Exit-linked Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg harms Tottenham chances after international stinker
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg could have harmed his chances of receiving more minutes at Tottenham following his performance for Denmark against Northern Ireland on Monday (20 November).
The 28-year-old came off the bench on 61 minutes after dropping out of the starting line-up from the side that beat Slovenia 2-1 on Friday (17 November).
The Danish midfielder, who has recently been linked with a move away from Spurs, couldn’t prevent his country from suffering a surprising 2-0 defeat against Northern Ireland after replacing Celtic’s Matt O’Riley.
Hojbjerg has typically been one of the most reliable options in the centre of the park for Denmark over the past few years, but his performance levels have dipped during this international break.
He received just a 6.7 rating from SofaScore in both matches he played in and that total was lower than any of the three midfielders who started against Northern Ireland.
Despite having 43 touches during his 29 minutes on the pitch in Belfast, he only managed to record a pass success rate of 80 per cent.
The Dane failed to find a teammate with any of the three long balls he played, while he also didn’t make any key passes and gave away possession on nine occasions for his side.
Although he won five of his eight duels and made two tackles, he was dribbled past once and didn’t make any clearances or interceptions, which are usually key components of his game.
The yellow card Hojbjerg picked up towards the end of the evening showed he wasn’t at his best defensively, while he also struggled to add any attacking threat, having registered just one shot off target.
After finding himself largely warming the bench at Tottenham under Ange Postecoglou this season, he would’ve been hoping to go away with the Denmark squad and gain some confidence, but that doesn’t look to have been the case.
Since joining Spurs from Southampton in 2020, he has made 157 appearances, scoring 10 goals and laying on 16 assists along the way.
The midfielder had been almost ever-present in the starting lineup in previous years, but he has started just three games in all competitions in the opening few months of this campaign under the Aussie boss.
He has largely been playing second-fiddle to midfielders Pape Matar Sarr and Yves Bissouma, who have proven to be an extremely profitable pairing, having earned average SofaScore ratings of 7.15 and 7.17, compared to Hojbjerg’s 6.78.
Although his minutes have increased over the past few weeks after starting the most recent game against Wolves, the Lilywhites were beaten 2-1 in what was just their second Premier League defeat of the season.
It just feels as though his influence in the Spurs team is nowhere near what it once was and, with his international performances now also appearing to be suffering, it could be time for him to move on from North London.
In other Tottenham news, Postecoglou has stood up for the Spurs fringe players who have returned to the side.