In order to secure a spot on Belgium’s World Cup squad, Toby Alderweireld needs more playing time at Tottenham Hotspur. That’s according to Belgian national team manager Roberto Martinez. Belgium is loaded with both talent and experience, and some consider them a dark horse World Cup title contender in Russia this summer.
Of course, Belgium has had very high expectations in previous World Cups and failed to live up to them, but this year’s side will see a lot of competition for roster spots. There are a lot of strong options in central defense for Martinez, including ahead of Alderweireld’s Spurs teammate Jan Vertonghen and Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany.
Because of injury, Alderweireld has not featured in Premier League competition since October, but he did however start, and play the full 90 minutes yesterday in Belgium’s rout over Saudi Arabia. Alderweireld is running out of chances to get more playing time and impress Martinez enough to earn that spot on the team.
Spurs have nine games remaining, eight in league play and also the FA Cup semifinal versus Manchester United. They will have 10 games if they can beat United and advance to the FA Cup final.
“Every player needs to get a really good period of football now. Seven weeks is not a lot of time,” Martinez said.
“Certain players that play a lot of minutes, the playing time now is not essential, but [for] other players who have not played that much – and Toby can be one of those – it is important.”
“I saw him really sharp during the camp and [against Saudi Arabia] it was great to see that he was really strong in the last 15 minutes physically. And he lasted 90 minutes in a really good way.”
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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