Tottenham have had an incredible season and two midfielders have shown how important they can be for the side. While there were doubts about the future of Mousa Dembele at the club, his performances have ensured that he becomes one of the first names in the team sheet every week.
The story of Eric Dier is something else as he started the season as a centre-back but was eventually shifted into a defensive midfielder’s role by Mauricio Pochettino and he has thrived higher up the pitch.
Be it starting attacks, running at the defence or even breaking up play, the duo have been incredible this season but just which player has had a better season? We use Squawka.com and compare the Premier League campaigns of both the players to come to a conclusion.
England vs. Belgium: The battle of the midfielders
We would be looking at the Premier League stats of the two players and since they have not played the same number of games, the best way to check out their stats would be comparing the per 90 minutes metrics.
Dembele, 28, has played six fewer Premier League games but he is the player who is the better passer amongst them with a 90% pass completion rate compared to Dier’s 82%. Dembele also comes in with a greater number of key passes per 90 minutes with 1.08 per 90 compared to Eric Dier’s 0.45 per 90.
This is expected since Dembele plays a more attacking game compared to Dier. When we break it down to the defensive aspects of the game, it is Mousa, surprisingly who comes in with a greater number of successful tackles as well.
Dembele completes 3.48 tackles per 90 while Dier only comes in with 1.65 per 90. One of the more staggering stats between the duo is regarding the successful take ons. Beating a man is one of the more important things in today’s game and Dembele seems to excel in this bit.
He has a 92.1% success rate in take ons while Dier only has a 53.8% success rate. The Englishman though is better, only slightly, in the air with a success rate of 56.2% in aerial duels compared to Dembele’s 53.5%.
In terms of interceptions, Dembele is on par with his English counterpart with 2.3 interceptions every 90 minutes. However, the Englishman does provide a greater number of blocks with 0.57 per 90 compared to 0.33 by Dembele.
Mousa might have been one of the players who was sure to leave the club at the start of the season but he really has picked up his socks and really done some good work for Spurs. He might not end up with the Premier League title at the end of the season but he does win the battle between Dier and himself.
