Eric Dier still ‘one of the ones’ for me, insists Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho

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Dan Kilpatrick @Dan_KP9 February 2021

Jose Mourinho insists Eric Dier retains his trust but admitted the centre-half has suffered a dip in confidence following a series of high-profile mistakes.

Mourinho has aimed to build his Tottenham defence around Dier, who has started 19 of their 22 league games this season, but the England international was left out of the recent matches against Brighton and West Brom following costly errors in defeats to Liverpool and Chelsea.

The Spurs manager also criticised the "individual quality" of Dier and Davinson Sanchez after the pair were both at fault for Fulham's equaliser in the frustrating draw with the Cottagers last month.

But Mourinho says Dier remains "one of the ones" – meaning one of his most trusted lieutenants – and says crises of confidence are a natural part of being a player.

"I believe that players, they have moments. They can be very good, they can be strong personalities, they can be experienced, they can cope with a mistake but in the end players are players, and men," Mourinho said.

"And they feel more than anyone else these little moments of confidence, of crisis.

"You can see that in the striker that doesn’t score goals, in the goalkeeper that makes mistakes and accumulates another one after, in defenders.

"You can see that in the midfielder that instead of showing himself all the time, he is hiding behind some shadows on the pitch because he is not so confident to get the ball. But these are moments.

"I have to admit that recently, our team makes little important mistakes that are punished in terms of our results.

"And Eric was there, he was one of them. They feel it. And I believe confidence, that drops a little bit.

"But great personality, a team guy, as happy as we were when we won on Sunday [against West Brom]. A guy that loves it here, a guy that is loved by the teammates, a guy that I trust, a guy that I consider one of the ones.

"And he will be back to normality and his normality of course is to play and be solid."

With Toby Alderweireld likely to be rested, Mourinho's faith in Dier will be tested by whether he returns to the side for Wednesday's FA Cup fifth-round at Everton, with Joe Rodon and Sanchez also available.

Back in September, Mourinho admitted he had "committed a crime" by playing Dier twice in 48 hours against Newcastle and Chelsea – during a backlog of matches due to Spurs' Europa League qualifying commitments – but insisted he was not suffering from overexertion.

"I don’t think he is paying the price of that," Mourinho said. "That was very early in the season and of course it was a crime. But after that there was not any problem."

Meanwhile, Mourinho has reminded Harry Kane that Spurs are just one match from winning a trophy.

Kane has always made plain his desire to win team accolades and said last year he would not stay at the club "for the sake of it" if Spurs were no longer progressing.

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Their stuttering form has continued this season but they can end a 13-year wait for silverware by beating Saturday's opponents Man City in the EFL Cup final on April 25.

"To win a trophy, he just needs to win one game," Mourinho said.

"I know that it is a big, difficult game. I know that it is against probably the team that is going to win the Premier League this year, so I think it is a very difficult final that we will have to play. But to win a trophy, we just need to win a match."

Pushed on how long Kane could be expected to wait for Spurs to finally win silverware if they do not beat City, Mourinho said: "I think to wait is not the right way to describe it. It's to fight for it, is to fight for it. But it’s something very personal that I think he is the right guy to have a conversation with you about it."

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