Player watch: Christian Eriksen

[Japhet]

If Madrid ends up wanting him, we’re going to be in a pretty tough position. He’s already said he wants a new challenge and has one year left on his contract. If Madrid puts 70m on the table, it’s pretty hard to see us holding out considering the alternative of losing him for free.

Can't see any way that Madrid would shell out 70m for what amounts to 1 year of service from Eriksen given that he'd be free in 12 months time. The only leverage we have in this is if Eriksen signs another contract, but you can bet your life it would have some clauses in it that made it easy enough to bugger off to Spain if he wanted to.

 

[Steffen]

Ive got to the point where I don't care if he stays or goes to be honest. If he does go to Madrid I wouldn't be surprised if the white hankys come out by Christmas.
One sublime pass every 3 or 4 games doesn't do it for me against 2 goals from free kicks in three years and abysmal corners. They already have midfielders who keep things ticking over.

I strongly disagree. If he goes, there is no player that we can buy that can replace him immidiately - we might as well write off the first half of the season.

He is vitally important to our success, this last season is evidence of that. He hasn't been at his best, and our team has suffered. If we replace him with another player, we cannot expect that player to gel into the team from the start.

 

[Spurrific]

Ive got to the point where I don't care if he stays or goes to be honest. If he does go to Madrid I wouldn't be surprised if the white hankys come out by Christmas.
One sublime pass every 3 or 4 games doesn't do it for me against 2 goals from free kicks in three years and abysmal corners. They already have midfielders who keep things ticking over.

Well, this is tripe. When he's on form, he is by far our best and most influential player, more so than Kane even. Reducing his output for us to free kick goals, corners and "ticking over" is simplistic and disingenuous. He's scored a decent amount of goals for us, super important ones too - and he's always up there in the assists table.

He'll be a big miss, without doubt - but if he wants to leave, I'm not going to cry about it. No point pretending he's been anything other than a huge player for us.

 

[wrd]

I strongly disagree. If he goes, there is no player that we can buy that can replace him immidiately - we might as well write off the first half of the season.

He is vitally important to our success, this last season is evidence of that. He hasn't been at his best, and our team has suffered. If we replace him with another player, we cannot expect that player to gel into the team from the start.

He's a great player but fuck me I want him to leave just so people can see we will survive without him. People act like we'll be lucky to make top half of the table without him.

I'd argue also that he suffered big time from the lack of Dembele and he needs a player like that to create him space to be effective, the fact every spurs player singled him out as our best player probably might show the argument that we didn't appreciate how important he was and in signing Ndombele, if Eriksen leaves maybe we won't be as fucked as everybody claims.

 

[Steffen]

He's a great player but fuck me I want him to leave just so people can see we will survive without him. People act like we'll be lucky to make top half of the table without him.

I'd argue also that he suffered big time from the lack of Dembele and he needs a player like that to create him space to be effective, the fact every spurs player singled him out as our best player probably might show the argument that we didn't appreciate how important he was and in signing Ndombele, if Eriksen leaves maybe we won't be as fucked as everybody claims.

We would still need a creative player to take advantage of that created space, though? And my point was not that Eriksen is irreplaceable, but that a new player needs time to gel into the team. Hence my comment about the first half of the season going to waste - we have seen so many times that the new players we buy don't hit the ground running.

 

[nailsy]

Can't see any way that Madrid would shell out 70m for what amounts to 1 year of service from Eriksen given that he'd be free in 12 months time. The only leverage we have in this is if Eriksen signs another contract, but you can bet your life it would have some clauses in it that made it easy enough to bugger off to Spain if he wanted to.

They've just agreed what could be a club record fee for Hazard who was in a very similar situation. If they really want Eriksen I doubt they'll be willing to wait for another year until they sign him as their squad need an overhaul now.

 

[wrd]

We would still need a creative player to take advantage of that created space, though? And my point was not that Eriksen is irreplaceable, but that a new player needs time to gel into the team. Hence my comment about the first half of the season going to waste - we have seen so many times that the new players we buy don't hit the ground running.

Admittedly I just quoted your post as it was the recent one and I was more reacting to several posts acting who come across like there's no life after Christian Eriksen, I agree some players will need time to gel but you would hope buying established stars will negate that somewhat. I still think we will sign creative players additionally though, although players like Eriksen are rare, more recently teams have been going without that type of player within their ranks. The traditional 10.

 

[Grey Fox]

Well, this is tripe. When he's on form,

That's the point, since Christmas his form has been below par, bar a few games, when he has played Winks has been more influential imo

 

[freeeki]

That's the point, since Christmas his form has been below par, bar a few games, when he has played Winks has been more influential imo

Exactly this.

As I said on here recently - the team’s performance very much seems to hinge on Eriksen’s individual performance a lot of the time. Given his form since the start of the year, that’s probably not a good thing.

