Tottenham Hotspur’s Great Dane has impressed since moving to the North London side in 2013, but since the beginning of 2015, he has gone missing.
For many Spurs fans, myself included, it felt like Christian Eriksen was finally the man to fill the void of Gareth Bale. A footballing wonderkid coveted by many of the top clubs in Europe, he chose White Hart Lane as his home. Blessed with real ingenuity on the pitch and a mature head off it, it seemed that he was the man to lead Tottenham to the Champions League football which has eluded the Lilywhites since 2011.
However, after an extremely disappointing team performance against Manchester United this Sunday gone, all hopes of qualifying for the Champions League have faded away. Eriksen deserves to take a lot of the blame. He is the focal point of the team, the creative force in the side. When he doesn’t play well, the team struggle and the statistics back it up.
Since the Chelsea game on 1st January 2015, the Dane has made a total of seventeen appearances. He has only scored four goals, two coming against League One side Sheffield United. Compare this with his last seventeen games of 2014. He scored six goals, all against Premier League opposition. However, even more worrying is that he has only bagged two assists all season. To put it into perspective, young Ryan Mason, who is often employed as the holding midfielder in the team, has three assists.
Again, the statistics show that in the first seventeen games of 2015, Spurs have only won seven times whilst losing six matches. The last seventeen games of 2014, when Eriksen was in considerably better form, the team won ten games and only lost four matches. Out of all those statistics, the one that should be the most concerning is the two assists. That is clearly not good enough for a player of his calibre. We all know of his ability to score from direct free kicks or even his last minute heroics, where he has single handedly won Tottenham some very important points. Players suffer drops in form or confidence, which is understandable, but for a midfielder whose main job is to supply the goals and to provide some penetration against opposition teams, he will need to do better.
One of his most disappointing performances this season came in the Europa League at home to Fiorentina. Against the Serie A outfit, he made so many wayward passes, gifting possession to the Italians. The statistics show that he only completed 75.4% of his passes, the lowest of all the midfielders who played in that game. Against Manchester United on Sunday, he struggled again, completing less than 80% of his passes and without having a shot on goal.
Christian Eriksen is clearly a luxury player, one with all the skill and flair in the world. However, his work ethic leaves much to be desired. He doesn’t like to tackle: many of players skip by him without much trouble or competition from him. Compare that to young prodigy Harry Kane, who will run and chase down balls all day long.
Will Mauricio Pochettino decide to drop him, or is it better to have him in the team, even when he is playing badly? It is most likely that he will stay in the team as his quality can be seen by everyone, and dropping your team’s most creative player is always a risk, regardless of form. Pochettino will have to work hard and figure out a way to get the best out of him. Tottenham Hotspur’s slim chance of Champions League qualification may rest on the the young man’s shoulders.
