- Jul 9, 2007
- 12,780
- 13,817
The funny thing is that I do rate an in form Dier (though I see his future as a CB), and I think the DM role is always hard to judge, because a lot of it is what you do without the ball, and I don't necessarily agree that the role requires particular athleticism or anything like that.It seems to be the same people rating Hojbjerg who rate Dier as a DM. Mistaking good character for good ability.
To the objective naked eye he just looks very average. Looks slow, OK passer but nothing brilliant, fairly tenacious in spite of looking quite weak physically and that's about it. In terms of use for us he'd be better than Sissoko and that's about it. I can only assume we want to sign him because we think we can improve him somehow, because I just don't see anything special. I don't see the quality.
With all funds directed to DM which should be possible, we can do a lot better imo.
Some of the best DM's are not that athletic at all, Busquets, Jorginho, Fabinho, Carrick, Xabi Alonso (at points) and Schweinsteiger are all examples of players who have done that role very well, without being all action hunting down the ball type players. They all interpret that role very differently but the main thing they all share in common is footballing intelligence. There is a reason that Jose called them 'positional midfielders', because that is what a holding midfielder is.
My issue is simply that Hojbjerg seems to be being hyped up to a level which isn't really reflective of his ability. The signing makes perfect sense, for numerous reasons, and I'm not entirely against it, but as I have said before, he is not the solution to our problems. Could contribute, but I wouldn't expect him to be a starter.