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Eric Dier

WiganSpur

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
15,974
32,682
He's just not good enough as a midfield player. I can count on one hand the amount of good games he's had for us playing CM, and he's been doing it for 4/5 years now.
 

NEVILLEB

Well-Known Member
Nov 6, 2006
6,733
6,335
He was a great player but something has gone badly wrong. It looks like he’s physically way below his original levels.
 

JCRD

Well-Known Member
Aug 10, 2018
19,153
30,013
He seems really immobile - he is a big lad and clearly bulked up... maybe cut down in size a bit will help. I dont bloody know, i mean id love his body - we can exchange...
 

14/04/91

Well-Known Member
Jan 13, 2006
3,527
5,693
Surprisingly, he covered the most of ground today of anyone in the squad....11.91 km

Doesn’t actually surprise me. He didn’t play his traditional role today, he was (generally) yards further advanced than usual.
I assume it was tactical or Jose wanted to see him play a different role. Personally I don’t think it suits him, he’s not mobile or nippy enough but maybe he wanted to see if he had a bit of Matic about him??
 

Giovanni

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
2,587
3,614
Begs the question of who is out there right now that we can buy as a dm? If jose was to draw up a list of the top dm's that we could go buy, who would be on it? I cant think of any that are attainable?
 

Hakkz

Svensk hetsporre
Jul 6, 2012
8,196
17,270
Doesn’t actually surprise me. He didn’t play his traditional role today, he was (generally) yards further advanced than usual.
I assume it was tactical or Jose wanted to see him play a different role. Personally I don’t think it suits him, he’s not mobile or nippy enough but maybe he wanted to see if he had a bit of Matic about him??

He's certainly as slow as Matic.
 

doctor stefan Freud

the tired tread of sad biology
Sep 2, 2013
15,170
72,169
Today he touched the ball probably 5 times only all game.

He didnt shield the defence like what DMs should do.

He didnt make a single tackle

He didnt make incisive runs forward

He didnt make himself available for a pass from defence.

He allowed the opponents to shoot from the positions where he was supposed to be protecting.

If he was brpught on by Jose to protect the defence, then we might as well play Winks, because both won't protect the defence, but at least Winks contributes more to midfield.
Haven’t seen the game yet but I’ve seen enough of Dier lately to know he’s way below par as a CDM for a team with top four aspirations. Especially for a team that plays counterattacking football. The most successful counterattacking sides are built on defensively solid foundations, foundations that draw the opposition in without actually giving much away, then the space left behind is then ruthlessly exploited by the counterattacking side. That drains the opposition, knowing that in order to chase the game, they’re going to be vulnerable again.

We’ve almost sorted out the attacking aspect of this new look counterattacking side, though we’re still a bit wasteful. Our real issue though is our defensive foundation. Teams know they can get at us, that we leave gaps easily exploited, and this is what we’re currently seeing with these high scoring games. We need to start with acquiring a really able CDM to strengthen our defensive base, something Dier just isn’t equipped to do, and until we upgrade him, we’re going to be vulnerable to all teams we play
 

Ray Ray

Well-Known Member
Jan 15, 2018
548
2,240
Dier looks way off the pace, but he's missed so much football over the last 2 years that's to be expected.

We either need to persist with his pedestrian play, hope it boils down to lacking match fitness and he returns to being the player he was 2/3 years ago.

The other option is we have to look at getting someone in now who can be the beast in the midfield we need, not too many players out here we are going to be able to prose away in January though.

Personally I would give him another 4/5 starts, if he doesn't pick up the pace, isn't commanding and continues to misplace 10 yard passes then we have to look to fill the DM role as it's our biggest weakness on the squad right now.

Think back to Dembele, Dier and Wanyama in their prime and we where so much more solid. Need a player of that ilk now...
 

Hakkz

Svensk hetsporre
Jul 6, 2012
8,196
17,270
Dier looks way off the pace, but he's missed so much football over the last 2 years that's to be expected.

We either need to persist with his pedestrian play, hope it boils down to lacking match fitness and he returns to being the player he was 2/3 years ago.

The other option is we have to look at getting someone in now who can be the beast in the midfield we need, not too many players out here we are going to be able to prose away in January though.

Personally I would give him another 4/5 starts, if he doesn't pick up the pace, isn't commanding and continues to misplace 10 yard passes then we have to look to fill the DM role as it's our biggest weakness on the squad right now.

Think back to Dembele, Dier and Wanyama in their prime and we where so much more solid. Need a player of that ilk now...

Even if Dier comes back to life, we still need to replace Wanyama. A new dm is needed.
 

muppetman

Well-Known Member
Jul 29, 2011
8,901
24,817
I hear what people are saying about his fitness and struggling to get about but it felt like he gave the ball away every time he tried ot pass forward.
 

JUSTINSIGNAL

Well-Known Member
Jul 10, 2008
15,980
48,500
Moving like an oil tanker out there. Luckily we seemed to bypass the midfield and go long because he didn't do anything for us either offensively or defensively.
 

adamsky

Well-Known Member
Dec 8, 2006
1,683
4,455
I asked on another thread already, but who do people think is out there as a viable alternative? I’m not as up on foreign footy as used to be so no one comes to mind, and in the prem I can’t think of anyone decent who we have chance of getting.
 

Joely

Well-Known Member
Jan 20, 2011
1,724
4,648
I asked on another thread already, but who do people think is out there as a viable alternative? I’m not as up on foreign footy as used to be so no one comes to mind, and in the prem I can’t think of anyone decent who we have chance of getting.

Think it's a key role for Mourinho and he's already mentioned how a player in that role needs to be postionally sound. There are a number of up and coming DM's such as Sangare at Toulouse, Soumare at Lille, Zakaria at Borussia Monchengladbach but I think he'd ideally prefer an experienced head in that role. If he was going to plump for a young up and coming defensive midfielder, I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted Florentino Luis at Benfica
 

whitesocks

The past means nothing. This is a message for life
Jan 16, 2014
4,652
5,738
Doesn’t actually surprise me. He didn’t play his traditional role today, he was (generally) yards further advanced than usual.
I assume it was tactical or Jose wanted to see him play a different role. Personally I don’t think it suits him, he’s not mobile or nippy enough but maybe he wanted to see if he had a bit of Matic about him??
For me if we play 3 at the back - and we pretty much did today - then it seems sensible either Dier is one of them, or we bring in Winks. 3 CBs and a hybrid looks over kill unless we are playing Burnley.

Also Ndombele doesn't pass sideways and Sissoko, when he is not scoring, tends to feed Aurier. So Dier didn't have much of the ball.

Except we looked so much better today, so something was going right. Maybe just his presence allowed other to adventure forward. I imagine Dele is probably much happier with his mate back in the side.
I'm not looking to fix something that is not too broken.
 

Sevens

Well-Known Member
Apr 23, 2014
4,583
6,947
Moving like an oil tanker out there. Luckily we seemed to bypass the midfield and go long because he didn't do anything for us either offensively or defensively.

You're having a bubble! Defensively he did well today.

Every couple of years I seem to have this debate about DMs. The best DMs have low interception and tackle stats. Why? Because they anticipate and stop the ball being played anywhere near them.

On the ball Dier needs to do better, but ultimately he is a DM so he doesn't have to do that much better and his passing today was no worse than many of his team mates (N'Dombele had a dreadful game for example, and Dier had to run his arse off to cover for N'Dombele's lack of discipline and all round poor positioning).
 
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