Every good football squad requires a sort of player that is not flashy, rarely makes mistakes and who goes about their business with no one usually noticing.
Neat and tidy, work horses, essential cogs to a functioning wheel.
The midfield generals.
One needs to look at the line-up to realise that they’re on the pitch. Rodri, Kante, Busquets, Fabinho and McTominay are some players that embody this aspect.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg is among the most potent pre-assisters in Europe right now.
The “Number Six”, as they are called, keep the play ticking, mop up mistakes, help out defenders, cut out attacks and generally cover every blade of grass available.
Hojbjerg does this job so well that he has made himself the first name on the team sheet for Tottenham under Antonio Conte.
The player has played in 113 games for Spurs, including all 9 PL games this season.
Averaging a solid 7.62 FotMob rating, PEH has scored 2 and assisted 1 in PL thus far.
He added another assist to his tally against Eintracht Frankfurt in the CL last night, with a sweet cross for Son to get his second and the team’s third goal of the day.
Given the fanfare and the general euphoria around the player, it came as an unpleasant shock when a Spurs podcaster known as Bardi called Hojbjerg a ‘cement mixer’ on The Extra Inch.
The phrase was used as an insult, calling the player unremarkable and implying that he is slow, uncreative and just makes easy back-and-forth passes without impact.
Bardi’s dislike goes so far that he does not even want to credit him for a goal well taken.
PEH could've taken a touch, split open a bag of cement, filled a bucket of water, plugged in the mixer, grabbed a shovel and still have had time to smash that in the back of the net
The fact is, this could not be further from the truth.
Just look at the filthy skill he pulled out yesterday, spinning away from a tackle and charging up the field, passing to Kane but not receiving it due to the striker’s fault, and all this in the 91st minute!
