After announcing the capture of Vlad Chiriches and Erik Lamela a week last Friday, Tottenham rounded off a hectic day of transfer activity by acquiring Christian Eriksen from Ajax Amsterdam. With just one year left on his contract at the Dutch club, Spurs were able to snap up the 21-year-old for a bargain fee reported to be in the region of £11m to take their summer spending past the £100m mark:
The Dane is the eighth new face to arrive at the north London club as Andre Villas-Boas splashes the cash accrued from the transfer of Gareth Bale to Real Madrid. Following months of speculation linking him to Liverpool, Juventus and Borussia Dortmund, Eriksen revealed Tottenham’s long-term interest was key to his decision:
“There were a lot of rumours, but I only felt right about the approach from Tottenham. The club followed me for a long time and really showed intent. It was the whole package that attracted me. I spoke briefly with the manager and my impression is that he is a very good manager. The goal is to challenge for the title. That is what the club wants and that is what I want. From the conversations I have had, they have indicated that they see me as an attacking midfielder, a creative player. They have also told me that you are expected to fight for a spot on the team because there are a lot of good players here. But, of course, I hope things will fall to my advantage.”
The History
A prodigious talent, Eriksen’s youth career began in his native country with Odense Boldklub where he quickly caught the attention of a number of major clubs. After trials with Chelsea, United, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Milan, the playmaker opted to join Ajax’s youth system back in 2008.
Handed his first-team debut midway through the 2009/10 season, Eriksen produced just a single assist from 15 appearances (10 from the bench) as he was slowly introduced to the senior side. Firmly established as a regular the following year, Eriksen returned six goals and 11 assists from 28 appearances before stepping up again over the next couple of campaigns, producing a further 17 goals and 36 assists from 66 Eredivisie matches as he helped the Amsterdam side to three consecutive Dutch league titles. Eriksen also registered two goals and three assists from four league games this term prior to his move to White Hart Lane.
On the international stage, he has represented Denmark at every level from Under 16 to Under 21 a total of 38 times and notched 12 goals. Eriksen has also received 37 caps for the senior side, finding the net on four occasions.
The Prospects
Despite the multitude of midfield options available to Villas-Boas, Eriksen is expected to quickly establish himself as a regular in the Spurs starting XI. The main point of contention, however, is just where he will fit into the Tottenham side – at Ajax, he was fielded on the left of a midfield three as part of an inverted triangle, with one player sitting in front of the back-four and two pushing on in a 4-3-3 formation. Such a scenario could see a more defensively-disciplined player such as Sandro or Etienne Capoue given the job of screening the backline, allowing Eriksen, along with either Paulinho or Mousa Dembele, the chance to bomb forward and support Roberto Soldado.
Alternatively, Villas-Boas could revert to the 4-2-3-1 formation he opted for last season. The Spurs boss retained this system for the Gameweek 1 win over Crystal Palace, with Gylfi Sigurdsson tucked in behind Soldado, before shifting to a 4-3-3 in the subsequent two league fixtures. A role in “the hole” could be on the cards for the Dane if his manager chooses to go down this route, with Sigurdsson and the likes of Lewis Holtby looking set to drop further down the pecking order.
Speaking to the press after Sunday’s north London derby defeat at the Emirates, however, Villas-Boas offered up a somewhat ambiguous statement on the matter. The Portuguese boss conceded a 4-3-3 was “more or less the way we want to go forward this season,” before going on to praise Eriksen’s abilities by saying, “He is a wonderful creative player.. a good solution for our No 10 position”, then followed that up with, “In between those systems we will fall”.
Even the Spurs fans sites are uncertain of their manager’s intentions but whichever tactical set-up he ultimately decides upon, there is no question Villas-Boas must afford Soldado greater support up front. The Spaniard has been far too isolated in the past couple of games as the lone striker – an injection of creativity in the middle of the park is essential if Spurs are to get the best out of the former Valencia forward and Eriksen’s assured touch, vision and ability with either foot looks the ideal solution.
