Did you consistently watch Eriksen during the 18/19 season or are you just reading off his stats sheet? Because it's not nonsense. Remember that was a world cup year 2018, and season previous he played a ridiculous amount games and then that 2018/19 season he played another 50 or so games. When he was in form he was brilliant. And then he would suffer long periods of inconsistency. I don't remember the particular moment/game but 2018-19 was definitely the season when the decline set in. Even with those stats why do you think no else showed a serious interest in him?
You dont make 10 goals and 17 assists in 4200 minutes combined in the best league in the world and the best cup tournament in the world, while at the same time also declining to some kinda Guarin-esque comicbook character, lets not be silly here. To add to the absurdness of your statement, is that he actually had his weakest period in the first 2-3 months of the 18/19 season and got alot more decisive from mid-october and onwards.
And again, YOU are the one who who time and time again in this very thread have highlighted how eriksen have failed to be decisive for Inter, while a the same time using his 18/19 season for Spurs as some kinda evidence to support your claim that he is a has-been and cant be decisive anymore, yet statistics shows that was quite decisive in many games in 18/19. Its completely illogical.
As far as being interested at the time, im sure plenty of clubs were waiting until end of season to offer him a contract. Inter paying 20 (almost 30m with agent fee's and what not) was quite absurd tbh for a player who had 6 months left.
Ozil, in his book, on Mourinho:
I’ve had enough now. ‘What do you actually want from me?’ I snap back at him.
‘I want you to play as well as you can,’ Mourinho yells. ‘I want you to go into tackles like a man. Do you know what it looks like when you tackle? No? Let me show you.’
Mourinho stands on tiptoes, thrusts his arms down by his sides, purses his lips and minces around the dressing room. ‘That’s how you tackle. Ooh, I mustn’t get hurt. And absolutely mustn’t get dirty,’ he shouts while repeating his Ozil tackle parody.
From this short and amusing exchange I think we can gauge what Mourinho thought of Eriksen and his play style.
Wait a minute, Özil? I thought this was about Eriksen. Pretty sure much of the criticism about Özil was due to his attitude, unprofessionalism and lack of workrate. Marotta and Cunte have specifically mentioned Eriksen being a great professional and working hard in training despite not playing and that the attitude of the player was never in doubt. So again here you are way off in your comparison.
As far as Mourinho goes, its common knowledge that Eriksen wanted to leave spurs before Mourinho even joined and nobody has any interest in playing a player who wants to leave and has little motivation, the link below outlines it pretty well Mourinhos thoughts.
https://talksport.com/football/664079/christian-eriksen-jose-mourinho-tottenham/
And here what Eriksen thought and what happened.
https://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/christian-eriksen-reveals-what-jose-17692516
*On how Mourinho handled the situation, Eriksen added: "When the window is not open, there can only be talk. There cannot be anything concrete. I think Mourinho did well. He could have said 'he wants to leave, so he is not going to play any more'. He didn't do that.
"After I told him where my feelings were and what I would like to do, he told me just to be happy and if I was needed I would play. I was needed in a few games where I did make a difference. It was more as an extra rather than in the starting XI of course."*
Says alot.
Can you name a single midfielder in world football who has this free/trequartista role in midfield, particularly centrally? Last 5 years or so the game has transitioned from fantasy to physical and hard running, tackling etc. Similarly Brandt of Dortmund (similarly soft as poo) has been benched indefinitely with rumors that he is to be transfer listed at end of the season. Even Fabregas, a world cup winner, had to conform to Conte style of play, and he did so with aplomb, so what's Eriksen's excuse?
Haha so you are basically saying Conte-ball is the top of the world now, thats pretty rich considering how incredibly bad Conte has been in europe and what a catastrophe his tactical approach in europe has turned out to be. You are basically saying technique is irrelevant in todays football, which is absolutely absurd, like the Madrid, Barca, Bayern, Liverpool front 3 etc etc that won the CL werent highly technical.
I not sure how this trequartista thing is relevant either, Eriksen has played AMC alot, which does not equal a trequartista by any means. But he has also played almost as much as LM and RM. The position itself is irrelevant, whats relevant is the level of freedom and the tactical approach of the team in general.
Im not sure how you cannot understand that there is a huge difference in playing LM in Poch's 433 where there is a rather big level of freedom to playing LM in Contes 352, where there is NO freedom at all and Conte expects everyone behave like his personal remotecontrolled robots, he is pretty much the most rigid coach in the world tactcally, which makes him a total misfit for creative players who are used to freedom and thinking for themselves.
Expecting the same outcome for the player in both systems is simply ignorant.
I'm not a hater, I'm just tired of Eriksen's laxity / lack of fight and FIFs indifference to it. I reckon reason for Conte's treatment was to get a reaction out of Eriksen. No one wants to be benched, so ideally Eriksen would double or even triple his efforts in training to win a first team place. But so far all he's done is enough to get ahead of Gags in the pecking order and do his part to beat bottom of the table Cagliari. To me that ain't enough. Remember Ballack yellow in the 2002 WC semi-final versus S Korea that led to him missing the final? Eriksen said he wanted to win trophies. Well that kind of effort and sacrifice is what it takes.
Again, you are expecting the performance from the player of when he played in a completely different system, with more freedom and different responsibilities. Its illogical. Either way, Conte seems happy with him and the italian media praises him, so you are fairly alone here. He could be utilized better no doubt, but probably not in Contes system. But even if he could be sold him for 30m~ i doubt Inter could get a better replacement for that money, so unless money starts raining from the skies it wouldnt serve much purpose to sell him considering the financial trouble the club has. Its a fair bet that he will only get better next season.
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