 

[Ronwol196061]

We need creativity thee is no doubt about that. The creativity we get with Eriksen is a lot of ball control,tons of short passes,great for possession,and prodding to we find some space

Hopefully with NDombele we will get more dynamic forward passing that will open up the field easier that whoever is in the AM position will work with more space.This will make us a more balance side between defence and attack. many of our attacks are slower as we go with many short passes back and forth (we have been doing better with the counter),but with Ndombele he will open up the field earlier and bring more fluidity to the team I think

 

[Spurrific]

That's the point, since Christmas his form has been below par, bar a few games, when he has played Winks has been more influential imo

That's not just down to Eriksen though - Kane got crocked, Dele was playing like shit. Son's form massively faltered, Trippier forgot how to kick a ball, Winks was injured. There was no stability around him and basically nobody performed, bar a couple months at the start of the year where Son carried us a bit.

 

[midoshairband]

it’s a really odd one for me. I was convinced he would be off, so I’d got myself quite excited at the though of replacing him and how we might play without him.

I should be happy about the prospect of him staying and signing a new contract, but i’m just a bit ‘meh’ about the whole thing. perhaps its because he’d made it pretty clear he was looking to leave. i don’t know.

if he does end up staying, hopefully missing out on a RM move will be the kick up the backside he needs to improve on last year. either that, or we sign someone to give him a kick up the backside.

 

[Japhet]

We need creativity thee is no doubt about that. The creativity we get with Eriksen is a lot of ball control,tons of short passes,great for possession,and prodding to we find some space

Hopefully with NDombele we will get more dynamic forward passing that will open up the field easier that whoever is in the AM position will work with more space.This will make us a more balance side between defence and attack. many of our attacks are slower as we go with many short passes back and forth (we have been doing better with the counter),but with Ndombele he will open up the field earlier and bring more fluidity to the team I think

I think if we get Ndombele and LoCelso (fingers crossed) we'll see a big change in the way we play. They'll be much more proactive in bringing the ball forward whereas with Eriksen, nothing much happened until he got the ball in a forward position, and failing that, he had to drop deep to get anything going. Losing Dembele and later on Winks had a very detrimental effect on Eriksen's productivity.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Ive got to the point where I don't care if he stays or goes to be honest. If he does go to Madrid I wouldn't be surprised if the white hankys come out by Christmas.
One sublime pass every 3 or 4 games doesn't do it for me against 2 goals from free kicks in three years and abysmal corners. They already have midfielders who keep things ticking over.

1 sublime pass and abysmal set pieces doesn’t overly correlate with upwards of ten assists every season for the past four seasons. Your comment suggests someone is doing nothing creative either from open play or set pieces, yet those figures bely that. That’s before considering that he’s also averaged eight goals a season too.

I’m not saying he’s flawless, but as an attacking force he’s been very good for a long time, consistently so, and to replace him will be very difficult.

 

[wrd]

it’s a really odd one for me. I was convinced he would be off, so I’d got myself quite excited at the though of replacing him and how we might play without him.

I should be happy about the prospect of him staying and signing a new contract, but i’m just a bit ‘meh’ about the whole thing. perhaps its because he’d made it pretty clear he was looking to leave. i don’t know.

if he does end up staying, hopefully missing out on a RM move will be the kick up the backside he needs to improve on last year. either that, or we sign someone to give him a kick up the backside.

I get where you're coming from, because we have stagnated and gotten worse on a performance level of the last 2 seasons, it's needed freshening up and the notion of losing our most important creative outlet would mean that we would have to completely change our style of play and as you say it's pretty exciting to see how the team will go about replacing that. It doesn't mean we don't see Eriksen for what he is, which is a terrific player on his day but that we are excited by the challenge of replacing him.

 

[austinfh]

If Ndombele signs and Eriksen stays, I think he'll have one of his best seasons with us so far. Lack of a decent midfield last season definitely hindered his ability to create normally

 

[Japhet]

They've just agreed what could be a club record fee for Hazard who was in a very similar situation. If they really want Eriksen I doubt they'll be willing to wait for another year until they sign him as their squad need an overhaul now.

I don't think they're anywhere near as desperate for Eriksen as they were for Hazard.

 

[Ronwol196061]

I think if we get Ndombele and LoCelso (fingers crossed) we'll see a big change in the way we play. They'll be much more proactive in bringing the ball forward whereas with Eriksen, nothing much happened until he got the ball in a forward position, and failing that, he had to drop deep to get anything going. Losing Dembele and later on Winks had a very detrimental effect on Eriksen's productivity.

I agree with that. We have had a real lack of creativity when the counter was not on, a struggle to create space as movement was too slow and may of our passes were short back and forth. NDombele seems he will be more dynamic that Dembele in his passing and dribbling as well

 

[midoshairband]

I get where you're coming from, because we have stagnated and gotten worse on a performance level of the last 2 seasons, it's needed freshening up and the notion of losing our most important creative outlet would mean that we would have to completely change our style of play and as you say it's pretty exciting to see how the team will go about replacing that. It doesn't mean we don't see Eriksen for what he is, which is a terrific player on his day but that we are excited by the challenge of replacing him.

totally.

i don’t dispute what a top player he’s been for us, and just because i’m not particularly fussed if he stays or goes, it doesn’t mean i dont appreciate what he’s done for us.

but i don’t think we should worry about losing him. and also not focus on ‘replacing’ him. instead think about how we could play in a different way. perhaps even, dare i say it, a better way. we’ll have to wait and see.

 

[Stamford]

My preference is he stays and gets back to his previous form. Him playing like he has the last six months isn't worth it