Coming in at 8.0 in Fantasy Premier League (FPL), 7.0 in the Sky Sports game and 4.0 in the Sun Dream Team Eriksen’s delivery from set-pieces and corners, allied with a penchant for hitting the net from distance, makes him a real contender for our five-man midfields. With Lamela priced at 9.0 in FPL, the Dane’s more budget-friendly cost may well persuade owners to take a punt and also afford Soldado’s owners a greater degree of optimism, with the forward relying purely on spot-kicks as a source of goals thus far.
While the spotlight shines brightly on the other side of north London following Mesut Ozil’s arrival at Arsenal, Eriksen’s capture could turn out just as significant. Immediately, the Dane has been handed a kind run of fixtures to quickly make an impact – with home games against Norwich, West Ham, Hull and Newcastle, allied with trips to Cardiff and Villa in the next eight Gameweeks, Villas-Boas’ side will be confident of returning to winning ways as they face up to life in the top-flight without a certain Welshman.
10 years, 9 months agosorry to gate-crash eriksen, but i felt the need to add the sometimes deceptive career of ozil (you'll even be getting some capital letters!)
Ozil in la liga:
12/13 season: 23 starts, 9 sub apps. 9 goals, 13 OPTA assists (16 FPL style assists)
Madrid scored 103 goals in the season, Ozil (only given the full 90 minutes 9 times) was on the pitch for 72 of those 103 goals. If you work on his average goal involvement (22/72 – 31%), 31% of 103 goals is 32 goals. Based on his goal assist divide that’s an estimated 13 goals and 19 assists over a full season.
If anything I believe rounding up the figures for the full 103 goals Madrid scored is harsh on Ozil. He often missed the last 15 minutes of matches where teams like Madrid often score a larger than average amount of goals as teams chase games against them. It has to be noted however that Ozil himself benefitted from the other side of this once. In 14 minutes off the bench he scored a brace against Levante. Here’s another reason, Ozil played 59% of the total minutes last season (2022/3420) yet 70% of the total goals were scored with him on the pitch.
Why bother mentioning the minutes issue? If he didn’t play the minutes he didn’t play the minutes, it happened. For Germany Ozil almost always plays the full 90 minutes, he’s more of a main man there and more debatably he doesn’t have a manager with a reputation like Mourinho for withdrawing players of Ozil’s type during games (look out for Oscar and Mata this season).
Germany:
48 caps 14 goals 26 assists (OPTA assists).
Last 24 caps: 11 goals 17 assists.
First 24 caps: 3 goals 9 assists.
Yearly breakdown:
2013: 5 caps 0 goals 5 assists.
2012: 13 caps 6 goals 8 assists.
2011: 9 caps 5 goals 6 assists.
2010: 14 caps 2 goals 6 assists.
2009: 7 caps 1 goal 1 assist.
In those last 24 caps Germany have scored an almighty 67 goals. Ozil was directly involved in 42% of those goals. I can’t be bothered to find the number of goals scored when Ozil was actually on the pitch as he plays almost every minute for Germany. As a guess it’s probably more like 45% goal involvement if you only look at goals scored when he was on the pitch.
Likewise at Bremen Ozil became more of the main man in his last season there. Former talisman Diego had left to try his luck at Juventus paving the way for Ozil to become the talisman, moving more permanently to the central playmaker role where we’re now used to seeing him. All highlighted by starting 29 of the 31 games he was available for (remember the bundelsiga is only a 34 match season), playing 85% of the total minutes (2595/3060), or 93% of those he was available for.
His last season at Bremen: 29 starts 2 sub apps, 9 goals (1 pen) 13 OPTA assists (17 FPL style assists).
Werder Bremen were a high scoring team it has to be noted, 71 goals in a 34 game season is quite a lot. They arguably were Arsenal, a high scoring team whose defence wasn’t quite up to the standards of the top 2 teams so they finished 3rd. 66 goals were scored with Ozil on the pitch, his goal involvement was 33% of those (22/66), and 31% of the full 71 goal total Bremen scored.
