Christian Eriksen

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I'll bow to those with superior knowledge of his recent form but on the 4/5 occasions I've seen him he's looked like the crafty playmaker that our team would benefit from.

What makes me prefer him to Will.I.Am tho Is that the Brazillan is going to cost £50m over 4 years in fees and wages, and be 29. By comparison Eriksen is more likely to cost in the region of £15m (£20m max) over the same period and be 25. Thus I''d imagine Levy would be more inclined to go for the Dane.

Agree with some of the above posts tho that Holtby should be given his chance this season to make that position his own.
 
Holtby is already a superior player to this dane, and he will oust one of our three other midfielders of a starting position this season. I mean for fucks sake, Holtby had around 10 assists by the winter break in germany last season!
 
Holtby is already a superior player to this dane, and he will oust one of our three other midfielders of a starting position this season. I mean for fucks sake, Holtby had around 10 assists by the winter break in germany last season!

No one is arguing the merits of Holtby. I hope he does replace one of them, Siggy. Siggy back out on the left wing with Holtby and Eriksen sharing time in the No 10 role gives us two excellent players each in those respective positions, per AVB's own stated intent. I think we can all agree we'd prefer more cover at fullback, but with what we currently have in those positions we can still beat the better teams of the league. We will not beat those teams with our current situation at the CAM position.
 
No one is arguing the merits of Holtby. I hope he does replace one of them, Siggy. Siggy back out on the left wing with Holtby and Eriksen sharing time in the No 10 role gives us two excellent players each in those respective positions, per AVB's own stated intent. I think we can all agree we'd prefer more cover at fullback, but with what we currently have in those positions we can still beat the better teams of the league. We will not beat those teams with our current situation at the CAM position.
If we play a three of Capoue-Paulinho-siggy we will. Those three are direct, quick at passing and the operate at different positions on the pitch giving us a really good central spine/link to our widemen/striker. Capoue will take the roll of collecting the ball from our CB's (mostly Dawson) and bring it out to anyone on the pitch that's in space really as he seems to have a cracking pass on him.(Capoue looks better offensively than Sandro, but pre-inj Sandro has him beat hands down defensively, and Sandro should considering he was the best DM in the world at that point.) Paulinho is the midrange/late arriver and will give support to Capoue and wingers and FB. Sig operates further forward and will support striker/wings and supply them with those sexy slid in behind passes he is capable of, not to mention once he's tweaked his sight a little bit, bang some curlers in. I'm not including dembele because of the current midfield selection we have he is the least direct and creative. He slows down our play because he has a compulsive need to take on a player and two before he passes.

Once Holtby is back from injury I expect him to oust Siggy as Holtby is just a class above most of our central players once he's playing to his abilities (Should see some of the stuff he did at Schalke and for the german U21's. In a word; fantastic.)

So in essence, we have two true defensive midfielders who when played together will shut down any team and still offer enough going forward to not hamper us too much, We have one real box to box CM who can score, pass and tackle, we have one quasi-CM who has a tendency to dribble too much before he passes but will be excellent to bring on if we need to slow everything down and just hold on to the ball. We have a dogged playmaker in Holtby who was in the top 5 assist in his last half season for Schalke in a league that boasts Schweini, Gøtze, Gyndogan, Castro, Reus, Draxler, Robben, Ribery, Kroos and the list is barely started. We have an up and coming pure playmaker in the shape of the Carroll who just oozes class whenever I've seen him on the ball. And then we have Siggy who mighty not be the flashiest CAM in the world but he get's things done and played many a good pass against palace and last season, he also has one hell of a shot once he can fine tune the sight on goal (a goal or two should see to this.).

For me we do not need any new CAM as we have three-four players who can play there and do an excellent job and I've not even mentioned Chadli as an option centrally... Should Bale stay as well all of the above will get more space to strut their stuff as he will be more closely watched than Chadli and Lennon currently are.
 
I agree with you on everything about the other midfielders, but my whole point is that Siggy is absolutely NOT "getting it done." Have a look at any of the major sport websites, there's at least one article talking about being impressed with the new signings but ruing the lack of creativity centrally. Yes, I want Holtby to return and make that position his own. But Siggy does not have the skillset to play that role at a team of this level. He is simply too slow in pace and touch. I'd absolutely like to see what Carroll can do, especially as it seems he's outperforming at the U-21 level both for club and country. But if AVB rates him less than what Siggy is currently offering, then I can't help but be hesitant. However, I'd be delighted to see him given a go in Georgia on Thursday.
 
I agree with you on everything about the other midfielders, but my whole point is that Siggy is absolutely NOT "getting it done." Have a look at any of the major sport websites, there's at least one article talking about being impressed with the new signings but ruing the lack of creativity centrally. Yes, I want Holtby to return and make that position his own. But Siggy does not have the skillset to play that role at a team of this level. He is simply too slow in pace and touch. I'd absolutely like to see what Carroll can do, especially as it seems he's outperforming at the U-21 level both for club and country. But if AVB rates him less than what Siggy is currently offering, then I can't help but be hesitant. However, I'd be delighted to see him given a go in Georgia on Thursday.
I have my worries about our attacking play too, but our problem lies deeper on the pitch than CAM... Our main problem is that, other than Capoue atm, we have no CM who comes deep enough/moves into open space quick enough to recieve and drive us forward.

