Pierre-Emile Højbjerg: The unsung hero

I think it’s fair to say Pierre divides opinion within the Tottenham fan base, which I have to say, I can’t quite understand. Some people can’t quite grasp what he adds to this side. Without him, we’d lose a heck of a lot of tenacity to our play, which is valuable when we are looking to break out from the back. Whilst he adds an aggressive spark, Pierre also adds a maturity and intelligence which you can’t coach. He has the ability to settle the game down when it is getting too intense to manage.

He has also formed a great partnership with Rodrigo Bentancur, which as of now, you can’t really fault. They work with each other really nicely, moving off one another to create space very fluently. Another part of their play which tends to go under the radar, is their eye for progressive passes, which a lot of the time start our attacks, leading to many valuable goals.

Pierre does have the odd poor game though, one which sticks out was against Southampton (H) last season, where, in all honesty, Pierre had a bit of a nightmare . His passing was off and we really struggled to get our attacks going. This proves that the Dane is a pivotal cog in the system when attacking. As a result, the following game against Wolves, Pierre was dropped. In this game, Spurs were completely and utterly diabolical. We did not have a sniff, despite conceding two early goals, forcing us to supposedly chase the game. We were completely unable to create any half decent chances to reignite the game. Once again, proving the importance Pierre has in our team.

In the last game, we coincidentally played Wolves at home again, where Pierre was arguably our best player. He capped off a brilliant all round display, with a long surging run through the heart of the Wolves team, single handedly driving the team up the pitch just to buy us some more time without pressure. All of this took place in injury time. This displays Pierre’s commitment to the team.

He is undoubtedly a player who deserves more respect. I hope he can continue these good performances in the future. Nice one, Pierre! 🇩🇰