Eric Dier’s Suspension is a Blessing for Spurs
By Ryan Wrenn
Eric Dier played 90 minutes at centre-back in the England under 21 side’s 3-0 win over Kazakhastan Tuesday. That victory marks Dier’s 12th start and ninth complete competitive match since Spurs’ season began on August 8th, five of which occurred in less than a two week span in September. Per Opta via the Guardian, Dier has run 55.4 miles in just his eight starts for Spurs in the Premier League, the tenth most of any player in the league.
On the surface, this might not seem like much. Twelve games in two and half months is a little more than a match a week. For a team like Spurs that aspires to regular Champions League play, that shouldn’t be a tremendous concern.
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Yet in Dier Spurs have a particularly tricky situation. There’s no question of the 21-year-old’s durability or stamina; he clearly has both in spades. He has featured in every single game for Spurs this season and, had he not picked up a fifth yellow card against Swansea last weekend, he likely would be starting against Liverpool this coming Saturday.
That consistency is no doubt a welcome development for Dier himself, who featured 28 times in total in his first season with Spurs last term, mostly covering for injuries at centre-back and right-back. He’d be justified in feeling protective of his regular spot on Spurs’ starting XI. The problem is that, at the current rate at which Spurs are starting him, he will likely meet or exceed that benchmark set last season before the New Year.
The Premier League is often criticized for its crowded fixture list, one that has the potential to exhaust players used to the more languid pacing and winter breaks of other European leagues. Mesut Özil and Cesc Fabregas suffered considerable drops in form in the latter half of their debut seasons with Arsenal and Chelsea respectively, slumps that have in part been attributed to the dense fixture list of the English game.
That’s a hurdle that every player and every team in England have to contend with, of course. Dier’s case is exceptional, however.
Dier’s importance to Spurs is a bit more than simply showing up and playing every game. In its current incarnation, this Spurs side has put a considerable amount of weight on the young midfielder’s shoulders. The club’s airtight defensive record so far this season is in no small part related to his impressive shielding of the defensive backline.
That run of form has made him among the standout performers at Spurs so far this season, and the question of who – if anyone – can come in to replace him is very much up for debate. Against Liverpool Saturday it will most likely be Nabil Bentaleb slotting in at Dier’s defensive midfield role. Given that the Algerian’s efforts so far this season have rarely been anything more than adequate – and often much worse than that – it still remains to be seen if he will be a long term solution in that cover role.
Spurs’ failure – conscious or otherwise – to properly secure depth in the defensive midfield position will leave them exposed if Dier is hurt or otherwise sees a drop in form in the second half of the season. With a deep run in the Europa League seeming likely, that could be disastrous.
Short of buying a new defensive midfielder in January – and paying the often inflated cost of players bought mid-season – Spurs have two options available to them in the short term.
One: rotate Dier more regularly. The club would understandably want him to play every Premier League game he can in what’s becoming an unpredictable and tricky domestic season, but perhaps he can be spared having to play against Anderlecht and Qarabag FK in the Europa League. Given how crowed the Premier League gets in December, even that might not be enough.
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Two: find someone within the organization who can understudy Dier if and when need be. Bentaleb is currently at the top of a short list of such players, and he will have his best chance yet of justifying that status if he’s fit enough to start against Liverpool. Otherwise, the club might turn to Tom Carroll or Miloš Veljković, neither of whom are known quantities in a defensive midfield role, at least at the Premier League level.
And so Dier’s suspension against Liverpool forces the club’s hand into implementing both sides of this strategy. Dier is given a much-needed rest and his backups are given a trial by fire. It might not be the ideal scenario in the short term – Liverpool’s assortment of tricky creative players that might occupy Dier’s typical zone could cause trouble in his absence – but in the long term it might serve Spurs well.
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