SpursNorway
Ilie Dumitrescu
Getting better and better, long may it continue!
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Eric Dier
- Thread starter Jordinho
- Start date
El Guepardo
Rafael Van Der Vaart
I'm not entirely sure why Dier has to eventually revert to playing in centre back. He has thrived this season, in the defensive midfield role, why change him back? He only cost £4m, I believe, so must be one of our best value for money signings in a long time.
Modric THFC
Jimmy McCormick
Bingo. Dier only made 11 passes in the first half while he was getting rave reviews. The rest of team tend to pass it around him as if he isnt there.
Gazza
Nick Barmby
Maybe he is occupying an area which protects our defence. However we were exposed today even with dier in the team.
We have no movement up front and are far too predictable at the moment.
However i am optimistic that once our team are fit we will have more fluidity in our team. Eriksen and the emerging Alli look very comfortable with the ball. I still hope lamella can play centrally like today and start coming up with more.
Son and Njie could turn out to be that little quality that we need to break down teams that load their box with players.
All we seem to do is keep ball and move up field slowly. For our team to camp in the opposition half we need more movement up front.
Dier will be ideal to sit back if we start paying Rose and perhaps giving Trippier a go, to bomb forward.
We have options, that's what Dier gives us.
JerusalemMan
Johnny Morrison
http://www.football365.com/news/aggressive-eric-tottenhams-success-story
“We were aggressive,” said Hugo Lloris, who was best placed to judge exactly how traditionally tip-toeing Tottenham contrived to out-tackle a Sunderland side containing Yann M’Vila. Lloris did not namecheck Eric Dier but the statistics tell the story: Eight tackles, two interceptions, five clearances and four blocked shots from a position we should probably cease to call ‘unfamiliar’. Midfielder Dier is Tottenham’s success story of this nascent season.
“I made the decision from the start of pre-season that we needed to give the option to Eric Dier to play,” said Mauricio Pochettino, who saw enough promise in the 21-year-old to allow French international Etienne Capoue to leave along with Benjamin Stambouli. The Argentine can now allow himself a smug smile; while Tottenham are still struggling to justify a lack of investment in strikers, his left-field decision to trust the stubbornly black-booted Dier looks inspired rather than desperate.
Let’s face it, something had to be done. Despite finishing in fifth last season, Tottenham contrived to concede more goals than relegated Hull. The purchase of Toby Alderweireld provided the no-brainer upgrade on Vlad Chiriches, Younes Kaboul and Fazio as Jan Vertonghen’s partner, but moving Dier into midfield was very much the brainer part of the transition from soft underbelly to hard abdominals. Nobody saw it coming.
While no Tottenham fan could be ecstatic with six points from their first five matches, the ‘goals against’ column makes for unusually pleasant reading. With just four goals conceded, only the Premier League’s top three can boast a more miserly record. Dier deserves a large dollop of the credit.
Comparing his tackling statistics with Francis Coquelin illustrates the might of Dier. The Frenchman has been successful with 21 of his 26 tackles while Dier has won the ball with 19 of his 23 attempts – there is a barely a cigarette paper between the pair. And although Coquelin’s passing accuracy is marginally better, it’s safe to say that Dier offers a greater attacking threat. It would be foolish to declare Dier a finished product on the back of clean sheets against Everton and Sunderland, but there is enough evidence to suggest that Pochettino and Tottenham got one thing – if not many more – right this summer.
Dier was not alone in his aggression against Sunderland, who suffered the ignominy of being out-tackled 25-22 by a Tottenham side who could boast the youngest average age (24 years and 135 days) in the Premier League, but it was his discipline that caught the eye. On a weekend when Roy Hodgson admitted that he was monitoring Liverpool’s 19-year-old winger Jordon Ibe, it surely cannot be long before he glances towards White Hart Lane in his quest to find an Englishman to play at the base of his midfield.
“I would look down the line at Dier at Tottenham. He’s a player who could ultimately be the replacement for these two,” said Martin Keown earlier this year. At that juncture he was talking about Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka, but perhaps Scott Parker would be a more apt comparison. Tottenham fans might be naturally disinclined to worship a tough-tackling midfielder, but in the absence of last season’s Harry Kane or a winger worthy of the name, Dier aggressively but fairly plugs that gap.
“We were aggressive,” said Hugo Lloris, who was best placed to judge exactly how traditionally tip-toeing Tottenham contrived to out-tackle a Sunderland side containing Yann M’Vila. Lloris did not namecheck Eric Dier but the statistics tell the story: Eight tackles, two interceptions, five clearances and four blocked shots from a position we should probably cease to call ‘unfamiliar’. Midfielder Dier is Tottenham’s success story of this nascent season.
“I made the decision from the start of pre-season that we needed to give the option to Eric Dier to play,” said Mauricio Pochettino, who saw enough promise in the 21-year-old to allow French international Etienne Capoue to leave along with Benjamin Stambouli. The Argentine can now allow himself a smug smile; while Tottenham are still struggling to justify a lack of investment in strikers, his left-field decision to trust the stubbornly black-booted Dier looks inspired rather than desperate.
Let’s face it, something had to be done. Despite finishing in fifth last season, Tottenham contrived to concede more goals than relegated Hull. The purchase of Toby Alderweireld provided the no-brainer upgrade on Vlad Chiriches, Younes Kaboul and Fazio as Jan Vertonghen’s partner, but moving Dier into midfield was very much the brainer part of the transition from soft underbelly to hard abdominals. Nobody saw it coming.
While no Tottenham fan could be ecstatic with six points from their first five matches, the ‘goals against’ column makes for unusually pleasant reading. With just four goals conceded, only the Premier League’s top three can boast a more miserly record. Dier deserves a large dollop of the credit.
