Disagree about him being a level below De Bruyne - he’s actually a better metronomic footballer, classier and almost a hybrid of him and Silva. De Bruyne is a chaotic assist machine - a key factor in City looking even better this season is his absence, IMO. Bernardo and Gundogan retain the ball better, and therefore the collective benefits.
Eriksen carries the entire creative burden of the whole Tottenham team - and generally only has a small spectrum of passing viabilities due to Kane, Son, Alli, Moura and Lamela all inverting, where’s City’s width opens up infinitely more options.
I’ve loved Eriksen as a player since his Ajax days, and he deserves the platform upon which to achieve the accolades his talent warrants. Ideally Spurs will keep him and stay competitive, but I think if he leaves, more so than anyone else including Kane, their era of relative success will abruptly end.
That’s such a huge over-simplification of what he’s good at. You don’t make it in a Pep teamnifnyoure chaotic in possession. His defensive output for example exceeds that of Eriksen (and guys like Silva, Modric and Pogba for that matter) all while he’s busy being the biggest creative force in Europe (behind Messi of course). Sure his game-running skills aren’t quite as polished, but to call it chaotic is a bit of an insult to him to be honest. He was very much like that in 2016, but he’s come on a lot under the last 2 years under Pep in that regard. He involves himself in every phase of play, picking the ball up from the defenders comfortably and moves the ball around just as well. His only issue (and I hesitate to even call it an issue because it’s part of what makes him so good) is that he’s less happy to just recycle possession. Those aren’t his instincts, he’s always looking at how, from where he and the ball are and where his offensive players are, how he can make an opportunity to score. Sure that means he’ll lose the ball a bit more because he tries ridiculous balls, but he’s also capable of pulling off those ridiculous balls. Similar to Pogba in a way, I’d never want to take that out of Paul’s game.
I disagree that De Bruyne being out is a key factor to them looking better. They wouldn’t have gone down with such a whimper against Lyon with him in the side. I’d point to how they control games from a defensive point of view, and by extension point to how good Stones & Laporte have been together. They’re much better at involving themselves with play than Otamendi and especially Kompany - Kompany’s looked really bad when he’s played this year. Stones & Laporte have provided a solid base for the rest of the team to work from. I’d point to Mendy’s return, as an attacking outlet he’s been fantastic. He kind of replaces Sané and Delph when he plays, meaning Sterling can play inside him on the left and Mahrez on the right. On Mahrez he has been big for them too, he’s a type of player that they didn’t have before.
I have no doubt that (depressingly) they’ll be even better when their best player returns. Assuming he actually stays fit this time.
As a creator De Bruyne’s a level above Eriksen, and as a game-running midfielder David Silva is a level above Eriksen. You’re right to an extent that he is something of a hybrid of the two, but for that reason as well I don’t believe Pep would drop either of them for Eriksen.
Plus this is all pointless talk anyway, they won’t buy him as they don’t need him. Their depth for for that position is scary enough as it is with Bernardo, Gundogan and Foden (who from a neutral point of view I’d really like to see play more, he’s an immense talent).
I’d like him at United but I don’t see Levy dealing with us for him to be honest. If he leaves Spurs and doesn’t come to us, I hope he goes to one of the Spanish teams - I think that’s where we’d see him take his game up another level and really challenge the top midfielders in Europe.
