Brian Riemer had some big decisions to make with his latest Denmark squad, with much of the focus on former Manchester United midfielder Christian Eriksen.
It has been a difficult summer for Christian Eriksen after leaving Manchester United as a free agent.
The 33-year-old has yet to find a new club, despite being linked with a move to Brentford before his former manager, Thomas Frank, moved to Tottenham Hotspur.
Another Dane facing an uncertain future is Rasmus Hojlund, following two disappointing seasons at Old Trafford. The 22-year-old is linked with a move to Serie A champions Napoli after managing to score just 26 goals since joining United from Atalanta.
To make matters worse for Hojlund, he has been left out of the squad for United’s first two games of the season. The signing of Benjamin Sesko from RB Leipzig pushed him down the pecking order.
All of this uncertainty raised doubts over whether Eriksen and Hojlund would remain in the Denmark national team.
Christian Eriksen playing against Portugal
Photo by Miguel Lemos/Eurasia Sport Images/Getty Images
Rasmus Hojlund keeps his place in Denmark squad
Despite not playing a single minute for United this season, Denmark manager Brian Riemer has decided to name Hojlund in his latest national team squad.
Hojlund has become the latest outcast at Old Trafford after being overlooked by Ruben Amorim for the first two games of the Premier League season.
More United News
Now, talks are underway for Hojlund to join Serie A champions Napoli on a loan deal that includes a mandatory buy option.
Even though there is so much uncertainty surrounding Hojlund and he is not playing regular football, the 22-year-old has been called up to the Denmark national team for their upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
This means Riemer has kept his faith in Hojlund, despite him scoring just 26 goals in his first two seasons at the club. The other strikers he will be competing with include Mika Biereth and Kasper Dolberg.
There’s also a place for United left-back Patrick Dorgu, who has started the first two games under Amorim this season.
Denmark will host Scotland on Friday, September 5, before travelling to Greece three days later.
Christian Eriksen dropped
Perhaps the biggest headline from the latest Denmark squad is that Eriksen has been dropped.
The 33-year-old, who is still without a club, has paid the consequences by missing out on a place in the national team for the next round of World Cup qualifiers.
Eriksen’s absence allows Reimer to give a chance to a younger midfielder, with Utrecht’s Victor Jensen in contention for a debut on the senior international stage.
The Denmark manager explained his decision to leave out Eriksen as a ‘big dilemma’.
“It has been an incredibly difficult and big dilemma for me, as I still think that Christian is one of our best players in many areas,” Reimer said, as quoted by Inkle.
“But the fact is that we ended up running out of time. He hasn’t had a club to train with in the past two and a half months. Therefore, the assessment from the coaching team is that we have to disregard Christian at this stage.
“This is close to being the biggest dilemma I’ve had. It’s hard to drop a player because you don’t think he’s good enough. But this decision goes against my will.
“If I could choose, he would have had a club and then he would be selected, as he has been used to since he was 18. I have put off the decision for as long as I possibly could.
“There are a lot of circumstances that have made it impossible for him to move to a new club and time has just run out. Christian didn’t expect it to take this long for us to get here, but it has.
“Now it’s about Christian finding a place to play. It’s about getting back into team training and getting out and playing, because he’s still a big part of this national team – just not at the next training camp.
“I don’t think it’s in Christian’s interest to train with us. He should spend all his time figuring out where to play football, he shouldn’t run around and ‘have fun’ with us at our camp at Helsingor.”