Tottenham: Who Is Most Vital to Success, Christian Eriksen or Hugo Lloris?
Tottenham Hotspur's ongoing quest for success has its origins throughout the last decade. More recently, the north London club hope the recruitment of two players in particular has hastened their journey to achieve something tangible.
Christian Eriksen and Hugo Lloris—bought from Ajax and Olympique Lyonnais in 2013 and 2012 respectively—have been Tottenham's key performers in the years following their arrivals. The former is their creator-in-chief and, increasingly, their go-to guy in the clutch. The other is an outstanding shot-stopper and, of late, their latest relatively quiet but lead-by-example skipper (a few captains removed from the last one, Ledley King).
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Examining their past, present and a hypothetical future, this article aims to answer whether Eriksen or Lloris is most vital to Spurs' success (defined, for the purposes of this piece, as consistently competing for a Champions League place and trophies).
Obviously, there is a subjective element to the eventual conclusion. Even if you disagree, if nothing else, this is a chance to celebrate two players lighting up the Premier League right now.
How They Got Here
We will not dwell too long on our subjects' respective pasts. But to set the scene for an examination of their current worth to Tottenham, it is worth recalling how they got to this point.
A France international with Champions League experience at Lyon, Lloris arrived at White Hart Lane shortly into the 2012-13 season. At the point of Lloris' debut, the north London were 18 months removed from their solitary Champions League campaign of the 21st century. Key players Ledley King, Luka Modric and Rafael van der Vaart had retired or been transferred, leaving new boss Andre Villas-Boas to rebuild.
Lloris was brought in as an integral foundation piece. He had to bide his time after joining, as then-goalkeeping incumbent Brad Friedel was still playing well. But once he got his chance, he quickly claimed the No.1 jersey as his own.
Spurs supporters quickly warmed to his impeccable reflexes and confidence on the ball (the latter vital as a de facto sweeper covering for Villas-Boas's high-line defence). This writer described him as important as the on-fire Gareth Bale as the side pushed for a Champions League place, though they ultimately fell short by a point.
One of the players signed around the time of Bale's departure in September 2013, the precocious Denmark international Eriksen was fresh from Ajax's famed finishing school.
Bleacher Report's Duncan Castles recently reported that Spurs could have signed him for under £100,000 in 2008:
Still, at a price of £11.5 million, Eriksen's impressive debut in a 2-0 win over Norwich City nonetheless reinforced the feeling that Spurs had pulled off a coup signing him.
As it turned out, a tricky few months followed. Eriksen's attempts to settle were not helped by the team's struggle for form—particularly against top-four rivals—and injury.
Poor Lloris knew better than most about the former. He had to pick the ball out of the net far more than he would have liked as the turnovers by Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea continued post-AVB. The City home loss might have been a rugby score were it not for the Frenchman, who was as reliable as could be behind a leaky defence.
Eriksen was moved between central and left-midfield by new boss Tim Sherwood. Fully fit around Christmas time, the Dane quickly became integral to a more attack-minded setup. He finished the campaign with 10 goals and 10 assists and was named the supporters' Player of the Season.
This Season: Eriksen
Like Sherwood, new head coach Mauricio Pochettino has not been afraid to use Eriksen across his midfield. But whether accommodated out wide as part of a four-man midfield or a more central figure in a 4-2-3-1, the 22-year-old is still the linchpin of the Tottenham attack.
The former was seen against Everton as the Toffees struggled to contain Eriksen's forays inside from the left and were notably punished by his delightful equaliser. The latter was displayed at Hull City, when he pulled Spurs' strings from deep, and versus Chelsea on New Year's Day in a quieter but equally effective role occupying the Blues midfield.
It is not coincidental (or surprising) the majority of Eriksen's better performances have occurred over the last couple of months, both in the form of crucial late goals at Cities Hull, Swansea and Leicester and more influential overall displays.
The usual bedding-in process of a formative campaign was naturally exacerbated by the process of the team familiarising itself with Pochettino (and vice versa).
