Why Eriksen could be Man Utd's De Jong alternative

Karan Tejwani

• Updated: 15 Jul 2022 09:31 CDT
• 4 min read

Manchester United have officially completed the free transfer signing of Christian Eriksen, adding depth and quality to their ranks.

Eriksen has been a free agent since departing Brentford upon the expiry of his contract at the end of June, and there were several interested clubs including Tottenham and the Red Devils.

He's chosen Man Utd and has signed a three-year deal, to keep him at Old Trafford until 2025.

The 30-year-old will add experience to the squad and has impressed new head coach Erik ten Hag previously, having trained with him at Ajax when he was gearing up to return to football last year.

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Signing Eriksen for nothing in regards to a transfer fee is shrewd business, seeing as he can play in multiple roles across midfield and has saved the club some transfer hassle.

Eriksen could solve plenty of issues for Man Utd

Ideally, United would want to sign both Eriksen and Frenkie de Jong, but if the latter doesn’t arrive – with the move being constantly complicated by Joan Laporta – then Eriksen would provide some help in that regard.

The two are entirely different players, with Eriksen expected to be the deputy to Bruno Fernandes as the team’s primary creator, but his previous career has shown he can play elsewhere.

The best example of this came at Inter in their title-winning campaign of 2020-21, when, under the guidance of Antonio Conte, the Dane was deployed as a defensive midfielder.

In that role, he was quite effective, and was useful to Conte – prior to that, he spent plenty of time on the bench, but once the role opened up for him, he took the opportunity quite well.

This should come as no surprise: at Tottenham, Ajax and Inter, he has played across the midfield, either in his preferred attacking role, or even sometimes on the wing, although there are better options than him at Man Utd.

Also, he could be the controlling midfielder that Ten Hag has wanted at the club – he’s also done that quite well for both Inter and Brentford in recent times.

Additionally, Eriksen brings vital experience over to Old Trafford, something Ten Hag requires, having shown how important that is at Ajax when a youthful team were bettered by the arrivals of Dusan Tadic and Daley Blind in 2018.

Perhaps if Manchester United do sign De Jong from Barcelona, there may be the experimentation of playing the pair in midfield together, but that may be difficult considering the other talented profiles in the squad.

It’s easy to see why Ten Hag and Manchester United have added him to the squad: there’s the obvious talent and on top of that, there’s an experienced player who understands the coach’s needs in possession football.

On a three-year deal with no transfer fee, there’s little risk attached to the transfer, and at best, there could be high rewards for the club at a time where they need a transfer to work in their favour.