Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg slated for performance in shock Denmark loss

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Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg has been slammed by Danish outlet BT after his performance for Denmark in their World Cup clash with Australia which saw Kasper Hjulmand’s men knocked out of the tournament.

The Euro 2020 semi-finalists were tipped by many to go a long way in Qatar. However, they are going home after failing to win any of their three group-stage games.

Despite drawing with Tunisia and losing to France, the Danes looked to have a good opportunity to get through with victory against Australia set to be enough if France lost.

Højbjerg slated after Denmark performance

However, the Socceroos sprung a surprise and won 1-0. Denmark meanwhile, were extremely poor given what was on the line.

One of those who was extremely disappointing was Hojbjerg. In fact, BT gave his performance a 1/6 rating. And they suggested that there must have been something wrong with the Tottenham man.

“DBU’s head of communications, Jakob Høyer, assured everyone on Tuesday that there was nothing wrong in the fact that Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, despite promises to the contrary, was absent and was replaced by Jesper Lindstrøm at the press conference the day before the match,” they wrote.

“But after this unusually poor performance with so many bad decisions by the otherwise rock-solid midfielder, one can’t help but wonder if something is wrong with him. But what?”

Denmark exit has upside for Tottenham

Tottenham will see an upside to Denmark’s early elimination from the tournament. Of course, the turnaround between the final and the resumption of the Premier League is not a long one.

And Hojbjerg is absolutely pivotal to Spurs’ fortunes. He is a player Antonio Conte has shown tremendous faith in. And he has repaid that faith, forming a brilliant partnership with Rodrigo Bentancur.

So the fact that he will have a little longer to recover can only be good news for Tottenham.

Obviously, the hope will now be that he is not injured or struggling with any problem. That could delay his return to the Tottenham fold at a time when they really need him.

From a Spurs perspective, they will be hoping that Wednesday simply proved to be a bad day at the office.