- Aug 30, 2010
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I agree with you re: Southampton's system and its effect on defensive statistics. Hojbjerg is certainly not a pure DM or destroyer like people are suggesting. In fact, he is the joint 8th most dribbled by player in the Premier League which shows he's not necessarily a great 1v1 defender.
I think he's an average player and would be a very underwhelming signing for us. I mean how many of you would actually be excited about signing him??
I'd say maybe he'd be better than our current DM options but I truly think if Winks and Dier were at Southampton they'd have similar stats. To me he's one of those players (sort of like Winks) that is good at nearly every part of the game, but not necessary great at anything. He isn't an athletic, physical defensive midfielder and he's not a creative maestro either.
He's taller than Winks (hence why he wins more aerial duels) and has a better shot from distance, but Winks is definitely faster and more composed on the ball IMO. For this reason I'd rather us continue to develop Winks and Skipp than spend the majority of our limited transfer funds on Hojbjerg. If Jose utilizes a 3 man midfield instead of a double pivot, I think Winks will shine. However, that does not mean we shouldn't be searching for a player that is an improvement on Winks. If we do this though, we should be looking for players who will be long term solutions for us, and I just can't help but feel that Hojbjerg will not be that for us.
Absolutely, but it seems that getting Dele on the pitch at the expense of midfield stability has been a much higher priority. I'm not sure how that is likely to change.