Postecoglou shares verdict on Eric Dier and returning Tottenham players after loss v Wolves
Ange Postecoglou has defended the work-rate of Tottenham players who came into the side for the 2-1 defeat at Wolves on Saturday.
The Spurs manager was forced into multiple changes due to suspensions and injuries with Eric Dier coming into the defence to make his first start of the season.
Dier, 29, has been out of the picture this season, playing in just Spurs’ last two matches, which have also been the North London club’s only two losses of the campaign.
But despite losing for the second consecutive game at Wolves on Saturday, Postecoglou has stuck up for the players who came into the side.
“The guys are playing their first games of the year, you’re changing three out of a back four so it’s fairly disruptive, especially when guys haven’t played at all. There’s a lot of positives to take from it, they’ll be better for the experience, they’ll be stronger, so plenty of positives,” Postecoglou said after the game, as quoted by Football London (11 November).
“Both of them (Dier and Davies) and Emerson [Royal], and even for guys like Brennan [Johnson] and [Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg], who haven’t started many games because we’ve had a pretty settled line-up, particularly those two guys coming in, I thought their commitment, their endeavour to play our way was there the whole game.
“They held out in the end, you could see they were feeling towards the end but they didn’t let their performance levels drop. For the most part, Wolves didn’t have many big chances, I think [Guglielmo Vicario] had one or two saves to make but obviously, at the end there, I think the first goal was a really good goal and we probably ran out of steam in the last few minutes. Wolves, with the crowd behind them, were able to lift.”
Speaking about Dier, ex-Spurs right-back Alan Hutton told Tottenham News:
“On Instagram obviously and following him on different things following Tottenham, there was a clip he was coming into training and it was kind of a throwaway comment he was getting filmed and he said ‘you’re not even going to use that anyway’.
“It kind of tells you – I mean I’ve seen a lot of footballers in that situation – where their heads at and they don’t feel part of it, they don’t feel involved with the squad and I think when it comes to that stage then maybe it is time to move on.
“He’s been there for a long time, so he’s been through a lot with that football club and he’s fallen down the pecking order. It’s going to be very difficult at this moment in time to break into it, especially at centre-half I think they’re really strong there. So it might be time for him to look elsewhere.”
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