Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg justified Ange Postecoglou decision despite 96% Tottenham cameo v Newcastle United
It is fair to say that Ange Postecoglou will be in no rush to reinclude Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg in his Tottenham team after his cameo performance against Newcastle United.
Hojbjerg has struggled to lock down a starting place since Postecoglou arrived in north London, even amid the club’s recent injury crisis.
Following the 4-1 home defeat to Chelsea last month, Spurs’ first loss under Postecoglou, which left the club short of several key players in the aftermath as a result of either injury or suspension, Hojbjerg has still only managed two starts across the past five matches.
One of those starts was largely due to the unavailability of Pape Matar Sarr and following the Senegal international’s return to fitness, he was straight back into the team, which saw the Dane dropped back to the bench for the visit of Newcastle on Sunday.
Hojbjerg has been a consistent member of Spurs’ squad since he arrived at the club from Southampton back in 2020, but he is clearly not suited to his new manager’s vision and it looks at this point as if he would be better off searching for pastures anew.
It almost feels as if the midfielder is a past relic of previous regimes that evoke mostly miserable memories among those at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and never was that more apparent than during the closing stages of the clash with Eddie Howe’s side.
Having come on in the 73rd minute, the 28-year-old looked relatively comfortable for the most part, completing 96 per cent of his passes, playing one accurate long ball forward, making one interception and blocking one shot (Sofascore).
However, with moments to play, the midfielder cost his side a clean sheet as he made an error that led to Newcastle’s goal when he gave the ball away on the edge of the box, allowing Callum Wilson to tee up Joelinton who tucked the gift presented to him away.
While it didn’t mean much in the grand scheme of things on the day, the long-term effects for Hojbjerg could prove costly with the mistake justifying his manager’s decision to axe him.
It was a mistake which came from Hojbjerg trying to play the ball out in his defensive third, a key feature of Postecoglou’s style of play and therefore served as the perfect reminder of why the former Southampton man cannot be trusted to play in the Australian’s system. In addition to this, it wouldn’t have done him any favours in terms of his popularity among his teammates after they had worked incredibly hard to earn a clean sheet.
If it wasn’t already happening, that moment really did feel like the beginning of the end for Hojbjerg in a Tottenham shirt.
In other Tottenham news, Sky Sports pundit Micah Richards has made an “outstanding” verdict after the performances of two Spurs stars against Newcastle.