I wouldn’t class myself as a huge Eric Dier fan, despite my newly acquired ‘I ❤️ Eric’ rosette and damning BMI score.
However it was a combination of Dier and the manner in which Poch set us up that was unarguably the difference.
Hang on, tactical praise for Bochettino and a Dier love in? I’ve been hacked.
The headline here isn’t the we beat Brighton with two stellar goals – which we also did. The headline is how we adapted to use our modest resources as best we could.
This isn’t a system to defeat any top top sides, but it’s sufficient to get you where you need to against the Brighton’s of this world.
The first thing that helped was Poch setting the team up the right way.
No more 4-4-2 04 or 4-3-3 nonsense that failed against Liverpool and Watford.
Spurs are operating on a limited physical and emotional budget these days and so this ‘miracle breakthrough’ allowed us to actually have a half decent presence in midfield.
Enter stage right, Eric Dier.
The Dier/Dembele pincer movement or whatever you want to call it has experienced limited success in the past, however this time out, Mousa was focus on mopping up and keeping shoulder to should with Eric. So whilst this wasn’t an overly dynamic partnership, it was successful in terms of what hit achieved.
Only Tripps and Verts recovered the ball more times than Dier and all 10 of his recoveries were positional, which is most pleasing!
It was Rose and Dier that made the most challenges. Men who step up, even if they aren’t entirely successful, are always welcome in this team.
It was Dier that made the most passes to both Christian Eriksen and Kieran Trippier, and Mousa didn’t;t pass to anyone as often as he did to Eric.
What we’re looking at here is a conduit.
This was a modest MOTM performance, but a genuinely important one given the dark place we’ve been in over that last few weeks.
