Dier: We can’t expect Bale and Alli to save our season on their own
TOTTENHAM cannot rely on Gareth Bale and Dele Alli to save their season, according to Eric Dier, who has called for a collective improvement.
Bale is expected to start Sunday’s match against Burnley as Spurs aim to end a run of five defeats from six League games. The Wales forward scored in both legs of the Europa League win over Wolfsberger and impressed last weekend at West Ham.
Alli can also expect more minutes after scoring a stunning bicycle kick and getting two assists in the 4-0 win over the Austrians on Wednesday.
The pair have made just three League starts between them this season but there is a sense their resurgence could spark Spurs’s flagging season into life.
Dier said: “Dele put in a fantastic performance on Wednesday, which is great for him and a reminder of his quality because in football people have very short memories. But as a team we need to do better. Individuals will step up and do great things in moments and Gareth and Dele have done that in the past. But it is not up to them to change our season it is up to us as a collective.”
Dier has been guilty of mistakes during Spurs’s slump since December and Mourinho claimed the centre-half was suffering from a “confidence crisis” — a suggestion rejected by Dier, who nonetheless says his form has dipped.
“Confidence-wise, I don’t feel like I’ve been in a bad place,” he said. “I’ve had periods where I’ve had low confidence and I haven’t felt that this season.
“People’s perception versus reality can be different. I’ve been happy with my level. There has obviously been a dip in it, which correlates with the dip in our performances.”
TOTTENHAM v BURNLEY
WE’VE heard the cliché: the best form of defence is attack. Of course, it’s a simple claim that won’t always prove true. You can’t get away with ignoring the basics of defending just by throwing everyone forward gung-ho.
Yet watching Tottenham last Sunday from my commentary perch high up in the stand at the London Stadium, this well-worn saying suddenly came to mind. It seemed to fit the bill perfectly for a team whose strengths clearly lie up top.
It was the do-or-die way Jose Mourinho went about trying to peg back West Ham’s lead. On for the second half, Gareth Bale was finally showing the class that had persuaded chairman Daniel Levy to move heaven and earth to bring him to north London. The sharpness of movement and thought was causing all sorts of bother.
But it wasn’t just Bale. Lucas Moura, Harry Kane, Heung-Min Son and eventually Dele Alli started to combine in a very dangerous way. It was thrilling to watch — seeing Spurs go for the jugular.
For half an hour or more the threat was so great that you started to wonder, with this kind of talent, how they could look so passive and cautious in previous weeks.
Not only that, it seemed to set the template for a way forward, a way much more appealing to Tottenham fans growing increasingly tired of Mourinho’s approach. Play to your strengths. Take the game to the opposition. Don’t depend so heavily on a suspect defence. Because let’s face it, those defenders aren’t the best Mourinho has ever managed. Schoolboy mistakes have regularly left the team in the lurch.
But I think it could be different. To get out of this rut, I’d take the emphasis away from trying to do everything right at the back to concentrate more intently on an attacking plan. That would take off some pressure from those beleaguered defenders. It would move the focus up towards the other end.
For this scrap against Burnley, the last thing you want, after all, is to be dropping off to allow high balls to be pumped into the box. Given the lack of pace in Sean Dyche’s attack, this game would actually be a good opportunity to test the change and squeeze higher up the pitch.
Naturally, the likes of Eric Dier and Hugo Lloris have still got to do their jobs and try to do them better. But maybe, just maybe, they won’t have so much on their plates when the team is set up to play on the front foot. Kane, Bale and Co can start setting the agenda for a change, rather than reacting with sporadic counter attacks.
Yes, I know this isn’t Mourinho’s normal way of operating. It goes against the grain. But that final half an hour at the London Stadium and Wednesday’s Europa League display may just have triggered something in the manager’s mind. It’s time to change tack, to let the dogs loose.