You also need to take into account the quality of our fullbacks during that season as for me, I think the width they offered compared to what we use them for now made a huge difference to our set up and how we applied ourselves.
The Dier/ Wanyama debate is a curious one and if both are fit and completely on song I’d go for big Vic but I don’t where that player is these days, I can’t remember the last game he played where I genuinely believed he was on on form and doing what he was signed for. A big shame really but once again Diers versatility has proven its worth, especially for the money we laid out for him which baffles me even further. He cost £4m not £40m and covers 3 potential positions in areas where we seem to get knocks and nicks fairly regularly (CB & DM)
With regards to Wanyama's injury, none of us know what the future holds, but he's only 27, at a similar age we were all writing Dembele off (he'd played about 40% of available minutes in 13/14 and 14/15) and talk was of a chronic hip injury that needed to be managed. He then came back and had 2 really good seasons. Personally, I think the Wanyama performance thing is being a bit exaggerated. The problem is, partly because of his recent injuries and partly because of selection choices, he's been used in fits and starts in between injury lay offs, which never sees a player at his best, they can't get into a rhythm, which most players need to hit peak form. Since injuries he was often plopped into awkward cup games with a mish mash side, inevitably resulting in incoherent performances from everyone. I get why, Poch was just using those low priority games to give people run outs (reserves, recovering players etc). You don’t expect players to come back from long term injuries and just hit normal peak.
And I would flip the FB thing on you slightly. Look back to that season - our best season - that was the season that Poch introduced Trippier in the latter third of the season and he absolutely annihilated Walker's productivity - and I mean annihilated - and at no defensive loss (we still beat teams like ManU, Woolwich as well as crushing other teams and racking up huge wins - compared to our run in the season before) our worst two performances in that run in came with Walker back in the side - away to Palace and then the defeat that cost us a chance f the title at West Ham where Walker got skanked for the goal).
I would argue that it was partly the other way round, having Wanyama there that helped the FB's, and the way we use them, because he's far more dynamic than Dier and was not only getting up and down the pitch better, but also covering laterally much better.
And lets be honest, at the same time, throughout much of last year and this, some of Dier's performances have been atrocious. no better than "non peak" Wanyama. IMO.
Personally, I just do not want to see Dier in CM at all. He's dynamically challenged, can't press with vigour, because he's too easily turned and can't recover quickly, he doesn't want the ball under pressure, making us laborious when trying to play our of a press, he can't move with the ball, and his passing is incredibly basic.