He couldn't play through the press, he couldn't play on the turn, he was a mainstay in a midfield that got dominated against pretty much every team it came up against. He was awful for us and i absoloutely hated watching him - his basic passing was atrocious, unforced errors multiple times a game, gaping holes in the middle of the pitch whenever he was playing. The player who symbolised our return to mediocrity more than any other.
That said he'll probably lead Marsielle to the title and European glory in his first season.
I feel like we're seeing a lot of extreme opinions (again). Either he was an amazing player for us or he was utter doodoo.
IMO, his first season for us was pretty decent. I was pretty happy with his contributions, but I was unhappy with how Mourinho chose to play him every single match. PEH obviously has a good engine, but I don't think any player outside of GK or MAYBE CB can withstand a full season of starting every single match. It's not the player's fault; it's on the manager to rotate (on top of that, we end up stifling Skipp's progression slightly by not electing to play him).
Also, I think he should've played more as a Box-to-Box midfielder making late runs into the box. His finishing was decent, but I don't think his passing was good enough for a deep midfielder. His penultimate season kind of summed up what I thought of him as a player, which is basically what you mentioned,
@billyiddo . I don't think he was always so bad, but I didn't really see any progression from PEH and in fact, it did seem to be a case of him getting too comfortable playing safe with passes, unprofessional conduct when arguing with the ref, and ultimately not being selected by Ange. Thing is, PEH did actually have some nice assists and crosses, so I think if he just tried a bit more to make those forward passes, maybe he would've been a better player.
Again, you guys that are defending PEH need to consider the logic of passing to our defense/GK while being pressed when we had Dier and Lloris, whose distribution of the ball and press-resistance weren't exactly strong suits of theirs.
Anyway, I don't have any hard feelings towards PEH. I personally found it strange that he started off really well and then declined in terms of his overall decision-making and work ethic (but as I mentioned before, there might be a good excuse for that). I wish him all the best at Marseille and for Denmark.