Player watch: Toby Alderweireld

[yido_number1]

What a signing he has proved to be. I think the challenge is most people lust after the attacking signings and when you know you have a limited budget the thought of signing a defensive player with that money doesn't always appeal.

So glad we got him Wimmer was excellent when he came in and did a job and I guarantee playing next to Toby made it 50-75% easier than playing next to anyone else in our squad. If he got player of the season he would be very deserving. On the same note anyone of Lloris, Kane, Dier or Alli would consider themselves unlucky not to get it. A true team performance this year with many stand out performers.

 

[Gassin's finest]

http://www.football365.com/news/toby-alderweireld-the-other-player-of-the-year

The most impressive thing about Alderweireld is that his strength is his lack of weaknesses. He can play centrally or on either side of a defence. His height makes him an imposing figure in the air. He has the requisite pace to counteract faster strikers. He is strong, young and even offers a goal threat. Laurent Koscielny, Vincent Kompany, Chris Smalling and Virgil van Dijk are all impressive, but Alderweireld is the undoubted crown jewel of Premier League defenders.

 

[Gbspurs]

https://twitter.com/Squawka/status/722377579454406657

 

[Rocksuperstar]

Adrian Durham has just read out on Talksport that Toby hasn't committed a single foul in, i think he said, 600 minutes of football?

Is that true? Can't be. Surely.

That's obscene.

 

[eViL]

It's true.

 

[lol]

Adrian Durham has just read out on Talksport that Toby hasn't committed a single foul in, i think he said, 600 minutes of football?

Is that true? Can't be. Surely.

That's obscene.

ledley-esque

 

[samsonlevi]

Manchester United on 'RedCafe' have recently (post Stoke v Spurs) opened up a dedicated thread about our Toby!

Here are some of their comments - PART 1:

1) "Following the 4-0 win at Stoke, Alderweireld has now completed 600 Premier League minutes without committing a foul (thanks to Grahame of COYS for relaying the info).

Fouls conceded this season:

Toby Alderweireld: 9
Laurent Koscielny: 25
Nicolas Otamendi: 26
Wes Morgan: 27
Robert Huth: 31
Chris Smalling: 42"
2) "Ferdinand-esque."

3) "Alderweireld, Alli and Kane and we are set."

4) "Very handy on the ball too. Great player."

5) "Wanted him in the summer, we missed a trick there"

6) "£11m and apart from Southampton wanting to keep him Spurs were the only club interested. You wonder what some DOF and Scouts get upto seeing as how good he was for Southampton."

7) "His full name is Tobias Albertine Maurits Alderweireld. How pretentious."

8) "If England play Belgium in the Euros there could be 9 Spurs players out there.
Walker, Rose, Dier, Alli & Kane
Vs
Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Dembele & Chadli"

9) "Seemingly strange he was sold so easily by Atletico. Very good defender, would have been a steal."

10) "In a way it's like Pique with us; I think Atletico knew he wasn't going to be a starter anytime soon so they let him go. He's a top class defender, he really is."

 

[samsonlevi]

Manchester United on 'RedCafe' have recently (post Stoke v Spurs) opened up a dedicated thread about our Toby!

Here are some of their comments - PART 2:

11) "He wasn't good at Atletico but i think they would have kept him if they didn't have Giménez. Quality defender nevertheless. He would have eventually come good had he stayed."

12) "I remember him making mistake after mistake at Atletico, and was very unimpressed in general. His improvement has been nothing short of fantastic, but Atletico have their own talented defenders in Gimenez and now Lucas Hernandez."

13) "Too far down the pecking order at Atletico. His has vastly improved over the last two seasons but that might be down to something as simple as playing more regularly"

14) "Eh, he hardly even played at Atletico, and when he did he certainly wasn't making mistake after mistake as they won the league with a rock solid defence and made the CL final. The reason why he left was because he wasn't prepared to be a substitute, ahead of Gimenez by the way who was playing even less. Atletico wanted him to stay but he wanted out, that's really all there was to it."

15) "He joined from Ajax and couldn't break into what was a rock solid defence, probably the best in Europe, become the 3rd choice CB but wouldn't settle for it."

16) "He's right Alderweireld did make quite a few mistakes and didn't look comfortable most of the times. We talked about it in the La Liga thread. He got enough chances, 22 games(12 in league). Giménez was 18 at the time and when he did get his chance at 19 he looked great from the very first game. Oh and Atletico never said they wanted Alderweireld to stay, although i think he would have done well had he stayed. They were glad to accept Southampton's offer before Spurs came calling. Alderweireld was happy either way."

