Eric Dier on Rangers: “It was a good test - you want that”
Mon 25 July 2022, 17:15|
Tottenham Hotspur
Eric Dier knew as he stepped off the team coach that we were in for a testing afternoon at Ibrox - and welcomed that competitive edge in our pre-season encounter against Rangers on Saturday.
The fixture for the Walter Tull Memorial Cup attracted over 43,000 to the famous old venue in Glasgow – including, typically, a packed away section - as a quickfire double from Harry Kane at the start of the second half secured a 2-1 victory after we’d created a host of chances in the first half, yet found ourselves 1-0 down at the break.
“We knew it was going to be a difficult game and not much of a friendly,” reflected Eric at Ibrox. “You know when you are getting booed off the bus, it’s not going to be a friendly! It’s really nice to get the chance to come and play here. I’ve never played here before and myself and a lot of the boys were excited to come and play at such an historic ground.
“It was a good test for us, and you want that. You don’t want to go into the season without having felt that competitive edge. We always have it. We have it in training, we have it in friendlies. You want that going into the season. The games in Korea as well, they were competitive, and I’m sure Roma will be the same.”
You don’t want to go into the season without having felt that competitive edge
We take on Roma in our final pre-season match for the I-Tech Cup in Israel on Saturday (7.15pm) – exclusively live on SPURSPLAY.
Meanwhile, five players made their Club debuts off the bench in the second half at Ibrox - Yves Bissouma, Fraser Forster, Clement Longlet, Ivan Perisic and Djed Spencer. They were joined by Richarlison, so all six of our summer recruits were on show against the SPL giants.
“All the new boys are settling in really well, their transition has been pretty seamless,” added Eric, now preparing for his ninth season having joined us back in 2014. “It’s fantastic to build more depth into the squad. We needed that, we needed a more competitive squad to feel that competitiveness every day in training. That’s great for us and that will lift everyone as individuals and lift the team as well.”
