I don't really get why Spurs supporters don't rate him.
Obviously he is more part of a solution than part of the problem. I am not saying he is flawless nor without any limitations. I don't claim that he is in top 5 DM's of the game.
But whenever used in reasonable lineup, he is a good option to have. He can do everything to some extent. He can defend - tackle, cover a lot of ground and put opposite players under pressure. He can control the ball and pass it quite decently, though mostly his passes are more on the conservative end; he has decent cross in him as well. And he can push forward and come up with occasional goal / assist as well. Across his time with us, he has scored 4 and assisted 6. That is goal or assist for roughly every 6 games. That is fair return from DM / CM. And on top of it all I have to say I like his attitude. He seems to be a fighter and proper guy.
Of course there could and should be more competition to our midfield. But if we look at alternatives to current pickings (which I believe are clearly the best) - in Skipp and PEH duo behind Ndombele - Alli, Winks and Lo Celso, I would say that all of them are obviously poorer options all around.
We can potentially upgrade on Hjojberg in the future. But he is not the part of the squad that needs the most attention really.