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When Toby Alderweireld pulled up with a hamstring injury in the victory over Real Madrid earlier this month, some Tottenham fans were surprisingly calm.

That’s because the Belgian had arguably been far from his best during the first three months of the season.

However, it’s now becoming clear that Alderweireld is a crucial cog in the Spurs machine, both defensively and in bringing the ball out from the back.

Since his injury, Tottenham have won just one of their four Premier League games, drawing one and losing two.

Belgian football journalist Kristof Terreur also dug up some stats on Twitter (below). Spurs have won 28 of their 40 (70%) Premier League games with Alderweireld in the starting XI compared to five of their 12 league matches (41.7%) without him.

The 28-year-old has been ruled out until after Christmas through injury, meaning Tottenham must find a way to win games without him.

The fans were fuming with the team after Tuesday night’s defeat at Leicester. Will Spurs rediscover their form against Watford on Saturday?

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11 COMMENTS

  1. Currently Spurs are facing a number of issues.

    First, the coach needs to teach the players, if he can, to use more often a one touch ball passing during a game in order to attack at a faster pace/tempo.
    Such a passing style could also result to an increase of the vertical balls towards our strikers.

    Second, the coach needs to understand well that he should always line up a balanced squad on the field.
    That means that it should always be a balance between those players who can create and those who can defend, at least at the start of a game.
    Between those who are “soft” and lose easily the ball (see Eriksen, Alli, Son) and those who can win it back and can intercept most balls especially in midfield.
    In this context, the absence of Wanyama this season is more than obvious.
    During the last games we have felt also the absence of Alderweireld in the centre of our defence.
    Also Aurier has a “soft” mentality for a defender and he avoids to put his feet at risk.

    Finally, the issue of a player who can take effectively a corner as well using a number of different patterns and players positioning when we take a corner, also needs to be addressed.
    We have scored only one goal after almost one hundred corner kicks!

    • You’re giving instructions to Pochettino? How much are you being paid? He’s paid £5.5m a year plus bonuses! And you’re giving him advice? LOL. You should apply for the managers job if he gets the sack!
      Spurs had the chances to win that match last night. Sissoko, Deli, Eriksen & Llorente didn’t take them! Simples!
      Vertonghan shouldn’t have let Mahrez come inside onto his favoured left foot and Sanchez should have tracked Vardy. Though the 2 goals were top class finishes.
      Defenders made elementary mistakes and attackers missed easy scoring chances. That’s why the game was lost

  3. We are realy missing most of our key players where in Godsname is wanyanma AM so happy to see lamela back in action.COYS we can make it.

  5. The squad just looks like it’s hitting the recovery wall between matches really hard. Poch is quite tightly demanding every ounce from everyone, the CL and PL schedule is a potential performance killer. Remember every game is an away game this season and we just run riot in the Group of Death. Supporters need the be the 12th man. COYS

  7. Coach Pappi… Most think Poch is top manager… Point black misses equals defeat…Key players are out..title looks out of reach but top 4 attainable…Looking for an upgrade in January… Sissoko can’t finish everone agrees

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