Carragher disagrees with Neville’s claim about Tottenham man’s qualities in midfield

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Jamie Carragher has stated that he ‘never really saw’ Eric Dier as a centre-back and thinks the Tottenham man is better suited to playing in the middle of the park.

The former defender also disagreed with Gary Neville’s claim that the versatile Spurs player doesn’t have the qualities ‘a modern-day midfielder’ needs to play either as a number six or an eight, as he told Sky Sports Football (08/10/20 at 7:20 pm).

Click to read what Neville had to say about Dier and his role at Spurs & for England.

Dier played on the right side of a back three for England during their UEFA Nations League draw against Denmark on Tuesday and helped his side keep a clean sheet.

After Neville made it clear that Dier needs to stick with trying to be a centre-back because it’s his best position, Carragher shared his own thoughts.

“I disagree with Gary in that he thinks Dier is better there [as a centre-back],” Carragher told Sky Sports. “The only time that I have really looked at Eric Dier and thought he looks a real player when he was played under Gary and Roy [Hodgson] in a central midfield position.

“Jose Mourinho, I think tried to take him to Manchester United in that position. I have never really saw him as a centre-back with Eric Dier. Hopefully, I will be proved wrong.”

It now seems that Dier is heading towards playing as a centre-back rather than as a holding player because Mourinho is now selecting him to play at the heart of Tottenham’s defence on a regular basis.

Before Mourinho arrived, Dier’s game time in North London had reduced significantly, but it wasn’t a surprise when he started his first game in charge – Tottenham’s away win at West Ham.

It has been previously well-documented that Mourinho is a big fan of Dier before he took the job in North London, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can now get the best out of him.