Thu 25 February 2021, 13:18
Tottenham HotspurEric Dier knows Dele better than most - and feels he’s getting back to his best.
That was certainly the conclusion after Dele’s fine performance in our 4-0 win against Wolfsberger AC in the UEFA Europa League on Wednesday night.
The attacking midfielder opened the scoring with a brilliant overhead kick on 10 minutes and then provided assists for Carlos Vinicius and Gareth Bale in the second half. ‘Vini’ scored again late on for 4-0 on the night, and a final 8-1 scoreline on aggregate against the Austrians as we moved into the last 16 of the competition.
It’s been a tough campaign for Dele, most recently out for a month with a tendon problem.
“That’s Dele!” said Eric, close friends and together at Spurs for almost six years. “He creates those moments - he’s got a whole reel of them.
“I’m so happy for him. He’s gone through a difficult period and come out of it fighting. He can be proud of that. All those close to him never forgot the quality he has and he’s showing it. He’s getting back to his best and today he had two assists and a fantastic goal, and I think the good thing is he can still do better than that.”
Jose was keen to point out that it was Dele’s performance - not just his spectacular goal - that counted most.
“Dele deserves the headlines, but I would say headlines because of the globality of the performance, not just because of an amazing goal,” he told us. “An amazing goal, you can score, but a performance, everything he did he did well, and he did for the team, and that’s what makes me very happy.
“In this moment, when we are going to play every three days, to have Dele back at this level is amazing. But I wouldn't say Dele only. Winks, Sissoko, just to give two more examples, to have them back to this level, we need more than ever.”
