Player Watch: Pierre-Emile Højbjerg

[Cochise]

He starts the next few games ahead of Bissouma for me.

 

[mil1lion]

It's easy to forget how good Hojbjerg and Bentancur were together.

 

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

Did we change shape? Not arguing with you - but I thought Ange has made it clear on many occassions that we won't change the way we play. Or is it the case that when he makes those statements he means we will always be (under him) a possession based team looking to take the game to the opposition?

I think he means the latter. It wasn’t a massive change, whether he told Bentancur to play a bit flatter than Sarr or whether that’s what he decided to do on his own or just his own natural game wanting to come towards ball a bit more it was slightly different

 

[mil1lion]

The big change was Sarr off for Bentancur. Sarr has been excellent but he's still growing and getting better. He's just a bit loose in midfield and over eager at times to press forward which when the opposition pass him leaves us short in midfield. Its ok in open games but gives up the counter to teams who sit back. We had this issue before with Hojbjerg getting exposed but signed Bentancur who is more disciplined and his experience at the top level shows. I think both Bissouma and Hojbjerg struggle if they're left as a 1 and it's not a surprise either.as many would. It feels when we play 2 of Hojbjerg, Bissouma and Bentancur that it's more of a central 2. With Sarr it feels more like a staggered 3 with a 6 deeper, Sarr more advanced and then Maddison more advanced again. This is where our defence struggles the most with lack of protection in front. With 2 attacking fullbacks we need 2 hard working central midfielders who can each track back and fill the counters in behind the fullbacks if they're caught forward.

 

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

It's easy to forget how good Hojbjerg and Bentancur were together.

think that was more down to Bentancur. As soon as he got injured the midfield was horrible. It was even more open than it is now even though we defended in our half.

I do find it interesting last year it was often said Hojberg was isolated and had to do two peoples jobs but Bisoumma who has more space to defend and often more isolated gets no leeway. play Biss and Bentancur together for a sustained period together it’ll be a level above what that partnership was last year imo

 

[kernowspurscoach1977]

What we have is a game by game scape goat

last season peh was spoken about like he was Sunday league standard - 90% of fame here wanted him given away to anyone
Emerson was some - awful abuse

even son - past it - no good anymore

now bissouma is not playing to the high standards he was at the start of the season - get rid he is shit limited

kulu same treatment

Richarlison same

Solomon - played very few games bad injury - some say not Good enough (based on what)



after the first 1 or 2 games same with vic

For me the key to managing a top team is having a squad of players - with several different attributes and recognising when a different attribute is needed to affect a certain game and also recognising when players are out of form and when you need to rest them or let them play through a bad spell

the players we should move on are sess and gio and gil all of them since they have been at spurs have been fit for any length of time and cannot be relied upon at all - gio does ok when he does play - does some excellent stuff but not enough

 

[Westmorlandspur]

Nah. I thought Bissouma was OK when we were ok first 25mins but once we dropped off he was awful.

Hojbjerg was much better than him yesterday, mad minute aside, he deserves to start v Newcastle

Much better variety of passing in his locker than Biss, but not as good at carrying the ball, but still gives us more at the moment.

What was Bissouma doing on the edge of the box taking potshots. Surely that should be Maddison . The chances of Biss scoring are pretty minimal.

 

[neilp]

What was Bissouma doing on the edge of the box taking potshots. Surely that should be Maddison . The chances of Biss scoring are pretty minimal.

I thought it was more a general change for the team, something they had worked on as pretty much all of them have been avoiding taking a shot from 20 yards out for ages now.

 

[whenstevewentup]

Not his biggest fan but he brings a calming influence into a chaotic team . Any time he has been called upon this season he hasn’t let us down.

 

[funkycoldmedina]

I thought it was more a general change for the team, something they had worked on as pretty much all of them have been avoiding taking a shot from 20 yards out for ages now.

This, I think it starts bringing midfielders out to close down spaces. We either score or create spaces as teams adapt

 

[kendoddsdadsdogsdead]

Nah. I thought Bissouma was OK when we were ok first 25mins but once we dropped off he was awful.

Hojbjerg was much better than him yesterday, mad minute aside, he deserves to start v Newcastle

Much better variety of passing in his locker than Biss, but not as good at carrying the ball, but still gives us more at the moment.

not against it. Would be interesting to see how he does with Sarr and Maddison ahead of him

 

[gavspur]

It’s all a bit of a weird one, Biss was excellent first few games of the season, even then, Hojbjerg was used to come in late and close the game out. Which he has done admirably. Although, the chalk and cheese performances from when starts, to when he comes on later, are so far apart. Hat off to Hojbjerg, he’s been very professional. With Biss? I don’t k ow what’s happened to him. But I would think they are both currently replaceable with better quality additions coming in.

 

[Krafty]

PEH is probably our only decent long range passer and can give us a different dynamic.

