Toby Alderweireld: Tottenham needed to change after Gent loss
Toby Alderweireld revealed that Tottenham needed to change following their loss to Gent in the Europa League. A win over Fulham this past weekend showed that Spurs have turned things around, at least for now.
A 1-0 loss to Gent in the Europa League wouldn’t have been unheard of, as Tottenham had already showed they can lose to a Belgian side before on the road (2-1 loss to Anderlecht), but an underwhelming performance is something that no one could have predicted.
With Spurs picking up two straight losses within a week, it was imperative that the north London club needed to get back to winning ways and beat Fulham.
A 3-0 win at Craven Cottage was proof that a change happened.
But what exactly changed, Mauricio Pochettino didn’t say except alluding to having the desire and team spirit to win. Something that seemed to have been missing in their two previous matches.
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To everyone watching, it was clear that a fast start was needed after slow starts against Liverpool and Gent, but that still didn’t explain why it took two losses before Spurs “woke up” to play their brand of football — attacking defenses with a high-press before applying immense pressure on the counter.
For Toby Alderweireld, he echoed Pochettino’s words, in that a desire to achieve a better result was addressed amongst the players.
Which isn’t surprising, though it paints a bad picture for Spurs to seemingly pick and choose when to play their best. Instead of playing their best in every single match.
“[We] talked to each other, after the game in the Europa League, and said ‘Yeah, we have to change’,” Alderweireld said.
“We know everybody’s trying, but trying to get the good feeling back – one way is to work very hard – and try to change as quickly as possible. We showed the desire is there.”
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“Not angry [when talking], just to see to the future. Everybody works hard, everybody’s doing their best, so they can’t complain about that.”
“It’s just the desire to come back more than ever. You can do it with hard work and results like [at Fulham].”
While “having the desire to win” sounds like a cop-out answer that both Mauricio Pochettino and Toby Alderweireld cites as to why Spurs beat Fulham, they’re not exactly wrong.
Even if it doesn’t sound like a good answer initially, when you think about it rationally, there’s reason to believe that Spurs didn’t have that desire to win against Liverpool and Gent.
When Spurs visited Anfield on February 11th, they came into that match knowing they haven’t won against the Reds during Mauricio Pochettino’s tenure. Both clubs have drawn in their three previous attempts ever since Jürgen Klopp was appointed as Liverpool’s latest manager.
So when throwing out the possibility of beating Liverpool, Tottenham are left with drawing and not losing. After a 2-0 loss where Sadio Mané exposed Spurs’ defense for a quick brace in a span of two minutes, Tottenham’s confidence levels were shook.
They took their low confidence with them to Belgium, a place they have lost to before in the Europa League, coupled with perhaps a dose of entitlement to beat a lower team in terms of the league Gent play in and their quality.
Looking back at it now, it isn’t surprising that the desire wasn’t there to begin with.
As for Fulham? They’re a London-based club. And in London derbies, Mauricio Pochettino and company find ways to play their best.
No team wants to lose to their rivals and when it’s a local rival, there’s that incentive to have bragging rights over the other side.
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Honestly speaking, with a 1-0 loss being a doable result to overturn, even at Wembley Stadium on Thursday, Spurs should be up for this match.
They want to advance further in the Europa League and losing to a Gent team that Spurs should have beaten the first time around will see Tottenham’s desire to go far in Europe ratchet up a notch.
The only drawback is how long will Spurs’ starters continually start in consecutive games before they fall off like they did last year?