Earlier in the campaign, Pochettino's preferred attacking-midfield trio of Eriksen, Nacer Chadli and Erik Lamela was sparkling at its best—notably in wins over Queens Park Rangers and Southampton—but also a tad predictable. Opposition teams quickly cottoned on to denying them their desired space in front of the box.
That has been remedied by Pochettino giving Eriksen more freedom to interpret things, usually a little further behind his aforementioned colleagues. An October ticking off by Denmark boss Morten Olsen may also have, belatedly, served to refocus his efforts.
"After so many matches he could pick up the ball and help to control the game," the Denmark manager told reporters after their defeat by Portugal. "He has not been able to." Eriksen did not disagree, and his work following the international break has been more in keeping with the high standards for which he has become known. Spurs, too, have improved over the same period.
The above statistics, all via WhoScored.com (prior to Week 21's Premier League fixtures), demonstrate how well Eriksen is performing in comparison with his peers.
Playing style—both individual and team—naturally mean there are differences. Nobody compares to Cesc Fabregas for assists, for instance. But when you consider Eriksen's team-mates Chadli and Lamela have eight between them, it shows how the Dane's passing is as much about facilitating them as it is the striker.
At the turn of the year, Eriksen was also the top scorer of the bunch, with only Santi Cazorla recording more shots per game. He helps create chances for others but also does so for himself.
Asked about Eriksen at his pre-Crystal Palace press conference, Pochettino did not wish to single him out, but he did praise the player's progress this season:
"I am very happy with him. You can see because he has played, maybe, all games. He [has] improved a lot from the beginning. We are happy with his evolution. But not only with Christian, with all players.
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This Season: Lloris
For a good while, Lloris' 2014-15 looked a lot like his 2013-14. Stationed behind a defence even shakier than before, he conceded a further seven goals against last season's torturers Liverpool and Manchester City. There was little he could do about less heavy but equally dispiriting losses to clubs further down the table, either.
Pochettino's move to a more consistent back four—built around Federico Fazio and Jan Vertonghen—from November onward has seen things improve considerably.
Spurs are still prone to an iffy display at the back. Swansea and Leicester severely tested them on the road, while Lloris himself was partly culpable in the 3-0 loss to Chelsea. On the whole, though, they are less frantic at the back than during the mid-autumn peak of rotation at the position.
Save for his distribution error at the Blues, there has been little to fault about Lloris' work.
His eight saves in the 4-1 loss to champions Man City—as tallied on Tottenham's official website—stopped a bad day from being much worse. Spurs getting away with a point at home to Besiktas in the Europa League was just about down to him entirely.
In better recent team performances and results against Manchester United and Chelsea, the 28-year-old was a big difference-maker.
With Spurs 4-2 up in the latter, Lloris got down low to push away a curled effort from Cesar Azpilicueta. Had it gone in, the momentum would have truly shifted back in Chelsea's favour. Instead, Nacer Chadli went on to score the team's crucial decider in the 5-3 victory.
In the previous game's draw with the Red Devils, Lloris was in spectacular form. He denied United five times, including one brilliant, brave point-blank denial of Robin van Persie. It prompted a knowing, happy appraisal from this boss.
"Lloris is one of the best 'keepers in the world," Pochettino said. "It is not new for me, we know and you know the quality from Hugo."
Via Squawka (and again, prior to Week 21's Premier League action), the above statistical comparison of some of the English top-flight's best goalkeepers is subject to differences between their teams.
The general point, though, is Lloris' work continues to keep him in good company. He is about as reliable as they come.
As Good as They Come
As Pochettino noted, Eriksen's importance is typified by his regular selection in the team. The same goes for Lloris. Both have started all 21 Premier League games and, although rested at times, featured in a bunch of cup outings too.
For the reasons outlined earlier on, the Argentinian has unsurprisingly wanted to play his two best players as often as possible—because the best is certainly what they are in N17.
Goal-hungry striker Harry Kane is making a strong case for being Spurs' most important player these days. But while others such as Chadli, Ryan Mason and Vertonghen have made significant contributions too, no one else has (yet) shown they can match the consistency and quality our subjects bring to proceedings.