17) "Simeone most certainly said he wanted Alderweireld to stay, and Alderweireld wasn't happy either way, he made it clear that he wanted to leave to play more, then once he played in The PL he wanted to stay in this league.
As for his games at Atletico I don't know we're you got the numbers from but he was often used as a late substitute and I'm sure those appearances numbers must include5 minute cameos."

18) "He was horrible for Atletico in the few games he played. Not really weird that they sold him when you have a top CB pair and a big talent like Gimenez. But fair play to him, looks very good in the PL so far, wasn't sure if he could keep that level from last season but he proved me wrong, fantastic season and probably the best CB in the PL this year."

19) "I said in the summer I wanted us to be in for him but we weren't even linked, but with our Southampton buying spree from the summer before, it was unlikely we'd raid their squad for more than one player this time. We had to buy Clyne because we were short of cover in fullbacks. If i remember rightly he was played as a fullback at times at Atletico not CB, and most time he was a sub there."

20) "Not just a number of times, he's our first choice right back, just like Vertonghen at left back. They're only playing there because we don't have a single half decent full back. If we did I'd drop Kompany and Vermaelen in a heartbeat and play Alderweireld and Vertonghen in the center."

 

[samsonlevi]

Manchester United on 'RedCafe' have recently (post Stoke v Spurs) opened up a dedicated thread about our Toby!

Here are some of their comments - PART 3:

21) "On this season he has been best CB in the league by a country mile. Fantastic signing by Pochetino."

22) "Solid defender, strong and very consistent. Still don't understand why Southampton didn't take up their option to sign him after his loan from Atletico - was it not for something like £11M ? Their loss, and Spurs gain."

23) "He was pinched under Koemans nose wasn't he? I would have taken him without a second thought but it was clear that LVG was after a left footed ball-player."

24) "I think Soton did want to make the move permanent. Toby didn't want that when Spurs came calling and he joined them. I think Soton even threatened to drag this to the court of arbitration.
As for the Alderweireld/Vertonghen partnership - it is a good one but miles behind Rio/Vidic. It's not even a comparison at this stage. You don't go 16 consecutive game without conceding without having perhaps the best CB partnership in the world and the Spurs pair aren't that."

25) "RE "On this season he has been best CB in the league by a country mile": "I think you should be posting that in the Smalling thread."

26) "I just checked, and the option for Southampton to buy him after his loan was £6.8M, but Atletico used a clause in the deal and paid £1.5M to cancel Southampton's option to buy at that price so they could sell him to the highest bidder, Spurs. Supposedly Atletico did this after the due date to exercise their option to do so had passed, but Alderweireld wanted to go to Spurs and dug his heels in, so Southampton dropped the whole thing, probably figuring there was no point in signing a player who didn't want to be there."

27) "RE "I think you should be posting that in the Smalling thread.": "If the league would have lasted from August to November, yes."

28) "RE "I think you should be posting that in the Smalling thread.": Oh my...Alderweireld has been on a completely different level compared to Smalling since the latter returned from injury."

29) "RE "Oh my...Alderweireld has been on a completely different level compared to Smalling since the latter returned from injury.": "What!! Smalling has been an absolute rock for us. To say Alderweireld is on a different level is a hyperbole to put it mildly. Smalling has been better than Alderweireld if we consider the season as a whole."

30) ""RE "What!! Smalling has been an absolute rock for us. To say Alderweireld is on a different level is a hyperbole to put it mildly. Smalling has been better than Alderweireld if we consider the season as a whole.": "He definitely hasn't been, he might've been slightly better in the first part of the season but in 2016, Alderweireld has been far better. Agree to disagree though if that's really your view."

 

[HildoSpur]

The overrating of Smalling on Redcafe is laughable, it really is. He is a solid enough defender but a limited player in general, still probably Englands best centre-back in what is by far their weakest position.

 

[Kingellesar]

Smalling....hmm. One game he looks rock solid, the next he looks like Gary Doherty. Funny one, he probably is Englands best hope at CB but I'm far from convinced. How have we gone from being really good at CB to being weak. We have always produced good CBs as a country but this tournament I think that is our major weakness, along with Hart.

Alderweireld is the best CB in the league this season, there isn't even anyone close to his level at the minute, I hope he has a good Euros tournament too, he really is turning into a potential world class defender.

 

[easley91]

How has this only got 4 pages? This guy has been immense majority of the season. That stat of no fouls given by him in 600 minutes is insane for a CENTRAL DEFENDER! Not missed any league minutes either I believe. Such a key player.

