Christian Eriksen was in poor form as Tottenham Hotspur lost 1-0 to Southampton on New Year’s Day.
On the chalkboard
The 27-year-old played in a deeper-than-usual midfield role at St Mary’s Stadium but was unable to truly influence the game.
Per WhoScored, he had 86 touches of the ball, the third-highest of any player on the pitch, but what did he do with them?
Well, not a lot.
He had one shot on goal, seeing it blocked, and registered one key pass.
Other than that, he didn’t complete a dribble, while he took six corners with 0% accuracy.
Eriksen did make two tackles but that isn’t really his job; he’s meant to take the ball forward and pick the lock, not attempt to continuously win it back.
This was a disappointingly anonymous performance.
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A puzzle
Eriksen was superb last time out, against Norwich City, scoring a brilliant free-kick and running the midfield, as Football FanCast detailed.
And that makes this display all the more confusing.
To watch the game was to see a player who didn’t seem all that interested.
BT Sport, who aired the game, continually talked up the fact that he can speak to other clubs this month; his contract expires at the end of the season and can negotiate a move to a foreign club in January.
And this performance sums up the difficulty facing Spurs. Against Norwich, he was excellent; here, he was execrable.
Such inconsistency can’t really be tolerated and one has to hope that he sorts his future out sooner rather than later.
At least that way, there won’t be a cloud hanging over him and fans and his team-mates alike will know his destiny.
Hopefully, that will also spark some consistency from the playmaker.
Meanwhile, Spurs fans have reacted to a decade-long stat.