Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou has hinted that Eric Dier will not be brought back into the starting lineup for the game against Manchester City.
Spurs have had terrible luck with injuries, haven’t they? The likes of James Maddison, Micky van de Ven and Rodrigo Bentancur are all injured, while Cristian Romero is still suspended. Postecoglou has a decision to make about his defence, and it looks like he has already made it – Dier will not start!
Ange Postecoglou says Eric Dier will not start for Tottenham vs Manchester City:
Eric Dier was one of Tottenham‘s most important players over the years, but everything changed after Ange Postecoglou‘s arrival in the summer.
The Australian does not fancy Dier. The Englishman has played just twice all season, and there’s no way back for him when everyone’s available.
However, ahead of the Premier League game against Manchester City on Sunday, some Spurs fans thought Postecoglou would bring back Dier to deal with the best striker in the Premier League, Erling Haaland.
The Tottenham boss, however, has rubbished that suggestion and hinted he’s happy with the two players who played at centre-back against Aston Villa last weekend – Ben Davies and Emerson Royal.
When Alasdair Gold asked Postecoglou if he feels the need to start Dier, he said: “No. I thought it was one aspect where we struggled last week, maybe around set-pieces. To be fair, Villa are very good at them.
“Overall I thought our defending was actually quite good. We were disappointed with the second goal, more than the first goal. Not just the back four, but defensively, we were really passive in that five to 10-minute spell which we paid a price for. That’s more of a collective thing.
“They haven’t grown – they are all the same height as last week. We tried to feed them some different stuff but we’ll go with that.”
Eric Dier has no future at Tottenham:
It was clear in the summer that Eric Dier wasn’t going to play regularly for Tottenham – Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven were the undisputed first-choice starters at the back.
However, many felt the Englishman would be the first man in if either of the above two were unavailable.
Tottenham have found themselves in a situation where they are without both Romero and Van de Van, but Postecoglou still doesn’t fancy Dier.
That tells you all you need to know about the £85,000-a-week (Spotrac) man’s future at Tottenham. He needs to leave the club in January and that looks very likely now.