Jan Vertonghen was the single most important player to Tottenham’s 4-0 aggregate win over Borussia Dortmund, but even then he has demanded Spurs improve for their forthcoming quarter-final.
Vertonghen has been playing for Spurs for seven years now but he has never been as good as he is right now, as he proved against Dortmund twice in a row.
In the first leg at Wembley last month Vertoghen shone at left wing-back, not even his favourite position. He was immaculate at the back, shackling Jadon Sancho, daring going forward, providing the cross for Heung-Min Son’s crucial opener, and then scoring the second to drag the game Spurs’ way.
On Tuesday night in Dortmund he was back in his favoured position, on the left of three centre-backs, and he produced a faultless defensive performance. Spurs had to survive one whole half of intense Dortmund pressure but Vertonghen did not put a foot wrong. There was one famous tackle on Marco Reus, who had just skipped past Davinson Sanchez with a dummy. Without that tackle, who knows how the game would have turned out. But there were other moments too, not least one action early in the second half when he knew Reus was running in behind him, and he turned away from him with the ball with characteristic style.
Taken together, the two performances show off all the skills that have made Vertonghen one of the best defenders in the Premier League this decade: intelligent reading of the game, technical precision, careful use of the ball, mobility across the pitch. He turns 32 next month and is not as quick as he was, but he is now so assured and confident that he can survive just as well anyway. And while Toby Alderweireld, who joined Spurs three years after Vertonghen, is likely to leave this year, Vertonghen looks set to continue.
There is now an strong argument that Vertonghen is Spurs’ greatest centre-back of the modern era. Ledley King will always be a cult hero for being a local lad, and always carries the sense that he could have been even better than he was. But Vertonghen is surely unmatchable for top-level consistency, the rock of a team that has regularly been in the top three of the Premier League and is now in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
If Spurs go even further than this then Vertonghen’s legend will be assured forever, and when he spoke after Tuesday’s win, he said Spurs would have to improve next month. “Maybe yes,” he said when asked if this was Spurs’ best ever defensive display. “But we gave chances away. We were lucky we didn’t concede especially in the first half. In the second half it was a bit better but it was important for us to go into the dressing room at 0-0. And after then, there were a couple of great saves from Hugo, we took a bit of their belief away.”
Vertonghen did take heart from their double clean sheet against one of the best attacking team in Europe. But for him, there was still more to come. Not least because Dortmund dominated possession in both first halves, and Spurs will need to see more of the ball to beat better sides than this. “We can still do a lot better,” Vertonghen said. “We played a good second half at Wembley and then we were good defensively. So it’s good we can defend as a team and hopefully we can show a bit more in possession in the next two games. We’ve done well. It’s time to freshen up a bit. I can’t wait for the draw.”
