Eric Dier believes he can become Tottenham’s answer to Philipp Lahm or Javier Mascherano by becoming an expert in many different roles.

Dier started life at Spurs as a centre-back, but also played at right-back in 2014-15, his first season at the club.

Last term, Dier became a key man for Tottenham in a holding midfield role, which also earned him a place in the England team. With the arrival of Victor Wanyama, however, and the injury to Toby Alderweireld, Dier returned to central defence in the matches against Bayer Leverkusen and Bournemouth.

At Liverpool in midweek, Dier was back in midfield – and he is likely to revert to the back four again on Saturday at home to Leicester.

He told Standard Sport: “I could do a list of loads of top players who play in many different positions. David Alaba and Philipp Lahm of Bayern Munich, or Javier Mascherano of Barcelona.

“People always seem to want to pin me down to one position but I see players all over Europe who play in more than one. It ensures they get appearances for their clubs and it’s a fantastic weapon for a manager.

“It’s a bit stupid to be talking about it [playing in a specific position]. If I could get to the level of players like Alaba, Lahm or Mascherano, I would be a very happy man.”

Though Tottenham have made a strong start to the campaign and are just one point behind leaders Manchester City, Dier admits the early weeks of the season have not unfolded as he would have hoped.

Dier started Spurs’ first six league matches before suffering a hamstring problem in the 1-0 win over Sunderland on September 18.

For the next game, at Middlesbrough, manager Mauricio Pochettino switched from 4-2-3-1 to 4-1-4-1. That meant there was room for only one holding midfielder and so far, Wanyama has been Pochettino’s man in that role.

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Asked about Dier’s situation, Pochettino said the 22-year-old needed to “feel the competition” that has been generated by Wanyama’s arrival, adding: “He needs to build his confidence and improve his belief."

Dier said: “I’m quite disappointed with how it’s gone so far this season. For the first couple of games of the season I wasn’t at my usual standard, even though I don’t think I was way below it.

“Then I got the little injury which kept me out for a couple of weeks and I’m just trying to rebuild now. Confidence-wise, I feel OK but it’s just been a bit stop-start.

“Coming back late for pre-season after Euro 2016, it’s been a difficult start to the season but in every game, I’m starting to feel a lot better.”

Spurs have scored only once from open play since beating Manchester City 2-0 on October 2. Dier is the only player who started the 2-1 EFL Cup defeat at Liverpool who is likely to retain his spot on Saturday, so Tottenham should at least be relatively fresh against Claudio Ranieri’s team.