Chris Sutton has blasted Eric Dier for claiming that Ange Postecoglou does not do much tactical work in training, with the former Celtic striker insisting that it is simply a case of sour grapes from the former Tottenham man.
In an interview with Gary Neville on The Overlap last week, Dier spoke about his time at Tottenham and about his experience of working under the likes of Mauricio Pochettino, Jose Mourinho, Antonio Conte and Postecoglou.
The centre-back was asked to contrast their approaches and while he was quite complimentary of the current Spurs boss and admitted that he enjoyed working with him, he revealed that the Australian does not focus too much on tactical work leading up to matches.
The 30-year-old said about the Tottenham head coach: “Interestingly, he really doesn’t do any tactical work (in training). What he does is, every single training drill from Monday to Friday is drawn up to represent the way that he wants to play.
“Conte, I could do it blind, but that was a lot of tactical work Monday to Friday, a lot of ten versus zero, walkthroughs. You were so well drilled, it would be ingrained in you.”
When those comments were put to Postecoglou a couple of days ago, the 58-year-old suggested that it depends on how one defines ‘tactics’, insisting all training drills have a tactical core to them since they are designed to perfect the team’s style of play (Sky Sports).
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Eric Dier comes under fire for Postecoglou comments
Sutton has now hit out at Dier for his comments, suggesting that the centre-back has a grudge against the Tottenham boss for not playing him.
The former Celtic striker said on It’s All Kicking Off about the centre-back’s statement: “I think stuff like that is called sour grapes. So how then Eric have the team changed from parking three buses under the last three managers to this attacking brand of football?
“It’s just happened overnight, has it Eric? They’ve just magicked it up. That’s nothing to do with Ange Postecoglou? Dear me.”
Spurs Web Opinion
As soon as I saw Dier’s statement, I knew it would be quoted out of context by some media outlets and that has proven to be the case. In reality, the centre-back was quite complimentary of Postecoglou’s methods and did not intend the tactical work claim as a criticism of the Australian.
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