Eric Dier has lamented the Tottenham team for putting themselves in a position where they have to struggle for results even when looking home and dry. Leading 3-1 at Southampton on Saturday with 16 minutes remaining after Ivan Perisic had added to goals from Pedro Porro and Harry Kane, Spurs threw away their two-goal cushion as the hosts netted a stoppage-time penalty to salvage a 3-3 draw.
A result that saw the team miss out on the opportunity to move into third place going into the international break, head coach Antonio Conte hit out at his players in an explosive post-match press conference one hour after the full-time whistle. At a time when the defender was unaware of what the Italian was saying as he spoke to the media outside St Mary's, Dier also delivered his own honest assessment of the draw after shipping "sloppy goals".
“Really sloppy goals, all three of them. At 3-1 we should really control the ball better. Just sloppy, sloppy goals," admitted the England international. "Not just the goal itself but all the lead-up to each goal is sloppy.
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“At 3-1, we put ourselves in a position like we did last week [in the 3-1 win over Nottingham Forest]. Last week we we were lucky, Fraser [Forster] saved the penalty and we saw it out after that. But we put ourselves in a position where we have to struggle for results every time from leading in a comfortable position."
So are Spurs' struggles to see out games just down to a lack of concentration?
“I don’t think it’s a lack of concentration… although maybe it is, because it’s sloppiness," said Dier. “I don’t know what you can put it down to.
“We put ourselves in this position in the games where it’s like we want to make it difficult for ourselves. We need to be better at controlling the game when we’re in the lead, especially a two-goal lead, just controlling the ball better.
“I think they were there for the taking. We could have created so many more chances with the way they set up. Our first goal, I think we could have created 20 chances like that if we were better."
The draw on the south coast was yet another bad away day experience for the team having previously lost at struggling Wolves and Leicester City in the Premier League over the past month. Games where Tottenham should have come away with a result, Dier knows that the Lilywhites are going to struggle unless they put an end their woes on the road.
“Yeah of course. These are the games you need to win to put yourself in a good position to try to fight for top four," he explained. "It’s the last thing we’ve got for us and we’ve got to win these games if we want to be fighting for that. If we don’t win games like this, then we’re going to struggle."
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