Comparing his tackling statistics with Francis Coquelin illustrates the might of Dier. The Frenchman has been successful with 21 of his 26 tackles while Dier has won the ball with 19 of his 23 attempts – there is a barely a cigarette paper between the pair. And although Coquelin’s passing accuracy is marginally better, it’s safe to say that Dier offers a greater attacking threat. It would be foolish to declare Dier a finished product on the back of clean sheets against Everton and Sunderland, but there is enough evidence to suggest that Pochettino and Tottenham got one thing – if not many more – right this summer.
Dier was not alone in his aggression against Sunderland, who suffered the ignominy of being out-tackled 25-22 by a Tottenham side who could boast the youngest average age (24 years and 135 days) in the Premier League, but it was his discipline that caught the eye. On a weekend when Roy Hodgson admitted that he was monitoring Liverpool’s 19-year-old winger Jordon Ibe, it surely cannot be long before he glances towards White Hart Lane in his quest to find an Englishman to play at the base of his midfield.
“I would look down the line at Dier at Tottenham. He’s a player who could ultimately be the replacement for these two,” said Martin Keown earlier this year. At that juncture he was talking about Gary Cahill and Phil Jagielka, but perhaps Scott Parker would be a more apt comparison. Tottenham fans might be naturally disinclined to worship a tough-tackling midfielder, but in the absence of last season’s Harry Kane or a winger worthy of the name, Dier aggressively but fairly plugs that gap.
So? Dier holding meant that Mason had licence to dictate the play and make various forward runs in the knowledge Dier was covering. Dier and Mason were our two best players, but that couldn't be because they complimented each other could it? Just a coincidence I'm sure....
Bedfordspurs
Martin Peters
But our centre backs were able to and capable of coming out from defence with the ball. They did that with confidence that they had cover in front of them
Diers role in this set up is to first and foremost defend and he has done that extremely well
He did also pop up into attacking positions so covered plenty of ground
I'd be interested in seeing the passing stats for Verts and Toby
Woah Nellie!
Played fantastically well today, has played very well this season but let's not get carried away just yet.
SamC10
Phil Gray
I'm not getting carried away.
Yoof
Tony Parks
Bedfordspurs
Martin Peters
And how does that compare to their defenders considering they sat deeper and were the home team ?
Yoof
Tony Parks
O'Shea 10/17
Kaboul 17/31
M'Vila 35/42
I'm not sure what relevance that has as Spurs are more of a possession based [and frankly better] side than Sunderland. Despite that though, their DM saw more of the ball than ours, possibly because he's tasked with more than just making tackles.
GrimsbyYid
Gus Poyet
This is what I was going to say.... bizarre criticism. He was immense today and you've to have a weird agenda to think otherwise. It was an objectively good performance. I personally like having this anchor, it also freed up Mason more to attack rather than two players sort of doing both, which was horrible to see defensively and creatively last season.
Bedfordspurs
Martin Peters
The reason I was interested was purely for a like for like.
If MvIlla is doing his job then his back four can be more composed an have more time on the ball as well as keep a clean sheet
I didn't notice MvIlla much at all but I noticed Dier in plenty of areas where he had an impact
I also noticed our centre backs bringing the ball out with confidence
I also noticed mason trying to get the momentum going from midfield as I believe he felt comfortable with the defensive support of Dier
I honestly was not a fan of playing a purely defensive player in midfield however has more than that to his game and has arguably been our best player so far this season. The double pivot idea is great if you get then bakance right and I'm a big fan of the Maselab combo, but we're keeping clean sheets and defending better now so clearly something has improved. Add erisken and possibly Njie (never seen him play) into tyebattck and the balance could finally be better
He will be massively important against palace and their break away football and he could well be the stand out player again if he does his job as well as he has been doing
BrainOfLevy
Michael Carrick
As people have said, I don't think Mason being really very good today is a coincidence with Dier alongside him.
Mason and Bentaleb was a decent combination in hindsight. Both could use the ball well and make incisive forward passes, but it's kind of like the old Gerrard/Lampard problem where playing them together means their instincts are tempered. Mason, with Bentaleb, is some of the time going to have to hang back in attacking moves meaning that you've got a poorer defensive player playing the defensive role some of the time. Mason, with Dier, knows he can bomb forward and do what he does best. You see in the goal today, Dier had actually made a run forward and Mason picked the ball up from deep, but as soon as Mason started his run forward Dier immediately knew his job was to drop back. It's natural and it works.
I just hope we have a plan now if Dier gets injured. Giving this balance allows Mason to perform better but if he's out we may have to revert to a less than optimal combination.
Mason and Bentaleb was a decent combination in hindsight. Both could use the ball well and make incisive forward passes, but it's kind of like the old Gerrard/Lampard problem where playing them together means their instincts are tempered. Mason, with Bentaleb, is some of the time going to have to hang back in attacking moves meaning that you've got a poorer defensive player playing the defensive role some of the time. Mason, with Dier, knows he can bomb forward and do what he does best. You see in the goal today, Dier had actually made a run forward and Mason picked the ball up from deep, but as soon as Mason started his run forward Dier immediately knew his job was to drop back. It's natural and it works.
I just hope we have a plan now if Dier gets injured. Giving this balance allows Mason to perform better but if he's out we may have to revert to a less than optimal combination.
Mason is instinctively a more attacking player, I think like Dier he will play anywhere the manager tells him.
Dier as a "pure DM" has done two notable things for me
1. Freed up Mason to go forward, which in turn makes Mason more impactful (looks a better player in that role)
2. Allows the CBs (both who can carry the ball) to make a run from deep to start/support an attack (knowing Dier will cover)
I
indianspur
Guest
Looks like Dier will save us 15-20 mill in the transfer market. He is getting better and better in midfield.