Eric Dier grateful for his warm welcome from Bayern Munich teammates thus far

Eric Dier has gotten off to a decent start with his new life at Bayern Munich. He joined from Tottenham Hotspur during the January transfer window and has made a total of three Bundesliga appearances thus far. All three of those appearances for the Rekordmeister against the likes of Union Berlin, FC Augsburg, and Borussia Mönchengladbach. He came on as a halftime substitute in the win over Union and started in the wins over Augsburg and Gladbach.

Naturally, Dier’s playing time has been slightly aided by the injury to fellow center back Dayot Upamecano, but the midfielder-turned-defender has still made the most of the opportunities he has been given by Thomas Tuchel thus far. The manager likes his versatility to be able to play as both a defender and a midfielder, which is one of the big reasons why he went for him in the transfer market. Tuchel was looking for that type of profile along with defenders that could dual-purpose at both center back and right back.

While he might not have been a marquee or blockbuster winter signing, Dier is enjoying life in Munich thus far and he has felt very welcomed by everyone in the squad. As his fellow English compatriot Harry Kane could tell him, it is certainly not easy to acclimatize to a new team, life in a new city where you do not yet speak the native language, and life away from where he has spent the majority of his playing career.

“Harry helped me a lot in the integration, that makes everything easier for me. But that applies to everyone in the club. They have all been incredible so far and have helped me a lot. I’m very grateful for that. I always want to play, no matter where I am. When I came here I was ready to play and I got the chance to do so in the past two games,” Dier recently explained to Bild.

Upamecano is in a race to be fit on time for Bayern’s massive weekend clash against Bayer Leverkusen, so it remains to be seen what will come of Dier’s minutes once the French international is back fully fit. Regardless, Dier seems to be willing to constantly fight for his place of the team, whoever is fully fit and being picked ahead of him.