DIER CONSEQUENCES IF SPURS MISS OUT ON TROPHIES AGAIN

ERIC Dier does not want to look back on these years playing for Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur with regret at never having won a trophy. This is Dier’s third season at Spurs and in each of the first two he came painfully close to winning something. In 2015 Spurs lost the final of the League Cup to Chelsea at Wembley. In 2016 they should have won the Premier League but allowed Leicester City to get away from them.

Now, after winning six games in a row, including a masterclass against Chelsea last week, Spurs are looking better than ever. Going into the second half of the season they are third in the Premier League, into the last-32 of the Europa League and, having beaten Aston Villa yesterday, the fourth round of the FA Cup.

For a club which has not won a trophy for nine years, this is another crucial season for Tottenham. To miss out again, with such a good manager, and so many players playing so well, would be hard to take.

“Football is about winning trophies,” Dier said after Sunday’s game. “If you asked us later on in life and we had not won a trophy with the squad we have now, if in five years’ time that had not happened, then everyone would be disappointed.

“We have got to keep working hard and improving as there is still a lot we can work on before we reach that level, and the whole squad is desperate to win trophies.”

Last season Spurs stayed in the Europa League until March before being knocked out by Borussia Dortmund, by which point the players were too tired to maintain the same standards in the Premier League. The challenge this year will be to stay in the Europa League and FA Cup while not tiring the players, until it is clear in the spring which will be Spurs’ likeliest title.

“It’s very difficult (to compete on three fronts),” Dier said. “The FA Cup is difficult, because it is a knockout, and when you play lower-league teams with nothing to lose, they will throw everything at you. In a one-off game anything can happen. But that is our aim, to stay in every competition as long as possible and fight on all fronts.”

To that end Pochettino made nine changes on Sunday from the team that steamrollered Chelsea 2-0 last Wednesday. Dier and Toby Alderweireld were the only two who kept their places and Dier, tellingly, was made captain.

This means the first teamers – Mousa Dembele, Victor Wanyama, Harry Kane, Kyle Walker, Danny Rose, Christian Eriksen and Hugo Lloris – should be fresh when West Bromwich Albion visit White Hart Lane today.

Dier played in a midfield-two with Harry Winks, at the heart of a 3-4-3 system which initially struggled to break Villa down. Only when Pochettino switched to 4-2-3-1 did they find a way through. But Dier enjoyed returning to midfield, having spent much of this season at centre-back, either in the absence of Alderweireld, or playing on the right of a back-three.

Dier said he enjoys moving around the pitch to develop his game.

“I enjoy the challenge of playing different positions, learning different positions,” he said. “It’s something that will definitely help me in the future and something I’ve spoken about with the manager.”

But what Dier especially enjoyed was wearing the armband, and it is not hard to see him doing it more in the future.

“I hope so, maybe one day,” Dier said.

“We have some fantastic captains here at the moment but I’m still young, hopefully one day maybe I will get that honour but I am focused on playing for Tottenham, nothing else.

“Leadership doesn’t affect me. When I was younger going through age groups at Sporting, I was captain. It’s not something new to me.”

Intensity

Meanwhile, Pochettino has challenged his Tottenham players to keep their intensity and keep pushing up the table after they ended Chelsea’s winning streak and climbed up to third.

Spurs delivered their best performance of the season to beat Chelsea 2-0, a display which made them look like title challengers again. That is the tag that Antonio Conte gave them afterwards and Pochettino told his players to believe they could improve on their third-place finish last year.

“Our performance showed that we can be competitive and we can achieve big things,” said Pochettino afterwards. “But it’s true it’s only one game. We need to be consistent over the whole season. We are happy with the victory but it’s only three points. And we still have a lot of things to do.”

Spurs often play brilliantly in December and January before dropping their level in March and April. Pochettino told his players that this season they have to keep up their intensity as they push for trophies in the second half of the season.

“To keep the intensity is always the challenge,” Pochettino said. “If we want to fight at the end of the season for big things, to lift trophies, you need to keep that intensity always. “

Tottenham are now just seven points behind Chelsea, and are even ahead of Arsenal and Manchester City. A season that looked like it would be about trying to scrape fourth could now turn into something more positive.

“It was important for us to reduce the gap,” he said. “The top four is very competitive, very close. It was perfect for us to arrive in the third place, and to be close. That is important for us. And there are a lot of games to come before the end of the season. Anything can happen in football.”

Before this season Pochettino said that Spurs’ last step to take was in their head, and he praised their mentality in holding onto their lead in such a difficult, emotive game. This was precisely the improvement he was hoping for from his team.

“We are very pleased because the most important thing for us was to show great character and to be very competitive,” Pochettino explained.

“Maybe that was the problem last season, we could not compete in a better way. That means playing and suffering against a good team like Chelsea.”

Against Chelsea Spurs showed they could do exactly what Pochettino demanded from them. “For me, what it means to be competitive is like when we played against Chelsea . It is working hard, suffering, fighting, and sometimes letting the opposition have the ball. In that moment you have to work hard and be strong in your mind. That made us pleased and proud. We showed what it means to be competitive.”

Conte was disappointed that Chelsea’s winning streak was over but hailed Spurs as potential champions after the game.

“Today we lost to a very good team,” Conte said. “Don’t forget that Tottenham fought last season to win the title and Pochettino has been working with this team for many years. Tottenham is one of the six teams that can fight until the end to win the title or find a place in the Champions League.”

Conte hoped the defeat would push his league-leaders to keep improving.

“We have to restart, to continue to work,” he said. “It could be a good test for us. After a defeat it’s always very difficult to know your reaction. We showed we’re a team and this is very important for me. We tried to fight, we tried to win the game. I saw the right will in my players. My methods and ideas don’t change if we lose a game. My priority is to come and win.” – The Independent