Dier’s frustration at Foster’s time wasting

Eric Dier has spoke of his frustration at the fact that it took referee Mike Jones until the 81st minute to book West Bromwich Albion goalkeeper Ben Foster for time-wasting during Saturday’s 1-1 draw despite him doing it from early on in the game.

Manager-less West Brom took a fourth-minute lead and Foster seemed intent on slowing the game down from that moment on, holding the ball in his hands for as long as possible and even nipping behind his net to poke the ball away from a ball boy in the first half.

Jones eventually showed Foster a yellow card in the final 10 minutes but Dier feels he should have been punished much earlier – and according to an article for Yahoo Sports he reports the referee even admitted to Spurs’ players that he was nervous of penalising the visiting ‘keeper for his actions.

“If you were to watch the game again and just add up from the first minute the amount of time that was wasted from their goalkeeper, I think you’d find quite a big number,” said Dier.
“It’s confusing that you wait until the 80th minute to penalise it when it’s been happening from the first minute. It’s something I really don’t understand, it doesn’t make sense.

Dier added “He said that he doesn’t want to be the referee that blows the whistle for someone holding the ball longer than six seconds, because no-one does. But if someone doesn’t do it then the goalkeeper’s going to end up holding the ball for 30 seconds, 45 seconds.

Dier continued: “I think it’s [meant to be] six seconds and sometimes it was a lot longer than 20 seconds, for sure – I guarantee you.
“I think it helps the ref to stop it early doors with warnings, yellow cards. But it makes no sense for us if it’s [happening] in the 20th minute [to wait] until the 80th minute, because by then it’s too late.”

The article adds that Hugo Lloris was also frustrated at his opposite numbers antics. Asked whether time-wasting is common practice for goalkeepers, the our captain replied: “No, not after 10 minutes of the game.
“It’s part of the game but it belongs to the referee to take the right decision at the right moment and to make the players understand that they cannot do that all the game.

Lloris added “If you give a yellow card after 35 minutes he will not do it again. If the referee says nothing, obviously the keeper will keep doing it. But this is nothing in the game. I prefer to talk about our side and the way we played. It was not enough.”

The articles continues adding that we were facing a home defeat and the fans were quiet for long periods until Harry Kane’s 74th-minute equaliser but adds that Dier took little joy from the comeback and the result.
“Drawing’s never positive, especially at home, against anyone,” he said. “We want to win every game so drawing’s never positive. We’re happy we managed to at least take a point after being 1-0 down but we wanted to win, of course.

Dier added “Against certain teams, they come and they make it really difficult. West Brom were pretty much within their penalty area, 10 players. It’s hard to break down.
“In terms of the atmosphere, I think it’s something that’s really 50/50. We have to entertain and do our part and the fans have to do their part.”

Manchester City’s win at Huddersfield on Sunday put them 13 points ahead of Poch’s men, but the article adds that Dier is not ready to throw in the towel just yet,
“There’s so far to go,” he said. “We’re starting to get into the really busy period around Christmas, which is really key. If we want any chance we have to have a great festive period. I think only after the festive period, maybe at the end of January, that’s where you have a clearer idea of where everyone is”

It is true we didn’t create much on Saturday and we must learn quickly how to play against sides clearly set against us playing. However it was clear from the start that they had a game plan and it worked. Foster was instructed to frustrate and referees need to stamp this sort of blatant cheating out. We should be beating the likes of West Brom but Saturday was made that bit more difficult by Fosters blatant cheating.

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