Alright lads, Sunderland fan in peace - not actually about this week's game! Considering bringing Dier into my FF team at work, problem is once their in you can't take them out. I notice he's been playing in the holding midfield role for you lads so far this season - is he likely to keep playing there or is he just filling in for injuries, etc? Cheers
He looks like he's going to be a fixture there, but I'm not sure he'll get you many points. He's been very solid, after looking bloody awful in the pre-season games, but he doesn't get forward much. Probably get a fair number of cards, too. Quite a threat on set-pieces, though.
He's a conundrum to be honest. As PNP says, he's very dangerous in the air off of set pieces and is more than capable of picking up a few goals because of that. However, we at Spurs decided after David Ginola left in 2000 that we would pursue a policy of not taking corners or free kicks properly, preferring instead to use the set piece to give the opposition an opportunity to regroup defensively and hit us on the counter. This strategy is known in common parlance as 'Spursy'. The other problem with him is that surely most FF outlets will consider him a defender even though he plays as a midfielder? In which case he will lose you a heck of a lot of points from the goals we concede when we feel bad for the opposition and decide to be 'Spursy'.
A goal and a cleansheet so far is pretty good, CK. He should've scored a few more last season and I think against Everton we saw him more comfortable getting the ball forwards so you never know, he might be quite good for some extra points in that position. I'm hoping that we drop him soon though and get the Bentaleb-Mason partnership back up and running.
That’s exactly right. Everyone agrees the sooner we can get the ball from the corner to our own goal the better. The two methods we like are to pass backwards until it ends up with Lloris getting a touch, or to pass backwards and lose the ball, which will also lead to Lloris getting a touch providing his reflexes are sharp. With a little luck in either case, we’ll be able to get the ball going back down the field again eventually, ideally winning another corner. The thing to keep in mind here is that it’s not as if Dier, Kane and Chadli are as good a trio of aerial threats as almost anyone has. Why send a ball in and have a decent chance of scoring when we can get Hugo involved?
Always keen to hear your opinion YV - why so? I've been very impressed by Mason this season, he's improving game on game, getting the ball moving forward quickly whilst always looking like he'll pop up in the box at just the right time to score...i.e. the job we bought Demebele and Paulinho for but they apparently went to the wrong job interview. Barring a couple of excellent saves this season, he'd have 2-3 goals already. I've always argued that the main problem has been the transitional stage between the '2' and the '3', with our play slowing down disastrously as soon as it enters the final third with Lamela or Dembele (and often Chadli if I'm honest). I'm hoping that Njie and Son will rectify this problem and allow us to link up our attacking play much quicker than in previous seasons. I'm a massive fan of Bentaleb's don't get me wrong; I just think that he's a little bit of everything and doesn't quite have it clear what his role should be. Dier is quick, comfortable on the ball, and gives 110% every game. We have looked immeasurably stronger defensively with the new 'Dyson' partnership too.
I’ve been very impressed with Dier and Mason so far this year. I can’t help wondering if the Bentaleb Mason partnership was more effective than it seemed, though. While it left us far more open, it resulted in more open games, which suited Kane, Eriksen and Chadli.
It could be worse, we could have Kane take corners, Chadli be available for the short corner/intermediate step back to Lloris and then swing in a long one for Eriksen to try and get on the end of.
I've only really been impressed by Dier in the Everton game so far. In all the other games we've had him as a dm he seems to have no impact on the game offensively or defensively. Bentaleb's a real quality footballer. Still a little rough around the edges but quality all the same. He and Mason's partnership last season was a big factor in our improvement and whilst Mason is a bit inconsistent Bentaleb probably only had a bad 2 or 3 games. It's been the otherway around so far this season but I think he'll improve and get his old form back soon enough.
Agreed YV - Bentaleb is an immensely talented player. I don't think it's helped his cause that he's dropped a couple of major clangers this season. If you recall, before the season started I was very much in favour of not spending north of £20m on Schneiderlin or Wanyama but pursuing with the Bentason duo and allowing them to develop organically. However, seeing Dier this season I don't think I've seen a more versatile player in all my years following Spurs. True - he's still some way off being a game changer but to display competence to play well in 3 different positions at the age of 21 suggests that there's some serious talent in the lad. I think Bentaleb is more assured and cultured on the ball, but Dier definitely does a better job protecting the defence and is much better in the air - both things we needed to improve on last season. It's a beautiful dilemma to have though. A few years back we'd have been arguing over Gary Doherty or Steffen Freund.
How has Dier gone from his absolutely terrible pre-season performances, which I was mystified by Pochettino persisting in playing him in that role, to arguable back-to-back Man of the Match games? That he's made that amount of progress in such a short space of time is a testimony to his character, attitude and ability. That he's been given the opportunity to do so is a credit to the manager.
Hopefully he'll do a Ledley King and move back into defence after awhile as a more complete player. We could always do with another Ledley, especially one that has 2 knees intact. The improvement seems to be coming from his increased understanding of where he needs to be positioned. Too often early on he was simply not in the right place to break up play, usually being too deep. I don't know if that's just coming with experience or whether he's going through videos with the coaching staff but it seems to be working and he looks a lot more confident. He's now starting to make runs forward, like we saw when he was at right back, joining in with attacks which is great.
Dier's emergence as what seems to be a superb DM thus far is brilliant for us. Last season Nabs and Ryan were a great pairing and instrumental in us finishing 5th but the one criticism many had of both was their defensive positioning at times, both were able to make some great tackles in the middle of the pitch, especially Nabs but they were often found out of position a fair bit which put a lot of pressure on the defence and ultimately saw us concede a shed load of goals. With Dier, there's been countless times already where he's dropped in to help out as somewhat of a 3rd CB and also covered/ doubled up with both full backs (tackles on Cleverly and Lens spring to mind). His positional sense as a defender has helped him adjust to a truly solid defensive minded midfielder and as YV has mentioned he's also been making forward runs which is always a bonus from a defensive player. So far, I don't think Schneiderlin, Wanyama or any other DM for the matter that we were linked with could've done a better job.
He's certainly a quick learner. Also, strong, aggressive, and gaining in confidence all the time. Still gets caught out of position when the fast counters come - which are inevitable given the high pressing game we play.
