Mauricio Pochettino praises Eric Dier’s display during Tottenham draw despite poor performance

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Eric Dier started Tottenham Hotspur’s score draw against Sheffield United on Saturday.

Mauricio Pochettino has stated that Eric Dier had a ‘very good game’ for Tottenham during their 1-1 draw with Sheffield United on Saturday.

This despite the Spurs defender receiving criticism for his performance on social media [some of which you can read here], which also included him getting booked inside the first few minutes.

Dier started Tottenham’s Champions League win against Red Star Belgrade in midweek and Pochettino opted to keep him in the starting XI for the league game.

But his comments may not go down well with some Spurs supporters because it does seem as though Pochettino is protecting his player after what was a pretty poor performance.

“You know it’s difficult [to play with a yellow card],” Pochettino told Football London. “You know I was a centre-back and I loved to play with a yellow card from the beginning. In the first 10 minutes, I always received a yellow card and then played better and more relaxed.

“But I think Eric Dier had a very good game. In this action, it was an action that I explained before where we struggled a bit in the first half, all the first balls and all the second balls were for them. They were more aggressive and more focused.

“We were a little sloppy in this action, he was tried to cover down the side and of course made the foul and it was too much the yellow card in the first minute of the game. I thought he handled it very well for the 90 minutes with the yellow card.”

Dier hasn’t played much this season, but with there being no sign of Tottenham’s poor form ending, he has managed to find his way back into Pochettino’s defence.

Jan Vertonghen has been left out of Spurs’ squad on a number of occasions this term, including against Sheffield United, whilst Toby Alderweireld finds himself on the bench.

Juan Foyth, on the other hand, has been used as a right-back, but against the Blades, he too was sat on the bench – he came on as a second-half substitute.