Tottenham tactics: Spurs must drop Eric Dier

By Rucker Haringey | Oct 26, 2017

LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 27: Eric Dier of Tottnham Hotspur is dejected after Burnley score their first goal during the Premier League match between Tottenham Hotspur and Burnley at Wembley Stadium on August 27, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images) /

Eric Dier isn’t playing well enough to start for Tottenham

There was a lot of blame to go around after Tottenham’s capitulation to West Ham in the Carabao Cup. Eric Dier doesn’t deserve to be the sole scapegoat, but it should be his last start for the foreseeable future.

The harsh truth is that Dier has been in a slump for some time. He broke into the Tottenham, and England squad at roughly the same time as teammates Harry Kane and Dele Alli. As a result, there’s a natural tendency to lump the achievements of all three together in your mind. Doing so gives Dier too much credit.

For a while it was reasonable to use Dier’s constant movement from central defence to defensive midfield as an explanation. After all, it’s very reasonable to think that a player’s form would dip without the ability to truly focus on one spot on the pitch. That excuse is no longer applicable for Dier.

Pochettino has clearly given him the chance to focus on his midfield role. Now it’s time for Dier to repay the faith his manager has placed in him. Unfortunately, that simply hasn’t happened for the English midfielder.

Dier’s statistics on the season don’t really tell the whole story. His Whoscored.com player rating average of 6.91 is good for eighth place in Pochettino’s squad. That rating doesn’t scream that a player should be dropped from the starting XI. It takes really watching Dier out on the pitch to see that he just isn’t giving Spurs enough at the moment.

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The Carabao Cup match against West Ham was a perfect microcosm of just how limited Dier’s play has been. It’s not that he’s been a disaster, it’s more so that he’s proven to be a non-entity. For most of the match against the Hammers Dier proved to be a passenger.

He’s never been the greatest player in Europe going forward, but now he seems entirely unprepared to move up the pitch. On the rare occasions he does try to carry the ball forward, he stop in his tracks when he encounters any sort of pressure. The best case outcome for Tottenham when that occurs is that he successfully passes the ball backwards.

Pochettino also happens to be blessed with superior options in the midfield. Mousa Dembele recently has returned to the fold after a bit of an injury absence. Even in his brief time during West Ham he showed that he’s a better option than Dier.

Then there’s the emergence of Harry Winks into Tottenham’s senior squad. I was originally concerned that his lack of size might prevent him from holding down a regular starting spot in Pochettino’s double-pivot. Instead, Winks has quickly made himself an integral part of the Spurs squad. He’s really the only midfielder who can regularly move the ball in and out of the Tottenham attack.

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Add all of those factors up and it’s easy to see why Dier should be relegated to the bench. It doesn’t need to be a permanent move by Pochettino, but it is something that’s necessary for the time being. Dier just isn’t up to the Tottenham standard at the moment.

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