Jan Vertonghen Didn't Mind Playing Left-back for Tottenham
Tottenham center-back Jan Vertonghen played in a different role against Sunderland.
With the Belgium national team, Jan Vertonghen plays as a left-back, but for Tottenham, the 29-year-old has been been a key starter at center-back.
On Sunday afternoon, Mauricio Pochettino decided to reshuffle his backline by dropping Eric Dier to central defense and partnering up with Toby Alderweireld, while Vertonghen moved to the left.
It’s not an unfamiliar position for the Belgian defender and following Spurs’ 1-0 win, Jan Vertonghen said that he’ll get the job done wherever Pochettino decides to put him.
“Obviously I’m used to playing on the left with the Belgium team,” Vertonghen said (via Spurs’ official site).
“I do the job wherever the gaffer asks me to and I think it was a good game for me, defensively I played well and I felt like I got some good crosses in, so it was good.”
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With Ben Davies on the bench it was puzzling why the Welsh international didn’t start, but after providing Son Heung-Min with some overlapping runs on the left flank, Mauricio Pochettino’s decision to start Jan Vertonghen paid off.
Coming off of a mid-week fixture in the Champions League, it was expected that some rotation would be in the works, though a reshuffled line wasn’t what people thought would happen with Vertonghen playing at left-back and Dier at center-back.
Still, Spurs did well with Sunderland helping out by hardly challenging Tottenham’s defense throughout the first half. Things got more tense in the second half when the game was more stretched, but nothing that Spurs couldn’t handle.
“I think we did very well, it was a very good defensive performance,” Vertonghen added.
“We just gave them one big chance and I think we were always in control. Everyone worked very hard, we wanted to bounce back from Wednesday and we did that.”
“We had to wait a very long time for the first goal but I’m happy we finally got it. If we hadn’t won this game we all would have been very disappointed and obviously I was happy when Harry scored.”
“It’s good for him to score another goal and I hope he is alright.”
Spurs dominated the match statistics-wise and a major reason why was due to Son Heung-Min’s efforts. He was easily Man of the Match by attacking the Black Cat’s defense, putting in dangerous crosses and corners and giving his teammates chances to put Tottenham ahead on multiple occasions.
Jan Vertonghen and the rest of Spurs put in a good shift on Sunday afternoon, but for the Belgian defender, he knows that Son deserves proper recognition for what he’s done since returning to the squad following heartbreak at the Rio Olympics.
“For me he [Son Heung-Min] was Man of the Match,” Vertonghen added.
“Sonny is a great player and an even better person – he’s someone who always works hard, wants to play well and wants to be the best guy on the pitch.”
“There’s almost no-one who deserves it more than him so everyone in the dressing room is very happy for him.”
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