Speaking on ESPN, former Arsenal midfielder Stewart Robson has been dissecting this weekend’s north London derby, labelling Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s recovery runs a disgrace.
Tottenham’s midfield at the weekend was non-existent. Screengrabs from the match have been circulating on social media showing massive spaces in the middle of the park, and as you can imagine, this left Tottenham vulnerable to counter-attacks.
Hojbjerg is usually trusted to play in a holding midfield role, but the Dane was unable to make any sort of impact against the Gunners, with Robson claiming that he was ‘chugging back’ when trying to defend against Arsenal.
What’s been said?
Robson didn’t hold back when speaking about Ndombele.
“Nuno has gone in there and tried to bring back the likes of Dele Alli, but Jules is absolutely right. That central midfield area, I saw some of those recovery runs from Hojbjerg, they were a disgrace. He was actually chugging back and Saka charged beyond him and the first goal came from that. Likewise with Dele Alli,” Robson said.
Wasn’t good enough
Tottenham weren’t at the races against Arsenal, and Hojbjerg in particular wasn’t good enough.
The Dane has played a lot of football over the past 12 months, so perhaps it’s something to do with fatigue, but at times he looked incredibly laboured.
Robson says he was chugging along when trying to track back, and that’s an apt description of the pace the midfielder was running at.
Sadly, Spurs weren’t able to play at their best against Arsenal, and if Nuno doesn’t fix these issues soon, the London club could soon find themselves in a spot of bother.
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