Santi Cazorla:
Prior to Arsenal Cazorla’s best total for goals was the 9 he got at Malaga. This is equal to Ozil’s best, but unlike Ozil his 9 goals came in 38 starts, 3227 of the available 3420 minutes. That’s 9 more starts (& 632 more mins) than Ozil’s 9 goal Bremen season and 15 more starts (& 1025 more mins) than his 9 goal Madrid season.
Last season Cazorla broke his own record with 12 league goals. The majority of these 12 came from the central attacking midfield position which you’d fancy Ozil to play in (a couple of Cazorla’s goals came when starting on the left). Again it has to be mentioned that Cazorla was aided here by getting a lot of minutes, he started 37 of the 38 matches playing 3297 of the 3420 available minutes.
One thing to mention for non FPL reasons as well as FPL reasons, Cazorla is arguably a wide player anyway. We may think of him as a central player in the Fabregas/Ozil role due to last season. He was actually much more of a winger than a central player in Spain, so Ozil’s arrival isn’t really an eye-brow raiser in terms of not being needed unless your name is Lukas.
You imagine Ozil’s involvement minutes wise will be more Germany and Bremen than Real Madrid. One thing that is clear is that teams with Ozil in score a tonne of goals. You can view this two ways, that he’s fortunate enough to play for such teams or that he is a major factor why his teams score a tonne of goals. Maybe it’s just coincidence but Bremen, Madrid (and Ronaldo) and Germany all started scoring more goals when Ozil turned up, in Madrid’s case record amounts. I definitely lean towards the latter. Arsenal are already quite a high scoring team, 72 in 38 matches last season. Maybe there isn’t too much room for them to expand in that sense (there is).
I have my own theory that if Ozil came to the Premier League with 9 goals and 9 assists last season we wouldn’t be hearing “he’s more of an assister than a goalscorer”. Yet the same amount of goals and more assists gets him labelled as an assister. That’s fair he is an assister, the best in Europe over the past 5 seasons, but goals is a separate issue, excellence in one area shouldn't dilute the other, Ozil isn’t up against himself in FPL, he’s up against all the other midfielders we can buy. Silva is called an assister as he scores bugger all for a player of his price, that's fair use of the word.
Cazorla last season suggested the La Liga being a weak league argument holds little weight, as long as teams like Reading and Wigan (and their equivalents this season) exist in the Premier League double figure goal tallies are there for the taking. If La Liga isn’t the issue but Real Madrid being far more dominant than Cazorla’s Malaga or Mata’s Valencia, then take a look at his Bremen season when he was only 20/21.
All of the above may reek of an Ozil fan boy. It is defending him in many ways yes, it’s because I don’t agree with a lot of what I’ve read since he signed. You don’t even need all the numbers above (and to counter I hate how his international record is compared with Walcott’s poor one, Arsenal are all that matter to us and Walcott is proven there). Just watching Ozil is enough to see a great provider AND finisher. Now the opinion part, there are always questions how a player will adapt to a new country/league, I think Ozil is in the calibre of player who are immune to this doubt, he’s reached a level where he’s too good for it to possibly go wrong.
That’s goals and assists dealt with, what about him as your Arsenal option. Cazorla managed double figures for goals and assists last season and I still preferred Walcott. Ozil could very well reach double figures for both too (I’d be very surprised if he didn’t with 2500+ mins) and once again Walcott at the slightly cheaper price is the man to get if you’re only choosing one Arsenal mid. I personally don’t class Giroud in the debate, having Giroud if you already have Walcott and/or Ozil will make zero difference to the number next to Giroud’s name every week (I know that’s not the whole coverage argument but to me it is that simple). Ozil’s goal involvement for Madrid, Bremen and especially Germany is definitely exciting, and as the above show it’s definitely not just an assist thing.