Morten Olsen’s criticism was razor-sharp, and for the target of it likely intensely personal.
“It is quite something when you have to criticize a player like Christian Eriksen,” remarked the long-time Denmark manager following an October defeat to Portugal.
Olsen, who took over the Danes in July 2000, made Eriksen the country’s youngest international since Michael Laudrup in February 2010. He has overseen each of the midfielder’s 48 senior appearances since and in football terms probably knows the 22-year-old better than anyone else.
But, he remarked three months ago in Copenhagen, Eriksen had let his team down by failing to impose himself on the match.
“Therefore,” Olsen explained, “we blame him. He must stand up to the criticism.”
And, perhaps his most cutting line of all: “It is not Ajax anymore. This is not development.”
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It was from Ajax, of course, that Eriksen arrived at Tottenham Hotspur for a £11 million transfer fee in August 2013. Considered one of Europe’s most promising playmaking prospects, Eriksen set up Gylfi Sigurdsson’s winner in his Premier League debut. Five days later he scored his first goal for the club when his perfectly-weighted, out-swinging shot from 24 yards found the back of the net at the far corner against Tromso in the Europa League.
It seemed he had come as advertised, but a managerial merry-go-round that tossed Andre Villas-Boas and Tim Sherwood out of their jobs before inviting Mauricio Pochettino for a spin brought Eriksen into the current campaign unsure of his role at the North London outfit and, as a result, stalled in his development.
Not that Olsen believed he should have still remained in a developmental phase, what with this being his seventh professional season. But the 65-year-old also tended to use him in a central position supporting the attack—something that was rarely the case at Tottenham. Until now.
Having shifted Eriksen from the right flank to the left and back again, with occasional experiments in the middle, Pochettino has recently been reaping the rewards of deploying the former Ajax maestro more frequently in the centre of the park.
In early December, and on the heels of a 3-0 dismantling by Chelsea in which Eriksen worked from the left, Pochettino moved the Dane into the middle and got a useful performance out of him in a scoreless draw at home to Crystal Palace.
It was a modest result, but Spurs haven’t lost in the Premier League since. They’re presently fifth in the table—just two points back of Southampton—and Eriksen has played three of his last four matches behind lone striker Harry Kane. During the Christmas period he started back-to-back matches in the centre for the first time this season and on New Year’s Day was an integral part of his side’s 5-3 win over Chelsea.
Blues defensive midfielder Nemanja Matic simply couldn’t handle him and over the course of the encounter was pulled this way and that by a pass-master who had suddenly found his groove. Nacer Chadli, in particular, benefited from Eriksen’s quality distribution and took the opportunity to torture Gary Cahill time and again.
What Pochettino will have learned from the match, as well as the 0-0 draw with Manchester United that preceded it, is that Eriksen’s skill set of vision, delivery and range is best employed through the middle, from where he can utilize his creativity and avoid covering for his full-backs, which he’s not especially adept at, anyway.
Chadli, another man in form, is a better option out wide, as is Andros Townsend. And both enjoy the overlaps that allow them to drift inward—something that only enhances Eriksen’s passing options.
“I am a player who loves to get on the ball,” Eriksen remarked in late November. “I don’t think you have anything of me if I don’t have the ball.”
He’s had a lot of it in recent outings, but he’s also introduced the intangible elements of intensity and tenacity so vital in consistent, Premier League difference-makers. There’s a certain edge to his game, and not coincidentally it began appearing after Olsen’s rebuke back in October.
His positive response to the criticism reveals considerable mental fortitude, and when his natural talent is added to the mix Tottenham would seem to have in Eriksen the full package of a playmaking midfielder.
Jerrad Peters is a Winnipeg-based writer. Follow him on Twitter