View: Tottenham midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg makes a scoring point to Ange Postecoglou
After being a regular in the team for the past few seasons, Tottenham midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg will be feeling frustrated after falling out of favour in North London.
Under Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho, Hojbjerg was the first midfield name on the teamsheet at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. However, when Ange Postecoglou arrived, plenty of supporters questioned whether he would be suited to the Australian’s style of play.
And the answer to that question is clearly no, as the 28-year-old was linked with a move away from the club all summer and, after failing to secure a transfer away, has so far seen his game time limited.
He has started just once this season, during Spurs’ second-round elimination in the Carabao Cup at the hands of London rivals Fulham, while in the Premier League he has been nothing more than a late substitute.
Where Conte and Mourinho opted for pragmatic players in the middle of the park, Postecoglou prefers his midfielders to be creative and dynamic, and help push the team forward with passes between the lines and progressive runs.
This has led to James Maddison, Yves Bissouma and Pape Matar Sarr playing the majority of the season so far together, and it is a midfield three that has worked a treat, with the club making an undefeated start to their league campaign.
However, Hojbjerg is clearly not willing to let his place go without a fight and has sent a message to his club boss while away with his national team.
On Thursday 7 September, he scored in Denmark’s 4-0 UEFA 2024 European Championship qualifier win over San Marino and repeated the trick once again on Sunday 10 September, scoring a late winner in the qualifier against Finland.
Against San Marino he put in a solid shift, earning himself a match rating of 8.1. In addition to his goal, he completed 91 per cent of his passes, with four of them being key, and had another shot on target, while seeing a third effort blocked (Sofascore).
He also won three of his four ground duels and completed the one dribble he attempted. However, it was during the game against Finland that he made a real impact.
With the score level, Finland were set to hold on to their second-place spot in qualifying Group H, above Denmark in third, and maintain their two-point advantage over their opponents. With moments to play, in the 86th minute, Hojbjerg stepped with the winner to send his team above Finland and level on points with group leaders Slovenia.
Not only did he win the game, but he was superb throughout, completing 96 per cent of his passes, with one of those being key, and playing six accurate long balls forward from the seven which he attempted. After watching his performances on international duty, Postecoglou will surely have some thinking to do.
In other Tottenham news, one player at the club will still be working on an injury despite returning to the first-team squad.