Eric Dier reveals what he wants Tottenham to improve on moving forward

Tottenham Hotspur defender Eric Dier says his team must keep improving, and earmarked their use of possession as a key area to work upon if they want to compete at the very top. Spurs have enjoyed an unbeaten start to the Premier League campaign, bringing in eleven points from their opening five games. Those results […]

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Tottenham Hotspur defender Eric Dier says his team must keep improving, and earmarked their use of possession as a key area to work upon if they want to compete at the very top.

Spurs have enjoyed an unbeaten start to the Premier League campaign, bringing in eleven points from their opening five games. Those results include two clean sheets, draws away to London rivals Chelsea and West Ham, and a 4-1 rout against Southampton.

It’s safe to say that there have been plenty of positives to take away from the early stages of this season, but there’s certainly room for improvement too.

In the four games so far, Spurs have had the greater possession in just two – the opener against Southampton, with 57.5% of the possession (PremierLeague.com) and the 1-1 draw with West Ham (62%).

While the results have been solid, those stats are a little concerning in terms of Tottenham’s quality on the ball.

For example, Spurs were dominated by Chelsea, coming away with just 36.3% of the possession (PremierLeague.com). It’s against the top teams where controlling the ball and dictating the flow of the game becomes crucial.

This is something that Eric Dier has recognised, and speaking to the Evening Standard, the Spurs defender said this must be an area for improvement moving forward.

He said: “Playing in transition is a strong part of our game. We know we’re very well organised. We can defend well, we’re very compact and then in transition we have players with great characteristics to play in transition.

“But I think if we want to be a really top team then we have to play in many different ways, not only in transition but in possession as well. We can create many ways to be effective.

“I just think we can perform better, especially in possession. We can be better, we can create more chances, we can be more effective with the ball, we can keep possession better when we need to. We can do all of those things better.

It’s not all doom and gloom though, as Dier explained: “We’re still playing well, getting wins. I just think we can play a lot better than what we have been.”

Spurs Web Opinion

There’s definitely no need to panic about some of the more negative aspects of Tottenham’s performances so far this season. It’s early days, Spurs are still getting the results needed, and you get the feeling there’s plenty more to come from the players.

Antonio Conte clearly sets his team up to focus on counter-attacking football, and possession isn’t the be-all and end-all when it comes to winning games.

Nevertheless, it would make for far more comfortable viewing if Spurs could start dominating the games and the use of possession thus far has definitely been the weakest element of Tottenham’s game.

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