SpurMeUp
Jimmy Cantrell
For Ndombele we have Lo Celso who showed last season that he can bring similar qualities to the team, though he does do things differently to Ndombele. The way we're playing now with two deep midfielders and Ndombele more advanced we also have other options.
For Kane we have both Vinicius and Son at the very least (not counting Bale and Moura). Still too early to say with Vinicius, but with Son at least we have seen that we can make it work.
There's a drop off in quality. Just as there is with any player coming in to replace an automatic starter.
For Hojbjerg we have... Only the options that we tried to make work last season, that didn't really work. Can't say that we couldn't find a good solution, but there isn't an obvious one. Just as an example Sissoko hasn't really been able to form a good partnership with any central midfielder since he came, works quite well with him and Hojbjerg now.
Hojbjerg is good enough at enough of what's important for that role to make up for the shortcomings of the others. The others have shortcomings that aren't made up for sufficiently by the other players in the squad making dysfunctional partnerships even though they are good players.
Perhaps, if the day comes, Mourinho will find a solution. Perhaps one or two players have stepped up enough that we don't have to worry. Perhaps the rest of the team is now better to the extent that our central midfield would work where it has previously struggled.
That's a lot of perhaps though. Whereas for other positions we have real options.
I was one of those who absolutely welcomed Hojbjerg. I was so pleased we addressed the most pressing (excus the pun) issue in our side - the lack of quality in midfield. It has been an issue for about 3 years. I defended Hojbjerg when others questioned him, thought his passing was better than people thought, and his tenacity was there for all to see. All that said, I think Kane and Ndombele are more unique and probably harder to substitute.