Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg gives Jose Mourinho the tactical setup he needs

Add as preferred source on Google

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg is exactly the player Jose Mourinho needed. He could prove to be one of the signings of the entire season.

Things didn’t exactly go to plan for Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday. Now, you can put the reasons for that down to several things – mentality, bad luck, concentration – but there were positives.

One of which was further evidence that Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg can be a huge signing for Jose Mourinho.

Flexible

Spurs’ strength going forward is in how versatile they are. They can play against a packed defence thanks to full-backs who can get forward and a star striker who consistently finds space to score.

You can see Sunday for that latter one, in fact, as Kane somehow created space for himself on the edge of the box to fire home. That’s a magnificent luxury for any team.

But Spurs can also prove lethal on the counter. Players like Son Heung-Min, Steven Bergwijn, Lucas Moura and, hopefully, Gareth Bale make them almost impossible to stop if you leave them space to attack.

This all needs the right playmaker, however, but Spurs appear to have found him when they signed Hojbjerg for £15m from Southampton.

The Dane’s range of passing makes him a fantastic threat against every type of defence. He can find the full-backs when space is tight just as well as he can unleash a counter-attack.

He also underwent key years of development under Pep Guardiola, meaning he knows exactly how to dictate tempo in a possession game. Add to that his physicality at 6ft 1 and with four years of Premier League experience – he can win battles in midfield.

So Hojbjerg is exactly the midfielder Mourinho needed. He’s an ideal pragmatic player, capable of playing whatever system Mourinho wants and can switch-up styles on the go.

If he keeps up his early form and continues to improve, we are surely looking at one of the best and most important signings of the season.