He also plays much better in a partnership with another central midfielder (Bentacur being the best candidate) but probably needs a partner because he isn’t quite able to cover the width of the pitch, but can do box to box.

I think Biss both struggles with another midfielder coming as deep as him, but is better at playing the lone deeper midfielder.

Pierre is looking very good at the moment though, looks like a bit of weight is off his shoulders

 

[gibbospurs]

First 10 games this season he wouldn’t even get a minute for me. But…. We’ve been nothing more than average /ok since. Since the first 10 games he’s been a better option than more than Bissouma tbh, Sarr’s performances have dropped off a cliff. And Bents is still worryingly out of form since the game vs villa when he looked mustardo.

 

[DannyNZ]

What we have is a game by game scape goat

last season peh was spoken about like he was Sunday league standard - 90% of fame here wanted him given away to anyone
Emerson was some - awful abuse

even son - past it - no good anymore

now bissouma is not playing to the high standards he was at the start of the season - get rid he is shit limited

kulu same treatment

Richarlison same

Solomon - played very few games bad injury - some say not Good enough (based on what)



after the first 1 or 2 games same with vic

For me the key to managing a top team is having a squad of players - with several different attributes and recognising when a different attribute is needed to affect a certain game and also recognising when players are out of form and when you need to rest them or let them play through a bad spell

the players we should move on are sess and gio and gil all of them since they have been at spurs have been fit for any length of time and cannot be relied upon at all - gio does ok when he does play - does some excellent stuff but not enough

With the strong probability that we will be playing Europe next season, we need quality cover in all positions. I don’t see how we could get better cover for Maddison than GLC, to buy his quality would not be cheap and we have quite a number of areas to strengthen (I don’t see Kulu as adequate cover and Donley will likely be out on loan). Aside from the fear of injuries, I don't see us improving on him and he actually looks like he could push Maddison for a starting spot if Madds performances don’t get back to pre-injury levels.

 

[southlondonyiddo]

Definitely not his biggest fan but he’s done a fantastic job off the bench this season. Whether he’d want to continue doing that is highly unlikely but he’s been the ultimate pro this season, kept his head down and obviously work’s incredibly hard in training

 

[ajspurs]

The big change was Sarr off for Bentancur. Sarr has been excellent but he's still growing and getting better. He's just a bit loose in midfield and over eager at times to press forward which when the opposition pass him leaves us short in midfield. Its ok in open games but gives up the counter to teams who sit back. We had this issue before with Hojbjerg getting exposed but signed Bentancur who is more disciplined and his experience at the top level shows. I think both Bissouma and Hojbjerg struggle if they're left as a 1 and it's not a surprise either.as many would. It feels when we play 2 of Hojbjerg, Bissouma and Bentancur that it's more of a central 2. With Sarr it feels more like a staggered 3 with a 6 deeper, Sarr more advanced and then Maddison more advanced again. This is where our defence struggles the most with lack of protection in front. With 2 attacking fullbacks we need 2 hard working central midfielders who can each track back and fill the counters in behind the fullbacks if they're caught forward.

I think this is why we looked more of a compact and cohesive unit away to West Ham, and probably no coincidence that it was the game that Bissouma had looked most like himself, in having Bentancur with him.

We can look way too vulnerable at times with Sarr bombing forward IMO.

 

[Dzejkob]

He definitely helped to win the game but he had few Pierre moments with missplaced passes around our box. Bissouma and Sarr can't influence games much lately. They look lost on the pitch. Hojbjerg and Bentancur didn't give 10/10 sub. They were just good but it was enough to make us look much better. We are definitely missing something to makes us click in last weeks. Maybe Hojbjerg and Bentancur is shorterm answer for the rest of the season? As thinking longterm Pierre probably needs to be replaced.

 

[Trix]

think that was more down to Bentancur. As soon as he got injured the midfield was horrible. It was even more open than it is now even though we defended in our half.

I do find it interesting last year it was often said Hojberg was isolated and had to do two peoples jobs but Bisoumma who has more space to defend and often more isolated gets no leeway. play Biss and Bentancur together for a sustained period together it’ll be a level above what that partnership was last year imo

Thing is how we play now it doesn't matter how isolated the Holding mid is, the ball is past them in seconds regardless of whether it's a two or three. Then VDV and Romero either deal with it or they don't. Where that deeper mid makes the biggest difference is when we play out. Bis is more comfortable taking the ball under pressure and playing out one or two touch. for me PEH on the other hand is better when we are camped in the oppositions half and able to play forward. I don't think either are ideal for how we are set up personally and we need a player who is more a combination of the two.

 

[SlotBadger]

I thought he was brilliant against Forest. If he hadn't played that blind pass to gift them the ball in our box, it would have been a perfect 45 minutes.

Some of his pinged passes out to Werner are what many of our other players fail to even see.