During Pep Guardiola’s first season at the Bayern Munich helm, the revered manager dubbed youngster Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg the new Sergio Busquets. That didn’t stop Guardiola from sending the young Dane on loan spells to Augsburg and Schalke and despite flattering to deceive, his stock remained high. Indeed, when Southampton lured him to St Mary’s last summer, the south coast side certainly landed themselves a bargain.
Lauded as one of the finest young midfield prospects on the continent, he was exactly the statement signing required to take Southampton to the next level. However, under Claude Puel, Hojbjerg struggled to establish himself as a first-team regular, despite a number of consistent showings in the middle of the park. He was top for passes per 90 (69.4) of all Saints players in the Premier League last season, while Puel’s Saints side had a better win percentage with the Denmark international starting (42.9%) than without him (25%). He was named the club’s player of the month for August following a series of solid displays in midfield and looked a real coup for the club, despite a lack of game time.
Teams nowadays require a player to help retain possession in the middle of the park and the 22-year-old seems the ideal fit. However, after being tipped to kick on after a mixed start to life in England, Hojbjerg has failed to register a Premier League minute for Saints under Mauricio Pellegrino. The closest he has come to a first top-flight appearance of the campaign came in defeats to Manchester United and Stoke, with the midfielder an unused sub in both matches.
He missed the 1-0 win over Crystal Palace last month as he returned to Denmark to celebrate the birth of his first child, but his prolonged absence is difficult to explain. “Pierre is still young and he’s a player who I think will be important in the squad,” Pellegrino said of Hojbjerg last month, yet in the time since, a sporadic appearance for the U23s is the closest the youngster has come to a competitive outing. To their credit, Saints haven’t performed abysmally without the former Bayern midfielder. They’re a respectable 10th in the Premier League, four points off a top-4 spot after Sofiane Boufal’s wonderful solo strike against West Brom, and rank fourth for possession (57.8%) and sixth for pass success rate (82.1%) in England’s top tier this term.
With Oriol Romeu the undisputed first choice midfielder given his off the ball workrate and willingness to successfully break up play and big money summer arrival Mario Lemina unlikely to be dropped anytime soon, Pellegrino has evidently settled on his midfield pair in his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation. With Steven Davis another option for Pellegrino as the duo to shield the defence, there is ample competition for a starting spot in Hojbjerg’s position in this Saints side. Yet, a lack of first team minutes is hindering his progress and development as a player. With his particular skill set, Hojbjerg undoubtedly has a role to play over the coming months in Pellegrino’s side.
When Saints are leading, the priority is to retain possession rather than welcome pressure on the defence and Hojbjerg seems a perfect fit as the midfielder to help see out games. That being said, plenty is now down to whether the player is keen to wait and hold out for first-team minutes or further his career elsewhere. Saints have been fortunate with injuries this season, yet should one of Romeu or Lemina pick up a knock and are sidelined for one reason or another, it’s evident that Davis is ahead of Hojbjerg in the pecking order under Pellegrino.
Rather than wait for his chance to stake a claim for a regular starting spot, it may well be in Hojbjerg’s best interests to seek first-team action elsewhere, which would be a shame for the midfielder who looked a solid acquisition when he arrived last summer. However, the last 15 months haven’t gone quite according to plan for the player, who continues to linger on the peripheries of Pellegrino’s first choice squad and, it could be argued, at an impasse in his career.
