Spurs thought they signed “Poch-era Dele Alli”, but he’s the new Hojbjerg

It’s been a tough season for Tottenham Hotspur, and now, with Igor Tudor at the helm for the remainder of the campaign, they know they can either sink or swim.

Indeed, Tudor’s first port of call is to engineer a ‘manager bounce’ and lift Spurs back up to higher ground in the Premier League, well away from the relegation zone they are in danger of plummeting into.

However, it’s important to remember that Tudor is only on call until the end of the season, when his interim contract expires.

If he proves a success over the business months of the season, he’ll be in the running for the job, but there’s no question that Mauricio Pochettino remains the leading candidate to whip this beleaguered bunch back into shape.

Why Spurs want to appoint Pochettino

It’s understood that Tottenham have marked a shortlist comprised of three managers: Roberto De Zerbi, Andoni Iraola, Pochettino.

Pochettino, of course, knows the north Londoners well, and he’s admitted in the past, since leaving, that he would love to return one day.

His prime Spurs side were a force to be reckoned with, after all, and that level of fluidity and attacking sharpness could go a long way toward rekindling this club and restoring the identity that has gone walkabouts over the past several months.

Small wonder that Spurs were so successful, with Poch’s attack-oriented system charged by a clear culture that gave rise to talents such as Dele Alli.

What Tottenham would give to have such a player in their mix. There is actually someone in the squad who’s considered a similar player to the troubled England sensation, but he’s actually emerging as the Londoners’ new Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.

Spurs have found their new Hojbjerg

Dele was slated by Jose Mourinho to become “one of the world’s best“. He is a two-time winner of the PFA Young Player of the Year, and he sc

The 29-year-old was such a unique midfielder, and in Conor Gallagher, perhaps there were some at Tottenham who thought they had landed a new version when signing Atletico Madrid’s centre-midfielder for £35m in January.

The one-time Chelsea star was described as playing like a “Poch-era Dele Alli” by The Athletic’s Jack Pitt-Brooke. This was a glowing endorsement of the Three Lions star’s quality, a skilled presser and dangerous asset when charging into the final third.

That said, Gallagher perhaps doesn’t offer quite as much variation as Tottenham fans had been led to believe, and in this, he might actually be emerging as the new Hojbjerg, keeping it crisp and winning plenty of duels without offering very much nuance on the ball.

Hojbjerg completed 184 matches for Tottenham after joining from Southampton in 2020. His combative side led Danish teammate Morten Bisgaard to hail him as a “monster“, and this is something he shares with Gallagher, who is also intelligent and industrious.

The key point here, though, is that Gallagher, 25, lacks the ability to puncture defences, rarely creating a goal from nothing and rarely splitting defences open with surgical passing.

There were qualities Dele boasted in his Premier League heyday, and while Gallagher might have been considered such a player before he made the move to Spurs, it’s quite clear that he does not fit the same mould.

If Pochettino does return to the club this summer, he will make use of Gallagher’s skillset, for sure, but there’s no question that he will not designate the Englishman a playmaking berth of a semblance to that which Dele played way back when.

Instead, he may need to control the midfield and dictate the tempo from deeper, and in that, he would be the new Hojbjerg.

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