Tottenham Hotspur Links: Toby Alderweireld and Eric Dier are Two Key Players to Spurs’ Success This Season
Here’s the latest Tottenham Hotspur Links to read.
Today Hotspur HQ will be talking about two stories regarding Tottenham. The first story looks at two key players who have been at the heart of Spurs’ success this season, Toby Alderweireld and Eric Dier. Both players hit the ground running during pre-season and have not looked back by making their respective positions their own and helping create the spine of Tottenham’s defense.
Finally, the second story shows a slightly different take on Mauricio Pochettino’s one game at a time mentality. He has taken a quick glance (but not mentioning any names) at the next 10 games and says that these upcoming fixtures will help decide whether Tottenham are in fact a title contender come this May or not. These are the two links so let’s get right into them now.
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There have been plenty of players this season who have helped Tottenham get to fourth in the league table — even third place for a brief period of time — and you can go down the list of who those names are: Harry Kane, Hugo Lloris, Toby Alderweireld, Eric Dier, Mousa Dembélé, Érik Lamela, etc.
But when looking at only two players who have done the most and have been instrumental in keeping Tottenham consistently good throughout the first half of the season, according to Mauricio Pochettino it’s Toby Alderweireld and Eric Dier who he hails as one of the best defenders and best midfielders respectively.
The 26-year-old Belgian has been the missing link ever since he joined Tottenham this past summer. Helping shore up a glaring spot at the second center-back position next to Jan Vertonghen, Alderweireld has helped turn Spurs’ defense into the best this season by conceding the fewest goals at 15 in 19 games.
“It is obvious that Alderweireld, after 19 games, is one of the best defenders in the Premier League,” Pochettino said.
“It is easy to analyse him now, he adapts and has very good performances with maturity and experience. He is a great man and we are very happy with him.”
“They [Alderweireld and Vertonghen] are good partners. For me it is important how we work as a team to try and defend our wall and our ‘keeper.”
“It is important to have a good balance and it is true that Toby has made a very good impact on the team.”
For Eric Dier, as a Tottenham player since his arrival in August 2014, playing as a defensive midfielder was a new position for him, in a sense that he started out as a center-back after signing from Sporting Lisbon. However, in actuality, Dier’s original position was a holding mid while playing in Portugal. He just happened to convert into a central defender in Pochettino’s first season.
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It probably helped Dier that he has the versatility to play both positions (defensive mid and center-back) and become a two-way player to truly show how valuable he is to Tottenham this season.
Against Watford, Eric Dier returned to his first position when he joined Tottenham last season, as a center-back, and along with Jan Vertonghen and Toby Alderweireld in a three-man backline, they helped stifle a very good team.
So what is his natural position? It’s as a holding midfielder. But how about for Spurs? It’s both. But as of right now, it’s to play as the team’s defensive midfielder in front of Tottenham’s Belgian partnership at central defense to help form the spine of the team with Hugo Lloris at goal.
“I am very pleased with Dier because he started to play in a position which is his real position,” Mauricio Pochettino continued.
“He has improved a lot, this is true. When I started to play in him as a holding midfielder we saw the quality that he can bring in that position.”
“If we analyse the past of his career, he got into the national team playing as a holding midfielder.”
“Maybe in the future his best position will be as a holding midfielder or centre-back or full-back. He is very young and now he is very comfortable in the position he plays.”
- Next ten games will decide if Tottenham are title contenders
- [via Enfield Independent]
Everyone knows that Tottenham has a golden opportunity to mount a serious title challenge with Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United all trying to figure out how to get back on track this season.
Two teams with new managers, Jürgen Klopp at Liverpool and Guus Hiddink (caretaker manager) at Chelsea will take a while to find some consistency. And while Man United under Louis van Gaal this term haven’t been consistent recently in their games, they’ve found ways to remain within the top five during the first half of the season.
Now, for a while Mauricio Pochettino has remained steadfast that the next game is the most important. Always looking forward but not too far into the future. That is until now of course.
See, Pochettino has outlined Spurs’ next 10 games to gauge where his team is and how they match up against other league title contenders by the end of the season.
“We need to arrive in the last ten games with the possibility to fight for the objectives,” Pochettino said. “The next nine, ten games will maybe mark the possibility of how we can finish in the table.”
Who do Tottenham face in their upcoming 10 league games?
Tottenham’s upcoming matches:
- Everton (Away) — January 3
- Leicester City (Home) — January 13
- Sunderland (Home) — January 16
- Crystal Palace (Away) — January 23
- Norwich City (Away) –February 2
- Watford (Home) — February 6
- Manchester City (Away) — February 14
- Swansea City (Home) — February 28
- West Ham United (Away) — March 2
- Arsenal (Home) — March 5
Next: By the Numbers: How Will Spurs Match Up Against Everton?
All 10 fixtures are going to be difficult but that’s just how the Premier League is like. There are no easy games to play — and no Aston Villa wasn’t easy. Because Tottenham almost drew level before putting the game away, 3-1. So long as Spurs remain levelheaded and stick to their gameplan for each game, then they should be able to pick up plenty of points.
“The good thing is we don’t speak too much but we work very hard and I think it is most important how we behave inside,” Pochettino said.
“We are very quiet. We believe in ourselves. We are very confident and in football a lot can happen. We believe.”
“The only way we cannot achieve all that we can in football is if we stop working hard.”