Pundit says Spurs star is actually ‘one of the worst passers’ in the team

Craig Burley has said that Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg is one of the ‘worst passers’ in the Tottenham team but admitted that his introduction at half-time shored up the Spurs midfield against Manchester City.

Ange Postecoglou took the brave call of playing with Giovani Lo Celso and Yves Bissouma in the middle of the park at the Etihad Stadium, with Dejan Kulusevski once again operating as a number ten.

However, the move did not work as the Tottenham midfield got overran by much of the first half, with the home side smothering them with their press.

Postecoglou made the decision to take Bryan Gil off at half-time, thus moving Kulusevski to his familiar right-wing role and Lo Celso to the number ten role.

Spurs looked much more solid as a result, having more joy in stopping City attacks as well as in playing out from the back, with the away side being rewarded with a point for their bravery and character.

Harsh criticism of Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg at Spurs

Speaking about the change that Postecoglou made at half-time, Burley told ESPN FC: “One of the things that changed [at half-time] was that he realised that Bryan Gil is a very talented, technical player, but he’s lightweight.

“So he switched Johnson to the other side, he put Kulusevski on the right. He brings Hojbjerg on who is probably one of the worst passers in the Tottenham team, certainly from midfield going forward but at least he’ll run about, make some tackles, fill some holes.”

Spurs Web Opinion 

I do not think it is fair to say that Hojbjerg is a terrible passer as we have seen him make defence-splitting passes on a number of occasions. However, there is no doubt that the Dane’s passing is inconsistent as he sometimes fails to complete even simple passes.

Some of Hojbjerg’s hardened fans might point to his pass completion rate but I consider that a nearly meaningless stat (a bit like a goalkeeper’s save percentage) as it says nothing about the difficulty of the passes being attempted.