Dier to retain captaincy for Brazil clash

Gareth Southgate named the 23-year-old Tottenham midfielder as captain for the first time on Friday, for the 0-0 draw against world champions Germany at Wembley.

Southgate is going about building a leadership group rather than naming an individual captain and has decided to stick with Dier for Tuesday's clash with the five-time World Cup winners.

"It's good experience for him," said Southgate.

"I think being the captain on the pitch is one element of being a captain and showing leadership the rest of the time we're in camp is another part.

"The on-field part might help to raise the level of your performance, the level of ownership and responsibility.

"The bigger picture is we want some of these young lads to feel the responsibility a bit more.

"Eric has good tactical understanding on the field."

Dier came through the youth ranks at Sporting Lisbon in Portugal, and Southgate believes the player's background has been beneficial for him.

"He is a good sounding board for me as a coach when you want to have discussions around tactical problems on the pitch," said Southgate.

"I like to throw that to the players sometimes, just to see what their thinking is.

"We have our solutions but, if they don't 100 per cent believe in that, sometimes it is good to listen to what they are thinking.

"He's somebody whose upbringing at Lisbon was slightly different to some young players, they were asked [at Sporting] to make decisions on the field a lot more."