Not sure you can turn form on and off like that. His relatively poor form was probably due to to his contract situation. I am not sure he ever gave up, but if your head is uncertain, then it's got to be difficult to be at your best.
Might just be a co incidence but the last 2 games since his departure...we look like a team With focus People can liken football to a job as much as they want but it’s not, it’s Sport it’s a Sport disguised as a job. Therefore things like...everyone reading from the same hymn sheet is essential. Everyone in that changing room needs to have the same goals. Very difficult to have any kind of ‘team’ ethic with a player who not only wants to move but has signed off mentally. Glad he’s gone, see ya.
I agree with your comments re the effect on the team of people in it wanting out. Pochettino is not here and that's why IMO. his whole ethic collapsed once the team was compromised. Re the job versus sport argument, that's interesting, never having been a professional sportsman makes it difficult to be sure, but I suspect that being a pro does alter a players view considerably. Obviously you have to have the drive to be a winner if you are going to be good at the game whether you are pro or amateur but once you become a pro it is your job and attitudes have to change. It's an interesting area that I don't think we have discussed much on here, it will be interesting to hear what others think.
It is like a job though. I’ve worked in teams where everyone pulls together until suddenly someone wants to go. They’ve told one or two colleagues over a beer on a Friday, all their contacts and everyone on the recruitment circuit knows they’re looking for a new job...half the time even the management know but they just haven’t been told directly. Of course you don’t trust such a person any more to produce when the chips are down. Of course the dynamic changes in the team. Eriksen talks about being the black sheep - well that’s because you were the one that spoke out mate. Honesty is a valuable thing but so is tact and common sense - you can’t have your cake and eat it. If I told my boss today I wanted to leave I’d be put on notice. I know football is different with fixed term contracts but to dissent and openly court the move then expect to be treated the same by fans and management is unrealistic. It’s not like he was putting 110% in on the pitch to make up for the perception either. I do feel for him a little because playing that many ‘goodbye games’ at a club where you’ve spent a long time and been a fan favourite must be a bit weird. But don’t speak out if you can’t take the consequences. Honesty has a price in the world of work especially if you’re speaking to the sports media and that work is football.
Thinking about it, I have played golf with professional cricketers and the level of competitiveness was way beyond anything I have seen from the most competitive amateur. Bearing in mind the golf was for fun and was not their 'business' sport it seems that it was just in their genes and probably underlies how they became pro sportsmen.
You were criticised for half-arsing your performances for a year while running down your contract. That didn't start after the Champions League final, nor was it something out of your control. If he wanted to leave in the summer, then he should've asked for a transfer and done so. That would've been honest, not pissing about and being vague about everything, while clearly knowing exactly what he was doing. He clearly has a little dig at Levy for negotiating deals, but the man needs to become more ruthless about contracts, not less. Heading towards the 2 year mark on a deal? Sign a new one or go. Thanks and goodbye.
In that case he shouldn't complain too much and should admit that the stick he was getting was justified.
I wouldn’t say I feel for him/ have sympathy. I rarely do for any pro-footballer to be honest. Though one thing I’d say is that all of our bad form was being blamed on him despite a number of our team massively underperforming. Players like Alderweireld were getting off scot free, he may as well been playing with a sign on his head saying “go ahead, I won’t tackle you” and yet we’d still have portions of our fans saying things like “Eriksen needs to be more like Toby” which was just bizarre. Alli has been **** more often than not for about two and a half years and with exception of a quick “Jose bounce” this season has continued with his poor form. Son also goes missing for long periods too. The three of those combined would get nothing in comparison to what Eriksen gets and that’s where I generally disagree with fans. Throw as much stick at him as you like but also be fair with your criticism towards others too.
Mourinho came in and restored him to his old position, which saw him return to form and score/assist a bunch of goals. He's since dropped him into a deeper and often wider role, where he's returned to being ineffective.
He’s often floated out wide though, in his two great seasons for us he was playing a lot as a left sided attacking mid as Eriksen would be the central number ten. Can’t help but feel we’re reaching a Coutinho moment with him. Good player but isn’t fitting into the system well enough. If we do go 433 which I think looks likely, especially when Ndombele is fully fit, I don’t see place for Alli in the XI.
As you say, he can play in off the left. He could probably do it from the right too, which might be an easier route for him. I don't think that we get the best out of him playing in the deeper three of the 4-3-3, though. The other possibility is using him in the middle instead of Moura. I think he'd be better at it, honestly.
“If he felt like that he should have signed a new contract then, shouldn’t he? He put himself in that situation. “Any player who risks running down your contract into the last three or four months of his contract, I’m afraid you create the situation yourself. I’m sure there were contract talks held, they obviously weren’t met and he’d had his head turned before that. “He wasn’t the same player this year, nowhere near the player that he has been, and when a player puts himself in that situation you’ve only got yourself to blame unless there is no contract put on the table for you.” That's Paul Robinson's take on the Eriksen interview.
Yeah I’d definitely play him as the central striker over Lucas at the moment, I think Lucas is pretty terrible there, he works extremely hard but his frame and style means he can’t hold the ball up which you’d want from a central figure. Alli has the height and build to do what Kane does to a certain extent and I’m surprised Jose hasn’t used him like that. Personally I wouldn’t play him on the right though, I’d rather that be reserved for a pacy player as that’s where Lo Celso and Ndombele can feed a lot of through balls on too. Early doors with Bergwijn of course but I’m quite looking forward to possibly seeing him and Son either side of Kane when he’s back. Once (or if, lol) we have a fully fit XI, I’d struggle to find a place for Alli.
I would say that most on here have been fairly even handed in criticism to be fair, Eriksen has had some stick and rightly so but so have Aurier, Alli, Son, Lucas, Winks, Dier, Rose, Toby, Jan, hell the list goes on, you get the idea. The vocal ones like Rose and Eriksen get more stick though which I think is understandable. But I don’t think anyone’s gone as far as to pin the whole thing on Eriksen.
They definitely received criticism but nothing like what Eriksen did, Toby being the luckiest of the bunch, fans were still putting him on a pedestal and convincing themselves Eriksen needed to be more like him, was madness. You're right though in that being vocal brought an added level of criticism and even hate onto him and Rose.
I said last season that Dele is far too reliant on Kane being on the pitch with him. The latter is the only player we have who has the intelligence and strength to drag defenders out of position and create pockets of space the former got so good at running into and exploiting. Dele is superb at finishing off moves, he is nowhere near as good at starting them. Nor for that matter are Son and Lucas which is why we struggled terribly in front of goal for weeks on end until the likes of Lo Celso and hopefully Tanguy start to shoulder that burden. Playing Dele at ST wouldn't work as he struggles to play with his back to goal and doesn't have the pace to play off the last shoulder. In all honesty, he's still top of my 'to sell' list as we'd probably make a nice amount from him to reinvest in players who aren't quite as one-dimensional.
