No one has more chances created nor as many assists since he came to the Prem, meaning he’s bested the likes of Hazard, Mata, Ozil and Silva from a creative standpoint. Winning goals in huge games, including getting us to the LC final in Poch’s first year, keeping us in the CL against Inter, killing off Madrid, rocket vs Chelsea in our first win at the bridge in god knows how long and probably countless others I’ve forgotten. If that’s average then I’d love to know what you deem as good. He deserves all the criticism in the world for his form this season but he’s easily been one of the best to put on this shirt in the Prem era and one of the best in general.
Since this is doing the rounds... 1st May 1999: Ledley King makes Premier League debut the Saltypool 16th April 2005: Michael Dawson makes Premier League debut vs Saltypool 11th January 2020: Japhet Tanganga makes Premier League debut vs Saltypool
Yes he has some superb football skills and can produce killer passes, but he has ALWAYS shirked a tackle and has rarely if ever taken a game by the scruff of it's neck and turned it around. If we'd had a tougher playmaker we might actually have won something. He is far from a complete midfielder for me and is way off hall of fame catergory.
I don`t blame Eriksen for wanting to leave, he has given us 7 years great service and has seen opportunities to really kick on and win trophies squandered by our profit before glory owners. At his age, he will want to see real ambition and the prospect of winning things, he won`t see it at Spurs while ENIC are here. Good luck to him and thanks for the memories, like so many of our players he had the ability to take us to the very top but our owners did not share the required ambition.
That doesn’t really exist though. Every creative player shirks a tackle, they’re not in the team for that. The likes of Ozil, Silva, Hazard, Mata and obviously Eriksen have never been known for being great tacklers. It’s a myth to expect a player of that style to do that. It’s why teams have a Matic, Kante, Fernandinho etc
"Pochettino was one or two players away I think from winning the league. Jose Mourinho needs four or five players just to get back to where Pochettino was." Even Carragher can see it. The club need to sign 1-2 this window and then 3-4 in the summer.
Modric and Moutinho are central midfielders. James Maddison? He certainly doesn’t do any more tackling than Eriksen does. De Bruyne, granted he’ll put a foot in here and there but it’s his creativity that makes him one of the best in world football.
And as a central midfielder you need to have be able to do all aspects of the game. So they’re bound to be better at tackling due to the nature and demands of their position. As a number 10 playmaker you’re there to be the teams creative outlet and just that and it’s why teams generally have at least one, sometimes two DMs when playing with a number 10. Modric and Moutinho have 215 assists between them and 110 goals between them in their playing careers. Eriksen has 154 assists and 106 goals alone. He’s 6 years younger than Moutinho and 7 years younger than Modric.
It depends what type of number ten you're playing Italian number tens are in the style of Roberto Baggio or Alessandro Del Piero who play up top Argentine number tens are in the style of Maradona who plays between midfield and attack but operate more like a striker Classic English number tens are in the style of Niall Quinn or Duncan Ferguson who need crosses (and ref to miss their constant elbows) Spanish number tens are in the style of Xavi who play between midfield and attack and link play So the Spanish or Argentine type absolutely do need a solid base behind them to both break up play and recycle it quickly, but the Italian or English versions need someone in midfield who can move the ball around. Case in point in our recent(ish) history, Teddy Sheringham was closer to the Italian style as he was effectively our playmaker and was so good at it he even made Chris Armstrong look like a lethal striker for a season, Peter Crouch was the classic English type who was knocking it down for Rafa VDV to poke in, while Eriksen is the Spanish model Sheringham and Crouch both needed someone in midfield who could dictate play, in Sheringham's case to get the ball to him and in Crouch's case someone to free the wide players to get the crosses in, while Eriksen needs a destroyer/recycler pairing behind him
You can tell when I've been looking over r/coys, because their users really do seem to live rewriting our recent history...
Yeah I think in general, the 10 role in the Premier League for most of the last ten years has generally been the prime creator. The best 10s in the league over the last 6 or 7 years have been Eriksen, Mata, Ozil, Hazard and Silva. All of them known for their ability to make the defence splitting pass, although Hazard probably had a better goal threat than those but it’s why a DM is generally needed as those guys are often required to be in space in order to create and therefore have less defensive responsibilities. Prior to these guys, it was more often than not you’d see 442 as the main formation in which the number 10 would be the target man and the number 9 would be the poacher.
Modric really was unique in the sense that his work rate and willingness to get stuck in was so rare for a 'luxury' creative player. True, he didn't clock up nearly as many goals or assists per season as Eriksen has, but he was also by far the most influential player in what was, apart from Poch's 16/17 team, my favourite team of the PL era. I recall Scott Parker saying when he moved to us that he was glad he'd never have to face Luka again as he was the toughest opponent he'd ever played against; not because of his skill, it was the tenacity and bite that went with it that made him such a nightmare. Which is why, I suppose, Chelsea and then Madrid were desperate to sign him. Whereas Eriksen hasn't attracted so much as a whiff of interest.
Modric is the best player I've seen at Spurs, said that time and time again. He was unbelievable and winning the Ballon d'or the other year shows what a player he is/ was. I was highlighting that Eriksen is a number 10, Modric (and Moutinho) is more a 6, maybe an 8, which is why Eriksen will have far more goals and assists but be less as impressive in his all round game, especially when it comes to the defensive attributes. CMs are essentially meant to be good/ competent at everything, the further up the pitch you go the better you expect a player to be better at scoring/ assisting than you would defending, just like the further back you go you'd expect them to be better at defending than you would scoring/ assisting. For me, bemoaning that a playmaker doesn't tackle, is like being annoyed at a CB for not scoring enough goals. It just doesn't make sense, at least not to me anyway.
It's a shame that Lamela isn't a CM as he'd certainly fit that combination of creativity and combativeness
