Player Watch: Pierre-Emile Højbjerg

[RikkiRocket]

Just wait til Danny confronts Jose with his choice in lieu of Pierre.

“I really think Jose we should sign Hughie G Rectionus instead of your choice, he’s available for a metric ton of face masks and some bagels. He’s been the top player 41 seasons in a row in the Lithuanian league AND he loves his Nan” ?

 

[Who’s our next manager?]

Completely agree with you about that re: Skipp and Hojbjerg. It seems like the club is under pressure to perform next season after the season we’ve had so I think there will still be a sum of money set aside to spend on creative deals and loans [and additional funds will be raised through player sales]. There were rumblings that signing Hojbjerg would make financial sense as we could work out a swap deal for KWP and Hojbjerg with minimal additional financial outlay, but now the media are reporting that Southampton aren’t interested in that transaction so the deal may be unreasonable.

Will be interesting to see how things develop this week and next. Talks are that Skipp [who just signed a new deal] might want a season on loan to develop and Jose could green light it if a new DM comes in with Winks deputizing in the position.

If Saints don’t want KWP,no problem. Just pay cash for PEH and sell KWP to someone else.

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

Trix posted new info in the daily thread, Jose's number 1 target for the summer window.

(PS. Please give ratings to his original post and not this one.)

 

[brendanb50]

If Saints don’t want KWP,no problem. Just pay cash for PEH and sell KWP to someone else.

Agreed, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do want KWP, just trying to strengthen their hand for more money on the PEH deal.

 

[Wsussexspur]

If he is Jose's number one target for the DM position think there is no excuse for Levy not to get this deal done. Always said no point in appointing a manger like Jose and not backing him in the transfer market. Especially if his targets are doable transfers who fit in our budget.

 

[Timberwolf]

If he is Jose's number one target for the DM position think there is no excuse for Levy not to get this deal done. Always said no point in appointing a manger like Jose and not backing him in the transfer market. Especially if his targets are doable transfers who fit in our budget.

It's not even like Jose is asking for a experienced 32 year old on big wages or something. PEH is actually the kind of signing Levy tends to like: he's a young(ish) international in the last year of his contract with a decent sell on value. No excuse at all.

 

[hellava_tough]

It's not uncommon for Jose to have two DCMs in the starting 11.

If he takes that approach then who will likely partner PEH in the middle?

Currently we have Winks, Sissoko, Lo Celso and Skipp in the squad.

And perhaps there will be another DCM signing?

If Dele is playing then Lo Celso has to be the partner for PEH; it's unrealistic to suggest that he'd be dropped.

But if Dele doesn't play, then that would free up another midfield spot.

Finally, tactical and squad rotation is to be considered. Different lineups for different opponents?

 

[spids]

It's not uncommon for Jose to have two DCMs in the starting 11.

If he takes that approach then who will likely partner PEH in the middle?

Currently we have Winks, Sissoko, Lo Celso and Skipp in the squad.

And perhaps there will be another DCM signing?

If Dele is playing then Lo Celso has to be the partner for PEH; it's unrealistic to suggest that he'd be dropped.

But if Dele doesn't play, then that would free up another midfield spot.

Finally, tactical and squad rotation is to be considered. Different lineups for different opponents?

Definitely. But still I expect Jose to only use a nucleus of 14-15 players when all are fit, with a couple of extra players being good squad rotations options.

 

[Timberwolf]

It's not uncommon for Jose to have two DCMs in the starting 11.

If he takes that approach then who will likely partner PEH in the middle?

Currently we have Winks, Sissoko, Lo Celso and Skipp in the squad.

And perhaps there will be another DCM signing?

If Dele is playing then Lo Celso has to be the partner for PEH; it's unrealistic to suggest that he'd be dropped.

But if Dele doesn't play, then that would free up another midfield spot.

Finally, tactical and squad rotation is to be considered. Different lineups for different opponents?

