Spurs were knocked out of the Europa League this week as they went down to Dinamo Zagreb in the Round of 16. And once again, Eric Dier had a poor outing in the centre-back role.
The England international, even though a midfielder, has been playing as a centre-back this season under the guidance of Jose Mourinho and according to former Spurs full-back Alan Hutton, the manager really needs to reconsider this decision if Tottenham are really serious about winning a silverware.
He told Football Insider: “He was Mourinho’s go-to man since he came in, really. I do think he gets exposed at times with a lack of pace.
“There’s always that hanging over his head – is he a central-defender or is he a holding midfielder? It’s one of those where I’m not quite sure where his best position is, to be honest.
“I just look at where do Tottenham want to be? Do they want to be challenging near the top of the league? If so, they need two quality centre-halves to build on, to be that solid block to then move forward.
“I think Mourinho knows this by the amount of times he chops and changes his centre-half partnership. It doesn’t look like he knows his best at the moment.”
Eric Dier has played in 31 games across all competitions for Spurs this season and all of them have been in the centre-back role. This is in stark contrast to the 18/19 season when he was majorly playing as a defensive midfielder under Mauricio Pochettino.
Mourinho thinks Dier is more than capable of playing in the central defensive role but the 27-year-old has come up with really average performances this season. According to Whoscored, he has a rating of just 6.72 this campaign.
This is clearly not helping Spurs’ ambition of winning a silverware and if Jose Mourinho really wants to get back amongst the big boys then the manager will urgently need to bring in a world-class centre-back during the summer transfer window.
Stats courtesy Whoscored & TransferMarkt.