Once Capoue came on against palace we had that player and all of a sudden we looked more in control and created more at the front as the ball was moved quicker from GK/CB's without always having to go through either WB and once Sig and Paulinho could recieve the ball further up and quicker than previously in the match they created more dangerous situation...
 
I have my worries about our attacking play too, but our problem lies deeper on the pitch than CAM... Our main problem is that, other than Capoue atm, we have no CM who comes deep enough/moves into open space to recieve and drive us forward.

Once Capoue came on against palace we had that player and all of a sudden we looked more in control and created more at the front as the ball was moved quicker from GK/CB's without always having to go through either WB and once Sig and Paulinho could recieve the ball further up and quicker than previously in the match they created more dangerous situation...

I certainly agree you with here that it made it better. I'm just saying it still wasn't good enough :/ As you said, we go out to the fullbacks far too often. We maybe bounce it around the top of the box some, but we don't have that person to flick on that perfect pass in that leaves defenders bewildered while our player is in on goal. Soldado is far too valuable an asset to be left disconnected up top. We get a better CAM and he scores at least ten more goals this season than he would otherwise.
 
I certainly agree you with here that it made it better. I'm just saying it still wasn't good enough :/ As you said, we go out to the fullbacks far too often. We maybe bounce it around the top of the box some, but we don't have that person to flick on that perfect pass in that leaves defenders bewildered while our player is in on goal. Soldado is far too valuable an asset to be left disconnected up top. We get a better CAM and he scores at least ten more goals this season than he would otherwise.
Those issues stem from the same deficiency though. As of now without Capoue/Sandro or Carroll on the pitch we end up never attacking against an unbalanced defense as we always trek it between CB's and FB's for about half an hour before we start really attacking, thus we always find ourselves up against a settled and disciplined defense. Once we move the ball from the back quicker everything up front will be easier because the team we face are unbalanced when we attack, instead of set up into banks of 4 and 5.
 
Exactly, while we keep the ball very well, in doing so we let the opposition get set up to defend. At Porto AVB's philosophy was built on win the ball, get it forward. At the moment we win the ball then keep it around the half way line slowing everything down. The injection of pace and dynamics seems like something Holtby is capable of, even Capoue from his Palace cameo and hopefully Willianand Lamela if he comes will help with this.
 
No point. Too similar to Holtby but according to people who've watched both more than me, Holtby is better. Spend the money elsewhere. At least lamela and willian play across the front
 
No point. Too similar to Holtby but according to people who've watched both more than me, Holtby is better. Spend the money elsewhere. At least lamela and willian play across the front
This, Holtby when fit and on wavelength with his team-mates only has a handful of CAM's that's better than him, two of them german, which is why he doesn't get to play for the national team that much. Had he played for almost any other teams than Germany/Spain he would be the star of his national side.
 
Holtby is such a good player, and I think a lot of people don't realize how good he is yet. He is very young too, and has only been here half a season. He really should become one of our key players over the next season or two. The only thing I'd say is we could do with a second player like him to create competition and cover injuries, like Holtby's current injury.
 
Holtby is such a good player, and I think a lot of people don't realize how good he is yet. He is very young too, and has only been here half a season. He really should become one of our key players over the next season or two. The only thing I'd say is we could do with a second player like him to create competition and cover injuries, like Holtby's current injury.

Exactly, and as AVB said he wants two quality players for each position. By picking up Eriksen, Lamela, and another CB, we're looking at a squad with the level of depth of anyone in Europe. We could push for all of the cups and still have fresh, top quality legs to stand toe to toe with anyone on the weekends. For any of the Holtby fans, were the Willian deal to actually have in fact gone down the shitter and we land Eriksen, it would likely mean far more playing time for Holtby.

Regardless, this is such a fundamental position of need right now in our squad that I wake up every morning hoping to see progression in our search for a CAM as well as for more pictures of Holtby training. Would absolutely love to have this sorted out by our trip to the Emirates, but it's looking less likely by the day.
 
Holtby is such a good player, and I think a lot of people don't realize how good he is yet. He is very young too, and has only been here half a season. He really should become one of our key players over the next season or two. The only thing I'd say is we could do with a second player like him to create competition and cover injuries, like Holtby's current injury.
That's because he hasn't shown us anything in a Spurs shirt, if I'm being honest. When he has played for us he has been frantic, rushed and un-intelligent. He sprints around for the ball too much and needs to calm down and dominate the game with his finesse and vision rather than brute force. He is very young, and a full pre-season with the squad will have done him a world of good. He needs to push on and become a big player for us this season, no excuses.
 
That's because he hasn't shown us anything in a Spurs shirt, if I'm being honest. When he has played for us he has been frantic, rushed and un-intelligent. He sprints around for the ball too much and needs to calm down and dominate the game with his finesse and vision rather than brute force. He is very young, and a full pre-season with the squad will have done him a world of good. He needs to push on and become a big player for us this season, no excuses.

The lad has only played for us about a dozen times so far and half of those as a sub. And coming in half way through the season too. He needs a proper chance and I expect he'll get it at some point.
 
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