The curious case of Christian Eriksen

Towards the back end of the Summer it was almost a daily occurrence that Tottenham were signing up players on new contracts and one of the men who put pen to paper and committed his future to the club until 2020 was Christian Eriksen.

A number of European clubs were reported to monitoring the situation keenly with Juventus at the front of the queue and ready to make a move should contract talks not have gone to plan but what with Eriksen’s signature all transfer talk has been muted for now.

But many observers of the North London club will notice that this hasn’t been the same Eriksen that played an integral role in Tottenham earning a Champions League place and many will wonder what has happened to the 24 year old over the Summer.

It would be unfair to say that the Dane has simply downed tools after earning that new contract but his performances this season have fallen far short of warranting that new bumper pay deal. He has failed to score in the Premier League with his only goals coming in September’s 5-0 demoliton of Gillingham in the EFL Cup.

In the last two seasons previous to this campaign, Eriksen was a near ever present and only failed to appear on three occasions with 73 appearances from a possible 76. Already this season he has not featured in four of Tottenham’s first 11 league encounters.

A lack of fitness hasn’t helped Eriksen’s plight but perhaps he has been used when a prolonged rest would do him the world of good. Erik Lamela, Moussa Sissoko, Dele Alli and Son Heung-min provide Mauricio Pochettino with an abundance of options in attacking midfield, but they have often been found lacking therefore Eriksen almost plays by default but is the overuse of him proving counter productive.

Another thing that perhaps unfairly goes against him is the new contract that he has signed. This has almost become a millstone around his neck. With a pay rise the expectations from fans and pundits alike has now increased and with every missed place passed or poorly taken corner the rumblings of discontent become louder.

But new contract or not there is no doubting that Eriksen has often been anonymous when playing this season, he has almost been a passenger in games at times and that coupled with Harry Kane’s injury left the creative well at Tottenham almost dry over the month of October.

What hasn’t helped is the fact that Tottenham have at times failed to stretch opponents like they did last season and that means that the front four then becomes very congested, at times they almost seem to be tripping over each other. With a failure to get the ball wide it has almost smothered Eriksen to the point where he has been ineffectual.

A prime example of this was Tottenham’s defeat to Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League last month. You could say that almost the whole team were guilty of not turning up that night but Eriksen was probably the biggest culprit and the fact that he was hauled off after 65 minutes was no coincidence.

An argument that could be leveled is that an element of complacency has crept into his game and the best way to resolve that would be for Tottenham to be active in the January transfer window. They have long been rumoured with a loan move for Real Madrid’s Isco, if they were to pull that off then it could very well light a fire under Eriksen.

The benefits here would be two fold, firstly Tottenham would be getting another quality player among the ranks who would be able to share the creative burden but also it would mean that Eriksen would have to up his own game as there would be a direct battle for attacking midfield berth.

The capture of Isco may be a possibility but it is still at least 6 weeks away and there is a lot of football to be played in that period in which there will be a heavy reliance on Eriksen. The former Ajax player will need to recapture the form that he is capable of in that time otherwise Mauricio Pochettino could very well be tempted to look elsewhere.