Friday 9 January 2015 07:06, UK
Toby Alderweireld is impressing for Southampton following his loan move from Atletico Madrid, writes Adam Bate...
It is a tale of two phone calls that tell you everything about Toby Alderweireld, the character Southampton have signed and the reason he finds himself winning an ever-growing number of admirers since his loan move to the Premier League in the summer.
The first reveals how Saints got hold of a player who’d been part of Atletico Madrid’s title-winning campaign and came within moments of being a Champions League winner. It also exposes the misguided fear that the exits of Mauricio Pochettino and the rest would see the Saints’ rapid rise come to an abrupt halt.
Alderweireld, having played almost 200 games for Ajax, was wanted by Southampton’s new Dutch boss Ronald Koeman and that was enough for the 25-year-old Belgium international. “The most important thing was the coach,” he said in an interview with the Telegraph last month. “He called me and said: ‘We really want you.’”
What Alderweireld did next in that second phone call is an indication of the sort of individual they’d acquired. Discussing a series of summer departures at Atletico that had included the likes of David Villa, not all of the exiting players contacted manager Diego Simeone. The Argentine is not a man to suffer fools but he picked out Alderweireld for praise.
“David called me when he left so that we could speak to each other, as did Toby, which pleased me greatly,” said Simeone. “Some leave and you never hear from then again, yet when Toby went he rang and said it was because he expected to play and would return. I appreciate all the work they have done. Those are men.”
Alderweireld has certainly proved to be a man since his arrival in the Premier League. The transition has been seamless with Koeman claiming his new signing has looked like he’s been in England for years. It’s also made something of a mockery of Liverpool’s decision to pay £20million for his predecessor Dejan Lovren.
According to Opta, the departing Croatian defender has already made no fewer than seven errors leading to a goal or shot this season – a Premier League high – while Alderweireld has yet to make a single such mistake. Not that he’s a player afraid to attempt the ambitious option.
Alderweireld has hit more than 80 accurate long passes so far this season, placing him among the top-six outfield players in the Premier League – just behind Steven Gerrard and Cesc Fabregas on that score. His distribution from deep has developed into an important asset for Koeman’s Southampton.
Such is his composure on the ball, Alderweireld has even been required to step into midfield at various points during Southampton’s recent injury crisis. That’s what was needed in the home game against Manchester City when Saints lost Morgan Schneiderlin at the midway point and it was telling that all three City goals came after Alderweireld was moved from the centre of defence.
Prior to that, Southampton had conceded only three goals in the seven-and-a-half games he’d played at the back, including five consecutive home wins. Indeed, there were six clean sheets in Alderweireld’s first eight appearances and he’s succeeded in acting as an ideal foil for assured skipper Jose Fonte.
His positional sense has seen him make more blocks than any Southampton player, while he has also made more clearances – some of them off the goal-line – per 90 minutes than any of his team-mates. With the pace to extricate himself from difficulty when needed, it’s a formidable combination and there’s a sense that Koeman has got hold of his man at the perfect moment.
Brought up in the Ajax school having signed for them as a 15-year-old when Koeman was the first-team coach and Sunday’s opponent Louis van Gaal was the club’s technical director, Alderweireld knows all about the need to be comfortable on the ball. But having spent a year with Simeone, the man he refers to as “tactically, the best coach I have ever seen”, he also has the defensive nous.
It’s more than a happy coincidence. It’s something Koeman had actively noted. He knew what he was signing. “He played for Atletico Madrid and maybe last season Atletico Madrid had the best defence in Europe,” said Koeman. “He learned a lot because he was playing for Ajax and at Ajax it is more important to play with the ball. He learned a lot about the defensive tactics of the coach.”
Koeman admits he’d like Alderweireld to stay beyond the season and despite Simeone’s suggestion that the defender will return, interest from elsewhere is likely to be as big a stumbling block to Southampton keeping hold of the Belgian as the prospect of a return to Madrid.
Naturally, Alderweireld is circumspect in his statements. “I’m really enjoying Southampton,” he said recently. “They are very professional, they are going to the top with their own philosophy. Maybe next year. You never know. I don’t say yes, I don’t say no. I’m just focusing on the moment now.”
Right now that’s a trip to Old Trafford to face a Manchester United team with defensive issues of their own. And so, it wouldn’t be a shock if the best defender on show is wearing Southampton’s No 17 shirt.
Watch Manchester United v Southampton on Sky Sports 1 HD from 3.30pm on Sunday
