Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou has praised midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg after his impact in Sunday’s 3-3 draw at Manchester City.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg was simply ‘excellent’ after coming on for Tottenham Hotspur against Manchester City.
That is the verdict of boss Ange Postecoglou after seeing Tottenham battle to a 3-3 draw on Sunday afternoon.
Spurs again showed that they will not compromise on their principles under Postecoglou – even away at the Premier League champions.
Tottenham took the lead through Son Heung-min and then had to battle back from behind – twice – in order to eventually claim a point through Dejan Kulusevski.
Ange Postecoglou praises Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg after Tottenham draw
Tottenham boss Postecoglou has made it abundantly clear that his Spurs side will play his style of play no matter the opponent.
Away at the Premier League champions? Tottenham will stick to Postecoglou’s principles and continue to play daring football.
On another day, Erling Haaland would have put Tottenham out of sight by half time, but Spurs still twice battled back from behind to claim a point.
Postecoglou did tweak his side at the break, bringing on Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg for Bryan Gil in a fairly defensive substitution.
Giovani Lo Celso played a little further forward, Hojbjerg sat in with Yves Bissouma with Kulusevski and Brennan Johnson out wide.
Tottenham improved after the break and Postecoglou has now praised Hojbjerg for his impact at the Etihad Stadium.
Speaking to Football London, Postecoglou suggested that Hojbjerg was ‘excellent’ against City and his experience proved to be invaluable for Spurs.
Postecoglou saw ‘more conviction’ from Tottenham with Hojbjerg on the pitch with the Dane having a major influence.
“I think it helped. I thought Pierre was excellent in the second half. His experience out there, I thought we just as a group had a lot more conviction about our football, just passing it and not second guessing ourselves and being hesitant with our passes like we did in the first half,” said Postecoglou.
“Look I’m on the touchline and everything outside looks easy but when you’re out there you’re facing a world class team in a venue where they don’t give up too many things. It’s understandable in many respects but at the same time, as I said to them at half-time, whatever fallout or bad outcome there is, I’ll take the responsibility. I’m the one that’s putting them out there. Let’s at least show a little bit more conviction about the kind of football team we want to be and I thought they did that in the second half. You’re never going to totally dominate a game of football here but in the second half I thought we were very much in the game against a very good football side,” he added.
Hojbjerg future at Tottenham still unclear
Hojbjerg dropped out of the Tottenham side on Sunday with Bissouma back from suspension but showed his value with a strong display as a substitute.
The Dane has been in a strange position this season; so important under Jose Mourinho, Nuno and Antonio Conte but now mostly on the bench under Postecoglou.
Hojbjerg is out of contract in 2025 and Tottenham may now be tempted to cash in as he heads towards the final 18 months of his contract.
TalkSPORT suggested in November that Tottenham were willing to sell Hojbjerg in order to sign Fluminense midfielder Andre.
Sunday’s display may just tempt Postecoglou into keeping Hojbjerg a little longer though, having made a big impact on Sunday.
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