Eriksen will be just so hard to replace, but if we get 70-ish mil for him, here's hoping Poch has a good idea of who will be that energetic and creative ACM to replace him. Ziyech? Brooks? Isco? Maddison? Have no clue on that one.
The thing is, Eriksen fits perfectly into Poch's preferred formation, which he's kept more or less intact from his Southampton days - namely, 4-2-3-1.
Poch's 4-2-3-1 at Soton looked like this -
--------------------Lambert--------------------
Rodriguez---------Davis--------------Lallana
----------Schneiderlin-----Wanyama/Cork-
Shaw--------Lovren-------Fonte------Clyne
--------------------Boruc---------------------
Pay attention to that front four in paticular - you had Lambert as the mobile target man, who also often dropped deep to conduct play. You had Rodriguez, the speedy inside forward, who would occupy the space vacated by Lambert and form the tip of the spear. You had Davis as the deep-lying central playmaker, arriving late in the box. And you had Lallana, the playmaker on the right, cutting inside to play pinpoint passes in between the lines.
In our 4-2-3-1 here, our front four looks like this -
----------------Kane------------------
Son------------Alli-----------Eriksen
It's just a much, much higher-class version of the front four Poch used at Southampton - right down to the individual roles of the players.
In other words, it's a perfect match. However, if we lose Eriksen, finding another player who can orchestrate our attacks like he does will prove *impossible* for us - those players go for 100-125m, well above our budget.
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