He's ****, but I did find all of the City players crowding him pretty funny. All of them made loads of mistakes and were outraged at the bloke making one! Should've asked Haaland how he missed so many chances.
Care to make any suggestions as to any other FB pairings that would do a a better job at CB? Could have been worst if we still had Trippier and Rose!
I wouldn’t have played Emerson. I’d have played Dorrington who’s an actual CB, or failing that, would’ve preferred Hojbjerg, because he at least has a degree of technical ability despite not boasting a huge amount of it. Emerson is one of the most “untechnical” players I’ve laid eyes on yet was playing a role that requires the player to be technically sound and capable of playing it out from the back. Tripps would’ve probably done an equal job defensively (which wouldn’t have been great) but a far better job when in possession, had/ has great passing and technical ability.
Emerson has better passing stats than Hojbjerg. Hojbjerg is the player in the whole squad who is most likely to be in the wrong place imho. Watch Villa's second goal for an example.
As always a really interesting discussion and some great arguments made on both sides. On Hojbjerg, when he came on we looked so much more secure so he needs to be given a lot of credit for that. And on lo celso he has come in after such a long time out, and has scored 2 goals in 2 games. I appreciate he has had a long time to prove himself but this is a different spurs these days. I don’t think you would get many better replacements unless we spend a lot of money, and there are other areas we need to strengthen more than his position. I think it’s worth giving him this season to prove himself and see if he can carry on the glimpses that he has shown in the last 2 matches.
Winks had good passing stats and that’s because he went side to side or backwards with 5 yard passes. The eye test tells you that Hojbjerg is a far better passer than Emerson, who’s always uncomfortable in possession. Villa’s second goal was Watkins basically walking through Emerson and Davies.
The Hojbjerg one was interesting because he didn’t come on to play right sided 8 in the way that Sarr had been, and didn’t obviously play further up like Kulu had been. We almost played a double pivot, which was a smart tactical change from Ange. Helped us both play out from the back a bit better and gave us more security when we lost possession up the pitch - Bissouma was getting outnumbered a bit there in the first half. I think Sarr covers so much ground in that right 8 slot that we look more secure defending transitions. Without Bentancur, who is also pretty mobile and eats up the KMs in games, the second half approach looked good especially against a team who hog the ball but also have a huge transitional threat. It also means we’re not relying on Hojbjerg as the main midfield progressive option when we play out, as he’s not that technically secure so can lose the ball when he’s on his own and can’t find space. He finds it when he has a partner to distract the opposition press though.
The saviour . Do genuinely wonder if he’ll ever play for us again. Must have missed more games than he’s been eligible for. Makes Lamela look like Mr Invincible.
Hojbjerg played much better against City than he did against Villa but I don't think he is a better stand in centre half than Emerson. Emerson lost the ball too many times but he made a lot of clearances and I didn't think he played too badly at all. Gil is getting a lot of stick too but our first goal was started by him. We were playing the European Champions with half the starting eleven missing...not sure why we are not celebrating how well we played.
I do think he could do well under Ange but I just don’t have any confidence he can stay fit for long enough. Apparently he has been working really hard to get himself fit. He’s only 23 so still has time on his side. Be great if he can avoid another long injury and at least have a chance to resurrect his career with us or someone else.
He does not appear to be PL grade. Given the number of starts he will be getting over the most brutal part of the England season, we will know the truth of that soon enough. The same also applies to GLC (who has been afar bigger cost on the bottom line than Gil) .
I really wanted it to work for him as he seems a great bloke but injuries aside he’s been dismal to say the least, probably the worst of those 19/20 summer signings which takes some doing. Maybe Mandela effect but I could’ve sworn he was pretty rapid and skilful at Fulham, yet since joining I think someone like Hojbjerg would beat him in a foot race and he’s so timid with the ball. Udogie’s had more good games for us in less than half a season than Sessegnon’s had in nearly four and a half years, mind you, Udogie’s probably played more in half a season too .
Time-wasting ?? As the ball appears to have gone into the away section, bit difficult IMHO to claim crowd antagonism etc.
