http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football...transformed-into-englands-sergio-busquets-by/
Eric Dier has beeen transformed into England's Sergio Busquets by Mauricio Pochettino
Eric Dier grew up idolising Roy Keane, but it is a Spain World Cup-winner and not the former Manchester United captain who Tottenham Hotspur manager Mauricio Pochettino has used to help the player’s transformation from utility player to England’s midfield linchpin.
Pochettino likes to use visual aids to help his players understand what he wants them to do or how they can improve.
In the case of Dier, the leading protagonist in Pochettino’s Spurs film club is often a certain Sergio Busquets and the similarities between the pair have certainly been evident in England’s performances at Euro 2016.
Dier is not solely viewed as a defensive shield at Tottenham and it has become evident that he is much more than a fifth defender who happens to play higher up the pitch for England.
Just as Busquets does for Barcelona and Spain, Dier is relied upon to be one the first players to build up the attack from his position at the base of the midfield for both club and country. He put over two wonderful passes for Daniel Sturridge against Slovakia, but the striker failed to convert either chance.
Dier has studied Busquets delivering numerous passes of similar quality for Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar on his iPad on to which Pochettino's team of analysts download videos for his players to watch and learn from.
As well as working hard on the defensive side of his game, Dier will also join attacking midfielder and close friend Dele Alli in serving up balls for the strikers in training as a way of practising his range of passing.
Like so much of the work that goes on at Spurs, this is not a random exercise of players floating ‘Hollywood’ passes to be smashed into the net. Dier will take up particular angles and match positions before trying to pick out Harry Kane and co.
So it should not be a shock that Dier, rather than captain Wayne Rooney, has completed more successful passes than any other England player at the Euros.
Dier found his target 210 times in England’s three group games while Rooney completed 135 successful passes and Gary Cahill 134. The 22-year-old’s pass completion rate is 89 per cent and only bettered by Chris Smalling (91 per cent) in Hodgson’s squad.
The development of Dier into Tottenham and England’s very own Busquets has been rapid, as the former Sporting Lisbon trainee was still to be tested in the position this time last year.
Having arrived at Spurs as predominantly a centre-back in the summer of 2014, Dier spent most of his first season at White Hart Lane at right-back where he developed the endurance and ability to run long distances that now allows him regularly to cover 12 kilometres in a game.
It was in Tottenham’s first game of last year’s pre-season, a behind closed doors friendly, that Pochettino played Dier as a central defender for one half and a central midfielder in the other.
From that point, Dier was pretty much converted and Pochettino had once again worked by the philosophy of solving a problem in his team from within and taking a risk, rather than spending money.
It is no surprise to the Tottenham staff that Dier has emerged as England’s man of the tournament so far. Kane and Alli may have grabbed most of the headlines this season, but Dier was very much the unsung hero.
He has made more interceptions (seven) and taken more shots (nine) than any of his England team-mates, scoring one of his side’s three goals of the group stage with a superb free-kick against Russia.
It was noteworthy that Dier was among a small group of players, which included Raheem Sterling, Adam Lallana and Jack Wheelchair, who stayed behind after Thursday’s open training session to practise their free-kicks in preparation for Monday's last 16 match against Iceland. He scored on more than one occasion and has earned the nickname ‘Becks’ among some members of the camp.
Dier signed a new five-year Tottenham contract last September, but the club may well need to reward him with another pay rise to delay Bayern Munich and Manchester United from stepping up their interest.
It cannot be a coincidence that England’s most rounded player is also the only member of Hodgson’s 23-man squad to have played abroad.
Aged seven, Dier emigrated with his parents and five siblings from England to Portugal, partly because his mother, Louise, had got a job in hospitality for Euro 2004. After moving to Lisbon, Dier was scouted and taken into Sporting’s youth setup. He stayed at the club when his parents returned to England in 2010.
It is in England where Dier has faced his biggest tests, however, first during an 18-month loan spell at Everton, during which time he admitted to suffering from extreme culture shock, and then at Spurs when the pace of the Premier League caught up with him a few months into his first season.
England felt the effects of Dier’s fatigue as he asked for permission to sit out of the Under-21 games against Portugal and France in November 2014 to focus on his fitness, but the decision has paid long-term dividends for club and country.
Having switched to midfield, Dier made more appearances than any other Tottenham player in 2015-16 and is far too crucial for Hodgson even to consider resting him. Busquets may be the master, but Pochettino’s film club student has already taken centre stage for England.