It's fair to say Eric Dier has been on the fringes of the first-team at Tottenham this season.
The England international has seen his game-time rather limited, making just 22 appearances across all competitions. The last few weeks in particular have perfectly captured what has been a stuttering campaign, either not being named in the squad at all, featuring on the bench, or just coming on as a substitute.
But against Wolves on Sunday afternoon, Jose Mourinho gave him the perfect opportunity to start and complete the full 90 minutes. And following the game, fans of the north London side took to Twitter to criticise his performance.
Whilst stats can certainly be misleading, Dier actually enjoyed a pretty impressive game as a centre-back at the weekend.
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As per Sofascore, he won an impressive ten of his 13 total duels, including winning all six that were contested on the ground. And he was a defensive monster in other areas too, making a team-high six tackles, and making four clearances too (only behind Japhet Tanganga who had five).
Dier kept things ticking from the back, and his experience as a midfielder helped no doubt with his passing accuracy being at 90%. And speaking after the match, Mourinho himself lauded the powerhouse for his performance, and explained the reasoning behind why he opted to use him in central defence.
"I think Eric played very well. The thinking was simple, the thinking was Davinson and Tanganga are the two fastest central defenders that we have. Eric is the one who by nature is a midfield player so playing in the middle between those centre backs is the one who is normally more comfortable to step up, he's more comfortable with reading the game and passing."
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Whilst the score-line may not have reflected it, Dier himself arguably produced a fine personal performance - his 6.8 match rating as per Sofascore was comfortably better than his partners in crime, Davinson Sanchez and Tanganga.
So even despite Spurs fans criticising him, Mourinho would do well to ignore their anger and instead look at things objectively. Another start in the Premier League beckons.
Meanwhile, this Tottenham ace endured a nightmare display against Wolves.