THE GREAT GOLAZO!
PREMIER LEAGUE Eriksen’s wonder goals make him Poch’s ‘Special One’
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TOTTENHAM boss Mauricio Pochettino has hailed Christian Eriksen as his low-maintenance superstar.
The Dane is known as ‘Golazo’ in the Spurs dressing room due to his wonder goals.
Golazo is the term used by the Spanish-speaking world to describe an amazing finish.
Eriksen scored a cracker from outside the box in the 2-1 defeat at Chelsea in November and did something similar against Southampton last month.
He has scored 11 goals this season but, just as importantly, has also provided the same number of assists.
In short, he is the man who makes Tottenham tick. “He is so special,” said Pochettino.
“We call him ‘Golazo’ because he is capable of scoring unbelievable goals.
Happy
“It is true he is so quiet, so calm, a very relaxed person – but he loves football.
“He does not need too much feedback from fans, the media, people outside.
“And he always has a smile, he is a happy person and I like him a lot because he does not need to be recognised. He needs only to feel the love from us inside the club.”
Winning at home to Bournemouth today would cut Chelsea’s lead at the top to four points ahead of their trip to Manchester United tomorrow.
And Spurs will go for it with the 3-4-2-1 formation which has evolved this season to allow Eriksen and Dele Alli to shine behind star striker Harry Kane.
Pochettino said: “That is what it means to be flexible, because if you have two players like Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen, who both can play in the pocket in behind the No.9, you must create a system that can fit them both.
“You can see Dele or Eriksen with a No.9, how they use the pockets and how we create many different things – play on the right or left, drop sometimes to try to build from the back when the teams play deeper.
“We try to play now with two No.10s that play facing the opponents’ goal. I think that the formation, system and philosophy helps Christian and Dele.
“And they help a lot with the system and the philosophy that we play.”
Midfielder Eric Dier said: “It is always nice to play first. Hopefully we can narrow the gap to four points and then hope for Chelsea to slip up.
“We have been consistent and, going into the last period, we want to try and keep that up.”