Alderweireld can start again with Poch — if he stays
MAURICIO Pochettino has promised to hand Toby Alderweireld a blank slate as he looks to bring the disaffected defender back into the fray at Tottenham.
Alderweireld fell from favour midway through last season, his position at the club compounded by demands for a significant pay rise and the arrival of Davinson Sanchez.
After returning from a hamstring injury in February, it was widely expected that the Belgian would be sold in the summer.
But reports of a move to Manchester United failed to materialise. As such, Alderweireld remains on the Tottenham books for now, and Pochettino insists the season ahead will be a “new chapter” for the centre-back.
“I don’t want to explain nothing about individual players,” the Argentine said ahead of tonight’s clash with United. “I explained all that I needed to explain during the pre-season. Now, on the pitch, we need to be professional. Wait for my decision, and if my decision is for them to play, sure they may not be happy if they don’t play. Sure it can be difficult to be happy because the players want to play.”
When asked if players would be starting from scratch this season, Pochettino said: “Of course. First of all I tell them. And then I tell you. For me, all the players that are here start from zero.
“It is so important to give opportunities, not because of last season or two seasons ago. For me it is a new chapter.
When I signed the new contract here, for me, it is like I’ve arrived from the first day. No prejudging. You start from zero. You can deserve to play under our judgement. It is not to see what happened in the past.”
Alderweireld has already made his return to first-team life this season, having started alongside Jan Vertonghen and Sanchez in last weekend’s 3-1 win over Fulham.
Explaining his decision to deploy a back-three against the newly-promoted Londoners, Pochettino said: “Sometimes my decisions are difficult for the people to understand. It’s not easy, but I considered the starting XI against Fulham was the best starting XI to win the game.
“Like I am going to consider for the next game the best starting XI and maybe make a few changes too. This season is a challenge. It is a completely different challenge for us because it is only three weeks since the players who arrived from the World Cup have been training.
“You need six, seven weeks to start to compete in a normal season and that is why sometimes you need to be careful how you react after the effort from 90 minutes. Of course you are going to do some changes, some names, sometimes I keep the same formation or change our formation.