Eric Dier has stated that Tottenham failed to nullify the "controlled chaos" Leeds United created in the first half at Elland Road on Saturday afternoon.
Falling behind after only 13 minutes with Stuart Dallas firing high into the net from point-blank range after Hugo Lloris had to stop Sergio Reguilon from putting the ball through his own net, Patrick Bamford then nipped ahead of Dier to fire Leeds back into the lead shortly before half-time after Son Heung-min had earlier restored parity.
The hosts had plenty of chances to wrap up the win in the second half but it wasn't until six minutes before the final whistle when they gave themselves a two-goal cushion after Rodrigo slotted home with Spurs' backline all over the place.
Always going to be a tough game in West Yorkshire with Leeds not losing at home to any of the big six before Spurs' trip north, Dier opened up on what it's actually like to come up against Marcelo Bielsa's men and what Spurs failed to do.
“I thought Leeds were the better side first half, they make things very difficult,” he told Spurs TV when reflecting on the defeat.
“They are very aggressive, they create controlled chaos from their point of view and we didn’t control that so well ourselves in the first half.
“We let ourselves get into their game a bit too much and then got back into it, but conceded again – poor goals we conceded. I think we should be going in 2-2 with Harry's goal.
“Second half we did better, especially for the first 30 minutes, we had a bit more control of the game but we didn’t create enough chances.”
Missing an opportunity to close on the top-four with Leicester City falling to a shock defeat the previous night, Tottenham are currently seven points off the Foxes in fourth with only three games left.
While it was never in their hands due to their poor results as they looked to qualify for the Champions League after a year away, Dier has now stressed the importance of winning the final three games before the 2020/21 season draws to a close.
“We needed to win all four really and now we’ve lost, it makes it a lot more difficult,” he added. “We’ve just got to win as many games as we can until the end of the season and see where that leaves us.
“It’s never been in our hands, it’s still not, so we have to focus on ourselves and for many reasons we need to try to improve as a team, give everything and try to win the last three games.”
Tottenham return to action on Sunday with Wolves travelling to N17, before then facing Aston Villa and Leicester City in their final two league fixtures.
