Paul Robinson claims Spurs star looks out of sorts

Former Tottenham goalkeeper Paul Robinson has criticised Eric Dier for his display against Olympiacos on Tuesday.

Jose Mourinho decided to start with a midfield pairing of Dier and Harry Winks, behind the front four of Harry Kane, Lucas Moura, Dele Alli and Son Heung-min; the same front six that performed admirably against West Ham on Saturday.

However, things didn’t go according to his plans with Tottenham starting the game poorly and found themselves two goals down within the first 20 minutes of the match.

The Portuguese manager was forced into an early tactical change bringing Dier off for Christian Eriksen and the move seemed to help the home side get more control of the game as they eventually ran out 4-2 winners.

Robinson singled out Dier for his poor showing in the game and insisted that the 25-year-old looked rusty and off the pace.

Speaking to Football Insider, the former Spurs No.1 said, “He quickly took Eric Dier off, he’s been out of the team for a while, he’s come back in at centre-half.

“He’s not a centre-half, in my opinion, he’s a holding midfielder but because he’s not played for a while, played the game at the weekend and looked all out of sorts in midweek.

“He didn’t look like he was ready for the game, he was off the pace and the game passed him by.”

Spurs Web Opinion

The rustiness we saw from Dier is to be expected given the injury and illness issues he has had for the past year and the lack of consistent football. While the 25-year-old may not be everybody’s cup of tea, he screens the back four better than the likes of Winks, Sissoko and Ndombele, even if he is not as good on the ball.

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