 

[garryparkerschest]

How has this only got 4 pages? This guy has been immense majority of the season. That stat of no fouls given by him in 600 minutes is insane for a CENTRAL DEFENDER! Not missed any league minutes either I believe. Such a key player.

Because all the post are on another thread, Alderweireld confirmed or something like that.

 

[jurgen]

How has this only got 4 pages? This guy has been immense majority of the season. That stat of no fouls given by him in 600 minutes is insane for a CENTRAL DEFENDER! Not missed any league minutes either I believe. Such a key player.

Because we're WATCHING him, but he doesn't make mistakes, so we have very little to discuss

 

[lillywhites61]

To only concede 9 fouls this season is crazy. Shows what a quality defender he is

 

[thinktank]

Spurs Star Identifies What He Learned at Ajax and Atletico Madrid
Follow @insidefutbol

Toby Alderweireld has insisted that he is reaping the rewards of his spells at Ajax and Atletico Madrid while playing for Tottenham Hotspur.

The 27-year-old, who was snapped by Spurs from Atletico Madrid last summer, is a product of Ajax’s youth system.

After making his first team debut for Ajax in January 2009, Alderweireld established himself as one of the key players at the Dutch giants.

The Belgium international then joined Atletico Madrid in 2013, but failed to make his mark at Vicente Calderon and was sent on a season-long loan deal to Southampton for the 2014/15 campaign.

However, Alderweireld explained that while Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone influenced him the most as the Argentine made him focus on every detail of defending, his time at Ajax made him comfortable on the ball.

And the centre-back feels his success at Tottenham is due to the different principles he learnt at Ajax and Atletico Madrid.

“If you look down the list of coaches who I’ve worked with, you will see that Marco van Basten is the only striker”, Alderweireld told Belgian daily Het Laatste Nieuws.

“The rest are mainly former midfielders or defenders: [Martin] Jol, [Frank] De Boer, Diego Simeone, Ronald Koeman and now Mauricio Pochettino.

“Even though De Boer, Koeman or Pochettino were top defenders, I never got into details about the art defending with them. Purely defensively I think Winston Bogarde, defensive coach in Ajax’s youth ranks, and Diego Simeone influenced me the most.

“The training sessions at Atletico were completely new for me. I came from a club where they played total football and where they encouraged you to find a solution with the ball. I’d never played football to grind out results.”

“Although I didn’t start every single game, I learnt a great deal at Atletico. Simeone taught me to enjoy clean-sheets. Or to take pleasure from a flawless game. Simeone likes to focus on every single detail.

“Everything is perfectly prepared for his players. During training sessions, he simulates every possible situation. It’s a drill. Defence against attack. What if the left-back has moved up the pitch, what if the right-back makes this move, what if there’s a long ball?"

Alderweireld however will not say his time at Ajax was better than at Atletico Madrid, or vice versa, as he feels he learned different skills at each side.

“I’m not going to say that one football culture is better than the other, but I think it’s good that I’ve had a combination of both. Total – and results -based football. Many defenders can defend well, but they maybe are not so good with the ball at their feet.

“I’m comfortable in possession. I always know what to do. That’s the Ajax school. On the other hand, I have those Simeone principles somewhere in the back of my mind.

“One of those lessons that sticks: if there’s a high ball, never head it down, always up. It gives your teammates more time to get around the ball. I got the best from both worlds and at Tottenham I’m seeing the benefit of it.”

http://www.insidefutbol.com/2016/05...ax-boss-told-him-hed-be-new-jaap-stam/284170/

 

[rabbikeane]

Talking of Toby, shouldn't the Spurs player of the year be announced today or tomorrow?
If they intend on handing the award out on last home game

 

[0-Tibsy-0]

Talking of Toby, shouldn't the Spurs player of the year be announced today or tomorrow?
If they intend on handing the award out on last home game

I thought they usually announce Post game on the pitch, before the 'lap of appreciation'...

 

[yido_number1]

If he doesn't win it he will be unlucky that so many have had a great season. Same can be said of Lloris, Dier, Dembele, Alli, Lamela and Kane especially. I'd be loathed to leave anyone out as they have all contributed to fantastic team performances.

 

[millsey]

If he doesn't win it he will be unlucky that so many have had a great season. Same can be said of Lloris, Dier, Dembele, Alli, Lamela and Kane especially. I'd be loathed to leave anyone out as they have all contributed to fantastic team performances.

He's a certainty to win