‘Behind Eric Dier’ – Conte opens up on Joe Rodon’s lack of game time

Antonio Conte has confirmed that he sees Joe Rodon as a central defender in a back three, meaning he is currently behind Eric Dier in the pecking order. 

This comes after a report from Alasdair Gold revealed Conte had told Rodon privately that he would be competing with Dier for the central role.

Rodon was seen arriving at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last night for the match against Brentford, but the Welshman missed out on the matchday squad.

Conte has seemingly settled on Eric Dier, Ben Davies, Emerson Royal and Sergio Reguilon in his first-choice defence, with Japhet Tanganga and Davinson Sanchez filling in for the injured Cristian Romero.

Unfortunately, this has left little room for Rodon to pick up minutes under the Italian, with his only start coming against NS Mura, and even then he was withdrawn before the hour mark.

Conte added that Rodon has shown hard work and a desire to improve despite his lack of minutes on the pitch so far.

He said (Football London): “The first thing that I’m trying to do – and am doing – is try to find the right position for every player., and in every position is to have another player.

“For in the characteristic in my idea, I see Joe behind Eric Dier in the central position. For sure this position is a singular position. If you’re a central defender on the right or the left, you can have more options to play.

“To stay behind the central defender, you have only one option but Joe is a player who has showed me really, really great commitment, a will and desire to learn and improve himself.

“I think this is good. It’s a really good example for the other players. He’s a silent player that works and works because he knows that he wants to improve. I’m satisfied for the improvement that I’m seeing in the training sessions about him.”

Spurs Web Opinion:

I expect Rodon to go out on loan in January if his minutes do not improve. The frustrating thing about being Dier’s back-up for that one central position is that Dier will probably play most games, limiting Rodon to the bench at best. I want to see him in the RCB role.

Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Related Topics

Have something to tell us about this article? Let us know