Does this Tottenham midfielder deserve to start for England at the Euros?

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After receiving his football education abroad with Sporting Lisbon, Eric Dier completed his move back to England with Tottenham before the 2014/15 season for a small fee of around £4 million.

Since announcing himself with a dramatic late winner against West Ham, Dier has gone from strength to strength, making his England debut against Spain in November of 2015.

Little did anyone expect that the youngster who moved to England primarily as a defender, would excel in a position further forward, to the extent that he could potentially be England’s starting centre midfielder on 11^th June.

Throughout Dier’s first season, he was deployed as mainly a rotational centre half and right back, as Tottenham shipped many goals despite finishing 5^th.

However, since the outset of this season, Dier has been played as a centre defensive midfielder, cementing his place in the team ahead of many academy graduates, including Bentaleb and Mason, both of whom had been highly praised for their performances in the previous campaign.

Not only has he been occupied this position throughout the season, Dier has performed outstandingly, becoming a vital component in Tottenham’s title charge serving two main functions.

Firstly, he allows the other more creative players ahead of him to play further forward. Dier is also very effective at recycling possession forward to players with the ability to influence the score line, whether that be the full backs, or the 3 players behind the striker.

Despite clearly being the holding midfielder of the two in Pochettino’s preferred double pivot, Dier has also contributed a few goals this season, most notably a long range strike against Manchester City at White Hart Lane.

Without the defensive nous and simplicity in Dier’s play in the double pivot, players such as Alli, Dembele, and Eriksen’s creativity and attacking contributions would have suffered massively.

In addition to acting as the foil in Tottenham’s midfield, Dier is also central to Tottenham’s improved defensive record. Alongside summer signing Alderweireld, Dier is integral to the Premier League’s best defensive unit.

Having been a defender for his entire football career prior to this season, his tackling, intercepting and his ability to read danger are all evident in his displays this season, further improving the solidity this season’s settled back four brings.

At times this season, Dier has spent games almost playing as deep as a 3^rd centre half, just to make sure Tottenham see out games, or to counter attack certain threats, as seen in the Watford away game, as Dier dropped deeper to negate the threat posed by Deeney and Ighalo.

As opposed to Bentaleb, Mason and Carroll, the ability for Dier to offer such a different defensive dimension to the CDM role, has meant that he has propelled himself into the starting role and has never looked back.

Also, Dier is a lot less error prone than his team mates who play a similar role, as Bentaleb especially has been criticised for trying to over complicate the way he plays, when simplicity tends to breed effectiveness in the central midfield role.

Looking forward to the summer, Dier ticks all the boxes for a manager like Roy Hodgson. Dier will carry out his job with minimal fuss as shown by his full debut against France at Wembley in 2015, offering the England team that extra layer of defensive solidity, and freeing players such as his Tottenham teammate Alli, Barkley and Sterling to make things happen in the final third.

Given his consistency over the season, Dier has surely pushed himself right into contention alongside England’s favoured centre defensive midfielders over recent years, Henderson, Milner and Wilshere.

Seeing as injuries have held back Wilshere and to a certain extent Henderson this year, and with Milner being 34 come the next World Cup, Hodgson could do a lot worse than give Dier tournament experience in the upcoming Euro’s.

On the back of an impressive season, one that would have been far beyond any expectations he had for himself in pre-season, many would actually be more surprised by Dier’s exclusion from the first starting line up of this summer, than if he were to start against Russia on the 11^th June.

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