Jan Vertonghen


When you look at defensive errors you have to look at the root cause of the problem, which is often in midfield rather than the defence. defending is a team game, the back four have to be a very well drilled unit who understand totally their role and how they must react to whatever their defensive partners are doing.

Jan Vertonghen was a rock against Manchester City but acknowledges the team as a whole produced an excellent defensive display. If the midfield are working their socks off the the job of the defenders, even though it is still tough, is eaier. Cutting out through balls, stopping the pass before it has been made through positioning, getting a foot in , a nudge , a tackle or shadowing and forcing a player to play sideways takes concentration. A slip and the pass has been made, the defence are under pressure.

He reveals we targetted a good start to the season despite our fixture list, Everton, Liverpool and Manchester City have all been tackled in the first seven games, City of course after a Champions League trip to Russia. The game showed we can cope with the dual competitions, some suspected we couldn't, some thought our squad too weak. The system through is the strength, a player is just a component of the system.

The Kaizen approach improves a little detail at a time to add up to big improvements. It is clar we are doing that and players are making one small improvement after another resulting in the type of performance we showed against City.

For a coach that now becomes a benchmark, that now becomes a standard to maintain and then improve upon.

Jan Vertonghen

On our defensive work
“I thought we were very good as a team. I think it would be a bit disrespectful to say that it was just because of the back four and Hugo that we defended well. The guys did so much work for us and that makes it easier for us.”
On solid start to season 
“We want to make a fortress of the Lane and we wanted to start well – it’s the best start in the Premier League for Tottenham and that’s what we wanted. We had to beat a couple of big teams and we delivered and that makes me very proud.”