Everton have turned attentions to Southampton captain Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg as Carlo Ancelotti requests midfield upgrades at Goodison Park, according to Gianluca Di Marzio while speaking on Sky Sports’ Transfer Centre (23/2, 21:08).
Ancelotti has called on the services of five central midfielders since his arrival on Merseyside in December, with the Italian awarding Premier League minutes to Fabian Delph, Tom Davies, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Morgan Schneiderlin and Anthony Gordon.
The 60-year-old is yet to have Toffees summer signings Andre Gomes or Jean-Philippe Gbamin available with both recovering from long-term injuries, though would seemingly prefer to boost his core numbers during the midseason window.
Di Marzio has claimed that Hojbjerg is the latest name to emerge in discussions at Goodison Park, and that the 33-cap Denmark international is the boss’ primary target to sign before next Friday’s Deadline Day.
Southampton are reticent to lose their midfield metronome during the winter market and have slapped a whopping £35million asking price on their captain, a figure Everton are currently reluctant to meet.
Hojbjerg has started 22 of his 23 Premier League appearances for the campaign, having only sat out his side’s 2-1 defeat at home to Marco Silva’s Everton in November and been a late substitute on the opening day as the Saints lost 3-0 to Burnley.
Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl chose to offer Hojbjerg a rare respite in the south coast side’s FA Cup Third Round win over Huddersfield Town earlier in the month, having previously entrusted the former Bayern Munich man to play out the full 90 minutes in each of his starts across all competitions.
Would you back Ancelotti signing Hojbjerg?
Yes
No
Hojbjerg dictates the flow of proceedings for Southampton at St. Mary’s under Hasenhuttl, with the 24-year-old averaging 44.5 accurate passes per league game (77%), with 19.9 (86%) coming in his own half and 24.9 (71%) coming in the opposition’s territory, per Sofa Score statistics.
The Brondby IF product has also averaged 75.8 touches of the football per top-flight encounter, alongside 1.1 key passes, 3.3 accurate long balls (44%), 1.5 interceptions, 2.5 tackles won, 1.3 successful dribbles (75%), wins 4.9 ground duels (50%) and 1.8 aerial duels (56%).
One of the largest gripes with current Everton midfielder Schneiderlin – who has only featured in one Premier League game under Ancelotti – is that the Frenchman often passes sidewards or backwards too often. Hojbjerg would be an upgrade in this respect, having recorded 44/69 forward passes against Crystal Palace in a 2-0 win on Tuesday night, 36/49 forward passes against Leicester City in a 2-1 win on January 11 and 31/51 forward passes against Tottenham in a 1-0 win on New Year’s Day.
In other Everton news, the club have been linked with a £45m-rated midfielder, currently being mentioned in a potential January swap deal.