Monaco receive fitness blow as World Cup-winner ruled out of Tottenham test
Eric Dier was supposed to face his old club Tottenham next week in the Champions League, but he won’t be the only missing Monaco star.
It is fair to say that Eric Dier was not a very popular figure among Spurs fans in his final few years at the North London club.
However, the defender was valued very highly by every single manager he had at the club, being a regular in the starting eleven under Mauricio Pochettino, Jose Mourinho, Nuno Espirito Santo and Antonio Conte.
The centre-back, who joined Moncao on a free transfer in the summer after his Bayern Munich contract ran out, is already emerging as a pillar of the Ligue 1 side.
Eric Dier is using his Tottenham experience to help lead Monaco
European football expert Andy Brassell has now explained that the former Tottenham man’s leadership qualities are having a real impact on the young players at the Ligue 1 side.
Brassell explained that, along with Dier’s command of Portuguese, his fluency in Spanish, which he picked up from his interactions with his Argentine teammates at Spurs, is coming in very handy for the Englishman.
Brassel told talkSPORT: “The advice that he’s (Paul Pogba) given younger players, lots of them have talked about it and said it’s been really valuable to them. In that sense, he’s kind of on a bit of a level with Eric Dier, because that’s exactly why they brought Dier in, not just to play all the time, but he’s wearing the captain’s armband. He’s taking the pen against Manchester City.
“Look, he’s a good set-piece taker, we know that. But the fact that Dier has gone from arriving to leader like that, and of course, he’s a very different personality from Paul Pogba. They’re very different. But in a dressing room and at a club, which is very multinational, which has a very different atmosphere to a lot of other clubs, there’s not the same intense pressure that you would get at a Marseille or a PSG or a club like that.
“There are really, really high standards, of course, but you speak to people who played for Monaco, and they talk about the motivation having to come from within. At the same time, it’s like somewhere where people from, talent from all different cultures, of different ages, different languages, all meet.
“The fact that Pogba is garrulous and multilingual obviously makes him a potential hub of that. On the other hand, Eric Dier, who’s English, also grew up in Portugal, speaks Portuguese, so he’s able to communicate with the Brazilians. As he showed on Mexican TV last month, he speaks excellent Spanish, and he learned it off the Argentinians at Spurs, he said on television. So even though Dier’s significantly quieter, more softly spoken than Pogba, he’s just as much of a leader.”
Monaco will be without Eric Dier and Paul Pogba against Spurs
Dier was a fantastic servant for Spurs, making 365 appearances for the Lilywhites over his decade-long spell. Tottenham were originally set for a reunion with their former defender, as their next Champions League assignment is a trip to Monaco on October 22.
Unfortunately, Dier will miss the game against Spurs through injury after picking up a muscle injury during training.
As Brassel mentions, Dier was the hero for Monaco as they salvaged a point against Manchester City earlier this month and he will be a major miss for the French side.
Monaco will also be without Paul Pogba who was expected to make his two-year comeback last week, but that return has now been postponed for another two weeks.
AS Monaco CEO Thiago Scuro said in a press conference: “We expected him to be available for the next match. That is no longer the case. Paul had a small problem last week that will cost us at least two more weeks.
“It is the first negative episode that we have had since we started the process with him. Given how long he has been out of activity, it can happen.
“It isn’t the end of the world; we have just postponed for two weeks to prepare him better. We hope to have him available soon.”
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