Vertonghen v Alderweireld: One star better in six key areas this season

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Taking a closer look at the Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton centre-backs’ Premier League performances this season.

According to a report in the Telegraph last week, Tottenham Hotspur have turned their attention to Southampton’s on-loan defender Toby Alderweireld, following the news that Winston Reid had signed a new deal at West Ham United.

Tottenham have a number of centre-backs currently at their disposal, with some more likely to remain at White Hart Lane next season than others.

Jan Vertonghen and Eric Dier have formed an impressive partnership in recent weeks, although Federico Fazio can count himself unlucky not to have played more having also performed well with the Belgian international.

As for Vlad Chiriches and Younes Kaboul, only time will tell what their futures hold. But if Tottenham really do attempt to sign the Southampton loan star in a permanent deal from his parent-club Atletico Madrid, it may be interesting to note how he currently performs when compared with Vertonghen.

As can been seen, the Tottenham defender is out-performing the Southampton man in six key areas in the league this season.

Vertonghen has a better passing accuracy in the league – a full five per cent better than his countryman – while he also averages more tackles, more effective clearances, more duels won, more aerial battles won and more successful interceptions.

In fact, the only areas where Alderweireld trumps the Tottenham man above is in terms of key passes per league match and goals, with the former scoring once for Southampton this season.

Atletico will have the final say on exactly what happens to their player this summer, but the possibility of Southampton or Tottenham qualifying for the Champions League is also likely to be a key factor; which makes for an interesting conclusion to the current campaign.