Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg was Tottenham Hotspur’s first signing of the summer in what turned out to be a busy window for the club.
The Southampton man was certainly not the most glamorous acquisition of the window, with the likes of Gareth Bale also coming in.
However, eight games in, his impact on the side has been substantial. If not for the ridiculous form that Harry Kane has been in at the start of the season, it would not be an exaggeration to say that the Dane has quickly become Tottenham’s most important player.
The stats (as available on PremierLeague.com) certainly reveal just how important the 25-year-old is to Jose Mourinho’s side.
He is the only outfield player to have played every single minute of every match in the Premier League for Tottenham so far.
Hojbjerg has had the second-highest touches of the ball (757) in the entire league, behind Liverpool’s Andrew Robertson.
The midfielder has also completed more passes (659) than any other player in the Premier League.
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Not only is he the only Tottenham player to make the top 20 on both of the aforementioned stats but he is also one of the very few midfielders in the league to post such numbers, with the list mostly dominated by defenders.
Unsurprisingly, Hojbjerg has also made the sixth-highest number of tackles (24) in the entire league, with no other Tottenham player coming anywhere close.
The former Southampton man is also the only Spurs player to be in the top 20 in terms of fouls (14), which perhaps suggests that he is responsible for the increasing number of tactical fouls from Jose Mourinho’s side this season.
Spurs Web Opinion
This might seem like a ridiculous suggestion to some but I genuinely believe that Hojbjerg will be a bigger miss if he gets injured than Kane would be. That is partly because we have the firepower and options upfront to partly compensate for Kane’s loss but we do not have any other player in our squad who can do the job that Hojberjg can. Thankfully, the Dane’s fitness record over the past few years is excellent.
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