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Christian Eriksen

parklane1 said:
And the fact he does not throw himself into reckless tackles.
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He doesn't make tackles, reckless or otherwise, hasn't in all tge time he's been here, that's not his game. He defends by closing down passing lanes. Problem is teams now know he isn't going to tackle and it give them time to play round him.
Needs to mix it up a bit.
 
glasgowspur said:
He doesn't make tackles, reckless or otherwise, hasn't in all tge time he's been here, that's not his game. He defends by closing down passing lanes. Problem is teams now know he isn't going to tackle and it give them time to play round him.
Needs to mix it up a bit.
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You do have a point, but just because he is not the type of player that is always going to ground he seems to be slagged off for not doing so. It takes all types of players to make a good side and his strengths lie elsewhere. He is not a coward ( like some have suggested he is) because he does act like a bull in a china shop.

Personally I'd rather we have a player who has the assists and goals he has plus the amount of work he does then someone whose strengths involve tackling anything that moves.
 
parklane1 said:
You do have a point, but just because he is not the type of player that is always going to ground he seems to be slagged off for not doing so. It takes all types of players to make a good side and his strengths lie elsewhere. He is not a coward ( like some have suggested he is) because he does act like a bull in a china shop.

Personally I'd rather we have a player who has the assists and goals he has plus the amount of work he does then someone whose strengths involve tackling anything that moves.
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There's a place for both imo, I feel he would play better if he knew someone had his back, Dier had it covered last season and wonder if he's missing that.
 
I think he has already turned a corner in terms of form and more importantly mindset. About 4-5 games back something changed with him, and to me it is as obvious as the nose on Alan Smith's face. Frankly, early season he was playing like a coward. There was no conviction in his play at all. He did not want the responsibility of being the fulcrum of our attacks and was all too quick to pass the ball and responsibility along with it. That for me has changed and I'm guessing this is Poch's work. I now see a young man confident in his own ability and willing to shoulder the burden that comes with being the Spurs playmaker. There is a steely determination inside of Eriksen that Poch has now managed to tap into. Rose, Walker, Dembele, Lamela all have it and Poch has made them twice the players they were. He has worked his jedi mind fudge techniques on Eriksen and it is paying dividends.

The criticism of his tackling contribution is from one perspective valid, yeah he doesn't do it, but IMO it is not really that important. His early season lack of form just shifted the spotlight more to his lack of physicality and tackling but that really was not the issue. The issue was he was not affecting games from an attacking sense and this has been remedied. He is now and is only going to get better. There is much more to come from Eriksen.
 
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glasgowspur said:
There's a place for both imo, I feel he would play better if he knew someone had his back, Dier had it covered last season and wonder if he's missing that.
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I do agree about a good side has to have players with different styles, that is why i fail to understand why/how some can slag him off because they feel he does not tackle as much as they would like. After all would we slag of the likes of Dier/Sandro because they do/did not score enough goals or get many assists.

As for missing Dier i'm not sure he does not get the same protection from Wanyama anyway. But you may be right.
 
parklane1 said:
I do agree about a good side has to have players with different styles, that is why i fail to understand why/how some can slag him off because they feel he does not tackle as much as they would like. After all would we slag of the likes of Dier/Sandro because they do/did not score enough goals or get many assists.

As for missing Dier i'm not sure he does not get the same protection from Wanyama anyway. But you may be right.
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Does he trust wanyama to be covering his back enough yet, the chemistry or camaraderie with Dier was built up over a tough season. Maybe he's just not settled with wanyama yet.
 
Rorschach said:
I think he has already turned a corner in terms of form and more importantly mindset. About 4-5 games back something changed with him, and to me it is as obvious as the nose on Alan Smith's face. Frankly, early season he was playing like a coward. There was no conviction in his play at all. He did not want the responsibility of being the fulcrum of our attacks and was all too quick to pass the ball and responsibility along with it. That for me has changed and I'm guessing this is Poch's work. I now see a young man confident in his own ability and willing to shoulder the burden that comes with being the Spurs playmaker. There is a steely determination inside of Eriksen that Poch has now managed to tap into. Rose, Walker, Dembele, Lamela all have it and Poch has made them twice the players they were. He has worked his jedi mind fudge techniques on Eriksen and it is paying dividends.

The criticism of his tackling contribution is from one perspective valid, yeah he doesn't do it, but IMO it is not really that important. His early season lack of form just shifted the spotlight more to his lack of physicality and tackling but that really was not the issue. The issue was he was not affecting games from an attacking sense and this has been remedied. He is now and is only going to get better. fudge Ozil. Ozil will never improve. There is much more to come from Eriksen.
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His form at the start of the season was poor, but I think we should bear in mind that he wasn't alone in that, also he lost the guy in front, Harry, and at least one of the two behind, either Dembele or Dier at various stages.
He did look lost early on and I don't think it's a coincidence that his form has returned with Harry and Dembele.
 
awesome dawson said:
He does tackle, he just doesn't dive in or go to ground in order to do so. He's a good presser and often wins the ball back for us in the final third.
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He compares pretty well with all of our comparable players except Lamela (who nobody gets near).

Clicky

There's no available stat for "passes prevented by closing off the channel" but I think that's something he does pretty well.

Lamela's stats are for last year as he's been injured.
 
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scaramanga said:
He compares pretty well with all of our comparable players except Lamela (who nobody gets near).

Clicky

There's no available stat for "passes prevented by closing off the channel" but I think that's something he does pretty well.

Lamela's stats are for last year as he's been injured.
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What a great point, it's something he puts a great deal of energy into yet it's difficult to see how the effectiveness of it could ever be quantified or measured.

Clicky didn't work for me btw.
 
I don't actually think he creates as much as a classic No.10 - it's one of the tradeoffs he makes for being such a willing runner, presser and worker. He's not as incisive with the ball as his contemporaries (the No.10s offered more freedom and fewer defensive responsibilities - players like De Bruyne, Ozil and arguably Coutinho), nor is he as skilled a goalscorer or dribbler.

But he is as close to a complete attacking midfielder as there is in the Premier League - he stands alone in that regard, imo. There is not a weakness to his game, save for perhaps a lack of confidence at times. If you put him into any side in the world, they would not look the worse for having him, because he offers good attacking potential melded with defensive steel and a willingness to graft - there is no need to 'accommodate' Eriksen, because he fits so seamlessly into the side as a worker and grafter on par with his team-mates while also being a respectable creator/goalscorer in his own right.

De Bruyne and Ozil are sometimes slow to track back and track their runners, and their teams have to manage it by making other players cover the responsibilities of those creators during defensive phases - they accept that tradeoff because of their attacking threat. With Eriksen, he does his own grafting, so there's no reason to disrupt the team to accomodate him - the tradeoff here is that he's not as productive as other AMs at times, but that's a small price to pay to have the luxury of being able to play a reasonably creative player without worrying about whether he'll press with the rest of the team.

eriksen.png


Eriksen in a nutshell.
 
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