Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg misses final chance to impress as post-season Tottenham absence revealed
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg has missed his final chance to impress at Tottenham as Ange Postecoglou revealed the reason for his post-season tour absence.
Spurs are set to face Newcastle United on Wednesday 22 May as part of a post-match friendly, having flown out of the UK just hours after playing Sheffield United in the final game of the season.
Hojbjerg has not been a first-choice since the Australian was appointed last summer, making just eight Premier League starts, and many fans noticed that he was missing from the squad list flying out to Australia.
Reporting via Football London on Tuesday (21 May), they wrote: “The Spurs boss said Cristian Romero has returned to Argentina for personal reasons and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg had a little injury going into the Sheffield United game so it wasn’t seen worth the risk of flying straight on to Australia.”
When the Danish midfielder has been given the opportunity to play, he has struggled to make a positive impact and has been continuously criticised for some of his performances.
Given his fresh injury update, the 28-year-old has missed his final chance to persuade the Tottenham boss ahead of the 2024/24 campaign, with Yves Bissouma, Pape Matar Sarr and Rodrigo Bentancur all ahead of him in the pecking order.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg misses Tottenham chance to impress
With just eight league starts this season, it has been hard to judge his abilities from the start of matches, though many fans have already made their minds up on the midfielder.
His last start came during the 2-0 defeat to Manchester City, and with several Spurs fans screaming for him to be substituted rather than Bentancur, it is clear to see why.
Hojbjerg played 85 minutes before being replaced, completing zero per cent of his attempted dribbles, delivering zero per cent of his crosses, winning just 50 per cent of his tackles and ground duels, and winning zero per cent of his aerial battles. [FotMob]
The trend continues, evidenced by his display during the 3-2 defeat to Arsenal in the North London derby last month, having trudged off the pitch with zero per cent accurate crosses, 33 per cent of tackles won, and only 33 per cent of aerial duels won. [FotMob]
Though he does rank in the top 99 percentile for passes attempted and the top 98 percentile for progressive passes, as per FBref, Hojbjerg is clearly lacking in other areas.
Compared to midfielders in Europe’s top five leagues, he only ranks in the top 62 percentile for tackles and the bottom 28 percentile for aerial duels won, which will not be up to Postecoglou’s standards.
In other Tottenham news, Daniel Levy is set to lose millions as part of a mass clear-out at the club.
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