Alderweireld reveals what was said at half-time against Southampton

Tottenham Hotspur finally got back to winning ways after a tough couple of weeks when they took on Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday.

The team went into the game off the back of defeats to Leicester City and Colchester United, with the latter being a particularly embarrassing experience.

Spurs did it the hard way too, as Serge Aurier picked up two yellows in quick succession in the first half against the Saints to receive his marching orders.

Minutes later, Hugo Lloris handed Southampton an equaliser after failing with a Cruyff turn on his own goal line.

Fortunately, Spurs were able to score another goal on the break and carve out the win with some determined defending in the second 45.

Toby Alderweireld insists that the unity in the dressing room has always been there and revealed that the squad saw the Southampton game as a chance to prove this to the footballing world.

He said (Standard): “This was the most important win of the season. We’re not there yet of course – we have to improve – and it’s a big game tomorrow. But Saturday shows that there is a lot of positivity for the next weeks.

“We could have lost easily. It had all the ingredients to lose the game and I think we were wonderful. Unbelievable credit to us.

“Everyone is saying ‘there’s not unity in the dressing room, it’s all gone.’ It’s not like this. We haven’t played badly. We’re now in a bit of a corner where it hasn’t happened for us and we have to grind out results. To get this result showed a lot of character from the lads.

“We said at half-time: ‘this is the moment to prove we’re a team’. Most important was not the way we played on the ball, but off the ball – we showed everybody wants to fight for the team.

“It’s not a fight with the press or anything but we understand that if you don’t win then people are going to criticise us – that’s top football. But this was a good moment to show everybody we are a very good team. It wasn’t nice playing because we had to be without the ball, but we had to work, work, work, to get the three points, which was massive.”

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