each other, particularly in games where we need to defend.

So, basically, they’re similar to - although not yet the standard of - the Parker&Modric CM? Parker would win it, give it to Modric or VdV.. VdV would drop back and help too (LoCelso/Ndombele/Dele).

I can live with that, one of our best midfield partnerships I’ve ever seen. Even if a little way off that complete standard, we’re heading the right way.

Nine while nine · Aug 12, 2020

Japhet said:
If Hojbjerg can drag a satisfactory level of application and committment out of Ndombele, he'll instantly become the bargain of the century in my book.

One little-remarked-upon characteristic of Højbjerg is that his mother's family are French, that he is fluent in French and that, when he first went to Bayern, he used to hang around with the French speakers (Ribery, Van Buyten et al) as no other bugger spoke Danish. There's a reason why he's called Pierre-Emile, which isn't what you'd call a standard Danish name.

Now I'm not saying that this will necessarily endear him to TN or make them a well-matched midfield pairing, but having a common language and shared cultural norms surely has to help.

At the very least, the fact that PEH knows the French for 'put a fucking shift in, fat boy, or I'll rip your gizzards out' must be a useful back-up plan.

GMI · Aug 12, 2020

sausage said:
Just looked up his other achievements on Wikipedia and was surprised to see who he last played for

He played for North East United in 2016. I'm sure they are one of the teams on Pro Evolution Soccer on the Playstation.

The Doc · Aug 12, 2020

danielneeds said:
Also, replacing him with Zokora was like putting toothpaste in the watch and expecting it to keep on ticking.

This. Have commented on it before, but it remains one of the most incredible replacement decisions I have seen in Spurs' recent recruitment history. It is genuinely difficult to think of a bigger contrast in the respective capabilities of an outgoing and incoming player for the same position. Does anyone know if it was ever raised internally at the club? ie. What was the scouting report like?

Time for Heroes · Aug 12, 2020

do do do Didier Zokora!

Shadydan · Aug 12, 2020

The Doc said:
This. Have commented on it before, but it remains one of the most incredible replacement decisions I have seen in Spurs' recent recruitment history. It is genuinely difficult to think of a bigger contrast in the respective capabilities of an outgoing and incoming player for the same position. Does anyone know if it was ever raised internally at the club? ie. What was the scouting report like?

Zokora was Damien Commoli's pick wasn't he?

The Doc · Aug 12, 2020

Shadydan said:
Zokora was Damien Commoli's pick wasn't he?

That's what I thought too. Still, what was he thinking?

Hoopspur · Aug 12, 2020

The Doc said:
That's what I thought too. Still, what was he thinking?

Yeah but remember the amount of jizz everywhere about that signing. Going to be the best ever etc. That’s why I refrain from going OTT about players until they put on our shirt and start demonstrating that they’re good.

sausage · Aug 12, 2020

GMI said:
He played for North East United in 2016. I'm sure they are one of the teams on Pro Evolution Soccer on the Playstation.

If he was more ambitious he might have played for Man Blue or West London Blue...

The Doc · Aug 12, 2020

Hoopspur said:
Yeah but remember the amount of jizz everywhere about that signing. Going to be the best ever etc. That’s why I refrain from going OTT about players until they put on our shirt and start demonstrating that they’re good.

Yep, but the fans are not responsible for the recruitment decisions. That's the bit of this I don't understand. How can a top tier professional club make a decision like that? What was it based on and where is the accountability?

Timberwolf · Aug 12, 2020

The Doc said:
This. Have commented on it before, but it remains one of the most incredible replacement decisions I have seen in Spurs' recent recruitment history. It is genuinely difficult to think of a bigger contrast in the respective capabilities of an outgoing and incoming player for the same position. Does anyone know if it was ever raised internally at the club? ie. What was the scouting report like?

Weaknesses:

Passing
Shooting
Tackling
Vision
Discipline

Strengths:

Running in a straight line

SOLD!

rabbikeane · Aug 12, 2020

Think Zokora would have been better with Carrick in stead of as his replacement. Or even with Pedro Mendes who would have had a much better Spurs career if he'd stick around until Carrick went

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