Matthew Chadder

Sun 2 July 2023 9:52, UK

A new era is beginning at Tottenham under Ange Postecoglou and the club must let Eric Dier go.

He has always given everything for the shirt but Dier just simply isn’t good enough for Tottenham Hotspur. Although he made a promising start to his career under Mauricio Pochettino as a defensive midfielder, he has since moved to centre-back and just isn’t of a high enough quality.

Many years ago the former Spurs boss spoke of the club’s need for a “painful rebuild” (Evening Standard), a phrase which has echoed through the minds of fans since, and the Argentinian was right.

Spurs have too often allowed players to overstay their welcome while other top clubs would have cut ties many years before. Unfortunately, Dier is one of those examples.

Sometimes a squad needs refreshing to move forward and Postecoglou will certainly be keen to bring defenders in to make those strides in the right direction.

According to the Daily Telegraph (30 June), the 29-year-old is keen to continue in North London and fight for his place at Spurs, but he has already had one too many opportunities, and the stats suggest it is now time to move Dier on.

As per stats provided by FBREF, the former Sporting Lisbon man posted some terrible defensive numbers last season as he made 33 league appearances in a Spurs side which conceded 63 league goals – the sixth most in the division.

He made just 0.97 tackles per 90, placing him in the 11th percentile compared to his positional peers across Europe’s top five leagues and he would only win 0.63 of those tackles per 90 which left him in the 16th percentile.

The stats become even more worrisome after a deeper dive. In his defensive third, Dier made just 0.45 tackles per 90, leaving him in the bottom five per cent compared to central defenders across Europe. The stats were slightly better in regard to his tackles in the middle third (0.47 per 90) and attacking third (0.05), but still left him in the 52nd and 46th percentiles.

He would tackle just 0.29 dribbles per 90 ranking him in the bottom two per cent and would only challenge 0.63 dribblers per 90 which again left him in the bottom ten per cent, this time in the 6th percentile. Furthermore, his 1.18 blocks per 90 and 1.13 interceptions per 90 left him in the 46th and 40th percentile in regard to these statistics.

While the defender’s defensive numbers were truly woeful, he did post some impressive passing numbers, completing 55.65 passes per 90, placing him in the top 20 per cent of European centre-backs, and covering a distance of 422.88 yards with his progressive passing, leaving him in the top 13 per cent.

Yet overall his numbers are simply just not good enough and must be improved upon to progress. The club need a defensive transformation to have any chance of competing next season and Dier cannot be a part of that.

In other Tottenham news, there is one centre-back who must be targeted by the club to replace Dier.