Tottenham’s transfer targets reveal club’s concern over Eric Dier
Tottenham seems set in the defensive midfield, but potential replacements for Eric Dier’s spot in the starting 11 keep popping up
Eric Dier has surpassed any Tottenham fan’s reasonable expectations for his play this season. Undoubtedly, he has a place at Spurs for years to come. With that being said, his performance has tailed off slightly as of late. That has the club looking into high-priced replacements in January.
Coming into this season most Tottenham supporters envisioned a defensive midfield partnership of Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason. After all, that duo had performed very effectively as last year wound down and both players still had plenty of room to improve.
Instead, the first-choice partnership for Mauricio Pochettino has evolved to be Eric Dier and Mousa Dembele. Dier burst onto the midfield scene after a position switch from centre back. Dembele, a player who really struggled to fit in for Spurs last year, experienced a career reclamation to claim his place.
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Add in the flexibility to deploy Mason and Dele Alli has defensive midfielders in certain lineups and many believe Tottenham has everything they need in the defensive midfield.
Tottenham’s transfer policy so far this month says otherwise. While the majority of transfer rumors involving the club have centered on their obvious need for a striker, there have been more than a few rumors about purchasing a top-notch defensive midfielder.
The two most prominent names linked with Tottenham in the midfield have been Belgian international Axel Witsel and Swiss International Granit Xhaka. Neither player would be a cheap acquisition by any stretch of the imagination. They aren’t the sort of purchase you make with the intention of leaving on the bench very often.
Assuming there’s some validity to these rumors, it means there has to be some Tottenham concern about the state of their defensive midfield. While it could be the injury history of Mousa Dembele, it seems more likely that it’s the mediocre play of Dier as of late.
Dier has been a terrific presence for Spurs on the whole this season, but the quality of his play has subtly tailed off over the past ten matches or so. He hasn’t looked quite as confident shielding the back four or moving forward since early November. Again, it hasn’t been a huge drop off, but it’s been noticeable. One need only look at his Whoscored.com player rating history to see the subtle decline.
It’s not that Dier has been bad, he’s just been average. For this Tottenham squad, playing at a Premier League average level makes you one of the squad’s weaker members. That makes the club looking to upgrade Dier’s spot on the pitch infinitely logical.
This isn’t to say that Tottenham are looking to freeze Dier out of the lineup altogether. There’s easily enough room to add another defensive midfield option to increase squad rotation as the season wears on. Dier also may be poised to play some centre back in the event that the Vertonghen-Alderweireld partnership doesn’t play every minute of the Premier League season together. He’s still a useful piece of the Spurs puzzle with a brilliant future.
Still, Tottenham are wise to be looking to upgrade their roster of defensive midfielders. If they can transform one of their weaker positions to one of their best, it could mean bringing a Premier League title to White Hart Lane.