I don't think we really have the budget to buy another dedicated DCM, and I expect Jose will partner Hojbjerg with one of Winks, Sissoko, Lo Celso or Ndombele depending on the opposition. We've had Sissoko and/or Winks playing as CDMs for most of this season anyway and, while they clearly aren't suited to it, they have done a passable job, especially Winks since the restart.

Dele, you'd imagine, would either play as one of a midfield 3 (alongside Hojbjerg +1), as a number 10 in a 4-2-3-1, or as a kind of shadow striker in a 4-4-1-1 or a 4-4-2.

 

[Wick3d]

Oohhh...do tell ?

Just type in Bypass Paywall into any decent search engine, you'll get to the devs GitHub page where it explains everything you need to know.

 

[doctor stefan Freud]

I’d say this is as close to being done as anything in the Levy era. Conditions are perfect

 

[TorontoYid]

Doesn't seem, imo, to be a player that will light up the league but at the end of the day, all we can do is trust the Managers judgement and assume JM sees something in him that will compliment his planned tactics for the coming season.

 

[chrissivad]

As long as Hojbjerg does want to come to us, and

Doesn't seem, imo, to be a player that will light up the league but at the end of the day, all we can do is trust the Managers judgement and assume JM sees something in him that will compliment his planned tactics for the coming season.

Not every player will be there to light up the league. We need players to put in the work and get the best out of the likes of son and Kane.

 

[TorontoYid]

As long as Hojbjerg does want to come to us, and

Not every player will be there to light up the league. We need players to put in the work and get the best out of the likes of son and Kane.

If we want to win the League and Champions League we need to start looking at players that will shine and at Kane's level. PEH is good but I think top teams in Champions League (which is what we want to be) would barely consider him for the bench. We need to raise our bar.

 

[Johno1470]

If we want to win the League and Champions League we need to start looking at players that will shine and at Kane's level. PEH is good but I think top teams in Champions League (which is what we want to be) would barely consider him for the bench. We need to raise our bar.

Fair enough there may be better options but who would you deem as a realistic option to sign that would be better than PEH? We've seen recently that splashing the cash on a player that has shined on the CL stage like TND can have teething problems and may possibly be shown the door too.

 

[chrissivad]

If we want to win the League and Champions League we need to start looking at players that will shine and at Kane's level. PEH is good but I think top teams in Champions League (which is what we want to be) would barely consider him for the bench. We need to raise our bar.

Henderson has won both cl and pl titles.
Is he a player that 'shines'?

 

[hellava_tough]

Henderson has won both cl and pl titles.
Is he a player that 'shines'?

I think footballing history is full of limited watercarriers who played their role in top teams.

Stefan Freund has a Champions League winning medal for crying out loud!!!

PS No disrespect to Stefan; loved the commitment.

 

[DiVaio]

PEH is good but I think top teams in Champions League (which is what we want to be) would barely consider him for the bench. We need to raise our bar.

Linked with City, Ajax and us.
Wouldn't be surprised if Liverpool consider him as a Henderson replacement too.

 

[Timberwolf]

I wonder if Everton have, perversely, done us a favour here.

If we were the only club in for PEH, Levy would dig in, set up the siege engines and start poisoning the water supply, knowing that come deadline day So'ton, ravaged by dysentery and shame, would come out waving the white flag to hand over their Danish prisoner. It might take 6 weeks but we'd save that precious 2 million quid and Levy would have another notch on his belt.

With a bit of extra pressure Levy's hand might be forced and we'll actually sign a key player in time for pre-season for once in our lives.

 

[chrissivad]

I think footballing history is full of limited watercarriers who played their role in top teams.

Stefan Freund has a Champions League winning medal for crying out loud!!!

PS No disrespect to Stefan; loved the commitment.

Totally agree.

At the moment we have Winks and Sissoko putting in a lot of work in cm with little from it.

It's been a huge issue for us for at least 2 seasons now.