Alderweireld: “Madrid result sent out message”

On Tuesday night Spurs matched the biggest club in the world in Real Madrid , a team that has won three of the last four Champions League titles, and according to an article in The Mail, it may yet go down as a benchmark performance.

Following the performance at the Bernabeu, Toby Alderweireld, who the article says is probably the Premier League best defender in recent years, was keen to set the right tone, emerging with self-confidence laced but also having a degree of appropriate humility.

The Belgian said: “We shouldn’t get carried away by our result in Madrid but there is no doubt it sent out a little message – we can compete with any team in the world,’ he said. ‘We work hard, we have good organisation and up front we have real quality.’

The article goes on to today’s match with Liverpool and says that we will need to improve our Wembley performances rapidly if we are to challenge pacesetters Manchester City and if this is to become a title race contested by the ‘Harry Kane team’and the Pep team. The article said Mauricio was offended by Guardiola’s off-hand comment about Tottenham being the ‘Harry Kane’ team, and Alderweireld says he’s used to the glory going to goal-scorers and is happy for it to do so.

‘Me personally I don’t mind,’ he says. ‘I’m happy for all the praise to go to Christian (Eriksen] and H (Kane). After all they are making goals. But in the last two seasons we have had the best defensive record in the Premier League. We are probably the hardest-working team when opponents have the ball.

“A lot is said about our attacking play and the goals we score, and rightly so. But to be a good team, to be a successful team you have to be well organised and strong at the back, and we are that.’

The article goes on to point out our consistent determination and durability these days and that seems to stem directly from Pochettino. ‘He is one of the best in the world,’ said Alderweireld.

‘Everyone knows 100 per cent what they have to do and what position we have to be when we don’t have the ball. And the fighting spirit; we play with our heart. He picks the right team, the players who have the heart to play, the players who will work, run and who are physically fit.

‘Physically we have to be top, we work very hard because if you want to play with your heart you can’t do it for 70 minutes; you have to do it for 90 minutes. Against Real Madrid, we showed physically we were up there.’

The article concludes saying that we are now competing with the very best but the next step will be to beat them. So we ask this question can we step up a further gear and beat Real when they arrive at Wembley on November 1st? Let us know your thoughts

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