The prospect of the team being without either for more than a week or two is not something any Spurs fan wants to consider.
Last February, then-goalkeeping coach Tony Parks spoke glowingly of Lloris' ability and importance to Tottenham:
"I believe, absolutely, that he is the best goalkeeper in the Premier League and I won’t change my opinion on that. The Club made a fantastic signing when we brought him in and I think he’s repaid that faith with a high level of performance over his 50 Premier League games for us so far.
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The praise did not stop there. Asked what made Lloris so good, Parks answered: "It’s because he makes decisions so quickly and sticks to them." That much was evident in Spurs' recent 2-1 defeat to Crystal Palace when he came off his line to stop an unmarked Glenn Murray making it 1-0.
Lloris did about as much as he could at Selhurst Park. The goals he conceded, a penalty by Dwight Gayle and a driven shot by an unmarked Jason Puncheon, were brought about by the mistakes of others.
Spurs have a heck of a back-up now in Netherlands international and experienced Premier League performer Michel Vorm. If Parks was still employed in north London, he might have said similar of the Dutchman. Current 'keeper coach Toni Jimenez might well hold him in as high regard as the No. 1 man:
"Quick-brained and quick-footed...a very hard-working, driven professional footballer...he has all the attributes that all top goalkeepers have—agility, speed, power."
With all due respect to Vorm, though, it is understandable why Spurs are not in a rush to find out if he can draw such effusive testimony from his peers.
Despite the criticism he received from Olsen, there is evidently nobody to match Eriksen in the Denmark setup, either. In a relatively barren generation talent-wise for the Scandinavian nation, he is a diamond.
Eriksen is still an infant in professional football terms too. He only turns 23 next month, and given he is already playing at an impressively high level, he could feasibly get even better.
Against Palace, Eriksen was the flexible conduit Spurs' best work flowed through in the first half. He was not at his sharpest but was still frequently gliding across the breadth of the pitch to find or create the routes he and his team-mates could play into.
The reasons Eriksen's influence quietened in the second half ranged from the home side's growth into the game to Spurs' inability to sufficiently respond to it, both tactically and physically. There was a certain onus on him to find a way to get involved more, but sometimes, it just does not happen.
The trouble for Tottenham was nobody else looked like getting them back into the game (besides perhaps the threatening Kane). It was a situation contributed to by post-Christmas tiredness and the absence of players such as Mason, Nabil Bentaleb and Lamela.
Without Eriksen to shape their own work, it is likely Palace would have gained a foothold in the game earlier than they did. He is just that crucial to setting the tone for his team. When he is not able to have such an impact, they suffer.
Conclusion
Therein lies the trouble in differentiating who is most vital to Tottenham's success—but also the factor that influences this conclusion.
Spurs are undoubtedly better when Eriksen is playing well. So it goes that the team breaking into the top four, maybe picking up a trophy too, is likely to require him leading the way.
But so long as that promise is not more substantially fulfilled (and there is a good chance it will be), it is hard to look past the established Lloris being more pivotal to the north Londoners seeing their name up in lights.
Stuck in the penalty area, the Frenchman's contributions may be more subject to the work of his team-mates than Eriksen's. Yet, even in the event of Pochettino's Spurs progressing into a team capable of dominating others on a more frequent basis, there will still be moments when great goalkeeping is required.
Vorm is a fine shot-stopper, one who could provide a capable last line of defence. However, the efficient, subtly commanding Lloris has shown time and time again he is something special.
As crucial as Eriksen would be in the event of Spurs substantially developing, there are other parts of the attack that would come to prominence too—guys who could share the load even more than the Dane-centric team does at this point.
Lloris could also be helped by the defence in front of him becoming better organised and more combative. Not to mention the team giving him less to do in general.
Yet, whether it is a spring-time Premier League fixture that could cement a Champions League place for Spurs or a cup quarter-final when a trophy is only a few victories away, there is nobody better than Lloris they are going to be able to call on to make the vital difference.
Quotes obtained first-hand unless otherwise noted
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