Tottenham’s Dier Refuses to Use Inexperience as Excuse

Tottenham Hotspur defensive midfielder, Eric Dier, doesn’t believe England drew against Russia because of a lack of inexperience. For him, the Three Lions didn’t close out the game properly.

A late collapse by England against Russia had many linking Tottenham’s four-game skid to end the 2015-16 Premier League season as the main culprit. A young squad that lacked experience when they needed it the most in a critical situation, but for Eric Dier, inexperience isn’t the reason why the Three Lions conceded a late goal.

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Two days later and it still stings for England fans to recall seeing their team concede a goal in the 92nd minute to draw 1-1 against Russia, The Three Lions were one minute away from winning three points and sitting atop of Group B along with Wales.

Instead, they’re one step closer to a quick exit.

There’s plenty of finger pointing that could done at the lack of defending and positioning for Chris Smalling and Joe Hart, even a somewhat odd connection of five Tottenham players contributing to England’s late collapse.

But one thing that shouldn’t be used as an excuse, according to Spurs’ Eric Dier, is a lack of inexperience from this young England squad whose average age is under 26-years-old (25 years and 10 months).

"“We are very dissapointed, we played well in the game, and then to give away the goal at the end…” Dier said on ITV1 (via Enfield Independent).“It is not inexperience, we just did not see it out in the right way.”“There are lots of positives from the game, the performance level was extremely high, we did everything right, we controlled the game, had it all but just could not control it at the end.”“We did not lose, so we pick ourselves up and go again, and now look forwards to another big game.”"

Eric Dier is correct, England didn’t lose this game, they simply drew.

But a result like this, after dominating for long periods of the match, it feels like a loss. While a Russia team who absorbed as much pressure as they did and scoring the late equalizer, their celebrations practically shows a side who had won the game.

Moving on from that though, with only two more group stage fixtures left to be played and already trailing Wales by two points, Roy Hodgson’s side is in a must-win situation if they want to advance out of the group stage.

From a Sky Sports article a couple of days, history suggests that this young England side should be favored to not only make it into the knockout stage, but they could go on quite a run into the quarter-finals.

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Here are the past five European Championships and what that year’s youngest squad placed before being eliminated:

Past five European Championship:

• Euro 1996 – England (25.68 years on average)
  • Result –  Semi-finalists
• Euro 2000 – Spain (26.55 years on average)
  • Result –  Quarter-finalists
• Euro 2004 – Spain (25.47 years on average)
  • Result –  Out in the group stages
• Euro 2008 – Russia (26.15 years on average)
  • Result –  Semi-finalists
• Euro 2012 – Germany (24.52 years on average)
  • Result –  Semi-finalists

Now each of the past five youngest squads to grace the Euros are all talented, more talented than the likes of this current England squad. But if you’re an optimist, why can’t Roy Hodgson’s side escape from Group B and reach the quarter-finals at the very least? They have a good chance with their current players.

How Slovakia coach Ján Kozák put it, a week before England take on Slovakia in the final group stage match, is that England have plenty of young players but wonders how they will meet all kinds of pressure to perform well.

“Each team has got its weaknesses, however there is quite a number of young English players in the team so let’s see how they cope with the pressure of the public, the pressure of expectations, the pressure of the media,” Kozák said.

“There are experienced players in the team, however, most of them are quite young.”

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A one-all draw against Russia would most likely suggest that England couldn’t shake off the pressure late in stoppage time which caused them to concede with one minute left on the clock.

But prior to that, minus some shaky moments and butterflies in a lot of players’ stomachs, the Three Lions looked comfortable and for the most part should have won. They didn’t, but it’s not a lack of experience.

Give kudos to a Russian team who continued fighting until they scored a goal at the very end of the match to secure a vital point.