Mauricio Pochettino says if Tottenham are to win trophies, they need players focused on the team’s goals and not individual targets.
Tottenham Hotspur plan to “shut up” their critics after becoming the first Premier League club not to sign a player during a summer window, Eric Dier has said.
Speaking after Spurs began the season with a 2-1 win at Newcastle on Saturday, Dier argued that few rivals had succeeded in strengthening their teams.
“It’s a great challenge for us to shut everyone up, really,” he said. “We’re going to enjoy that challenge. We’ve got a fantastic squad here, fantastic players throughout the team in every position.
“To strengthen it is not easy as well. You can look at all the other teams around us — they might have signed players, but not many of those players that they’ve signed are better than the players they’ve already got.
“Obviously there are signings that have been made which are players of high quality, but in many cases I don’t believe that they’ve signed players that are better than they already have.”
England international Dier stressed that Spurs had “a fantastic group” that had been challenging for honours in the past three seasons.
“We all really enjoy training together, playing together, being with each other,” he added. “The manager said it before — we’re in a fight but we’re having to use different tools.
“We’ve known that for the last three years and we have to try and compensate for what other clubs can do in different ways, with our attitude, our work ethic, our desire.”
Dier was part of the England squad that reached the World Cup semifinals, but said he would only pat himself on the back when he had a winner’s medal.
“Hugo [Lloris] can be a changed man because Hugo won it,” he said. “Everyone else, we’re in the same boat. If you don’t win it you could get knocked out in the first round or lose in the final, it doesn’t matter.
“Everyone else, back here at Tottenham we got to the [FA Cup] semifinal last year but we need to go that one step further and win.”
Dier praised Spurs captain Lloris as “one of the best goalkeepers in the world, first and foremost.”
“He’s someone that everyone in the squad looks up to — even more now,” he said. “We look up to the quality he brings, the work ethic he brings, the attitude he brings. His style is a quiet style, but silence is sometimes deadly.”
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