SAYS ENGLAND TACKLE TITAN ERIC DIER

WITH his 25th birthday looming and with his 36 caps, Eric Dier almost qualifies as an elder statesman of Gareth Southgate’s brave new England.

He is certainly one of its leaders. Dier might not be an automatic starter but he is one of the manager’s trusted lieutenants, a sounding board for Southgate and an attitude-setter for the squad.

And Dier is the first to remind this exciting, youthful collection of players that while the plaudits for their attractive football are nice, they need to earn the right to play if the success in Spain is to become the norm.

He explained: “It’s really important we respect our opponents but once we start the game it’s every man for himself and we have to put our foot down, put a marker down and be aggressive.

“We have to be on the front foot and show nothing is going to intimidate us. It‘s as important as playing good football.” Despite his experience, Dier has become an overnight cult hero after his clattering of arch-villain Sergio Ramos barely 10 minutes into the momentous match in Seville.

Ramos was making an incredible 160th appearance for Spain and Dier admires the way he goes about his “Maybe because there weren’t any fans there and because we missed a few chances, our performance in Croatia kind of went under the radar. But we went into the Spain game with fantastic attacking players who can counter at such pace with such quality. “I’m so happy for Raheem Sterling to have scored two and likewise for Marcus Rashford after Friday, to have bounced back and scored is fantastic. “Harry Kane is the best in the world at holding the ball up and bringing others into play.” In that first half Spain could not handle England’s front three. And no-one, certainly not Southgate, is likely to undervalue Dier’s importance to this brave new England.