Eric Dier has conveyed that Cristian Romero is a perfect example of how Antonio Conte wants his centre-backs to play for Tottenham Hotspur.
23-year-old Cristian Romero put in another eye-catching performance in Sunday’s 3-1 win against West Ham United.(image: Getty images)
Speaking in an open interview, Dier has revealed how Romero perfectly embodies what Conte wants his centre-backs to do at Tottenham.
“That is what the manager wants in the centre-backs, especially on the sides, but from all three of us he wants us to break the lines and be aggressive,” he said.
“We are playing a back five but it is rarely a back five, someone is always trying to break the lines for us to be more proactive and more aggressive and allow us to press up the pitch. I think that Cuti, one of his best qualities is that he is very aggressive and he reads the game very well and the same for Ben [Davies] as well.”
Romero has emerged as the organiser of Conte’s defensive line. (Getty Images)
Romero is a very quick and aggressive centre-back who has thrived playing in intense, man-orientated defensive systems ‘aggressively’ which extends to the way he presses and challenges for the ball while creating numerical superiorities higher up the pitch as well.
Due to his aggressive style of play, he’s often tasked with directly marking an opposition striker and then uses his physicality, speed and reading of the game to nullify his opponents.
Not to mention, Romero even pushes up at times to offer an option in the attack, which goes in line with his proactive style of play. That being said, there is still a lot of room for improvement in his game which is visible by the number of yellow cards he has racked up so far.