Toby Alderweireld: Tottenham's pseudo-playmaker

10 minutes have passed in Tottenham Hotspur's match against Crystal Palace. Toby Alderweireld receives the ball in his own half, looks up, and sends a long ball towards space in behind the Palace defender Sakho.

Son Heung-min, sprinting valiantly as he always does, latches onto it, and proceeds to cut inside and score. 1-0 to Spurs, with the kind of goal created seemingly out of nowhere by the direct passing of the big man Toby.

For all the creativity of Eriksen, Dele and (arguably this season) Lamela, Toby Alderweireld remains one of the most underrated creative outlets for Tottenham, and yet one whose contract is fast running down.

Toby loves to ping long balls over the top, and he's been doing it for years. He's also turned out to be really, really good at it. 

So much so that, for the past three years, he's completed the most long balls in the league from an outfield player by a landslide (players who made more than 10 appearances). In 2018-19, he was the only outfield player to average above 7 long balls per game (7.1), with his nearest competitors Maguire and David Luiz managing almost 1 less (6.2 and 6.0). Yes, even David Luiz, the man whose most outstanding quality is literally raking long passes from defence, completed less long balls than the Spurs defender.

In 2017-18 and 2016-17, Toby was at it again, completing 7.9 and 7.1 long passes per game respectively (albeit only in 13 appearances in 2017-18). He's arguably been the best long passer in the league for a few years running now. And this form has carried over into this season, making 6.2 passes per game, second only to Paul Pogba's 7.

Spurs supporters have become very accustomed to the Toby long pass. The sight of the Belgian in his own half, taking a step back only to blast one over the opposing defence is extremely common, and more often than not, extremely effective.

When the quick flashy passing and the powerful, curling shots fail to manifest in any chances on goal, Alderweireld takes it upon himself to completely bypass the defenders and send direct balls over the top, Burnley-style. Against the narrow blocks of Villa and Newcastle this season, a frustrated Toby was often spotted launching hopeful balls in the direction of the goal, praying for runners to latch onto them, and this came to fruition against Palace. It is clear to see that when Spurs fail to break down tough, defensive teams, Alderweireld's long passes are usually the direct Plan B.

And this has been extremely effective given the quick, interchangeable movement of the mobile forward line of Son, Dele, and Lucas, catching opponents off-guard and creating space in behind the defence.

Even if his long balls do not directly lead to a shot at goal, the mere punt of the ball into the opposing half creates potential knockdowns or layoffs into onrushing runners - Fernando Llorente's main role last season - stifling the opposing defence and initating quick attacks.

However, this is where problems can surface in the future. In Toby, Spurs have arguably the league's best ball-playing defender, but he's turning 31 next March and not getting any younger.

The higher-ups have also somehow managed to let him run down the last year of his contract extension, and even inserted a £25m release clause, which they were admittedly very lucky to not have had any suitors for.

This makes for a bleak future in the Tottenham backline - no other centre-back comes close to the ball-playing ability that Spurs have in Alderweireld. His past season's tally of 7.1 long balls per game tops the Spurs charts, more than doubling the next best of 3.1 per game by his partner in crime Vertonghen.

Toby even made more long passes than his own goalkeeper, with Lloris only averaging 6.7 per game, a damning statistic considering Lloris actually takes goal kicks. Toby made 240 accurate long passes last season, more than the 221 made by his goalkeeper, and more than twice of anyone else in the entire team.

To put that into perspective, his fellow centre-backs Vertonghen, Sanchez, Dier and Foyth only made 197 long passes combined, with 69, 62, 45 and 21 respectively throughout the entire season.

There's a reason why he's played every single minute of the current season, and why Poch has only chosen to rotate his centre-half partner instead of him - without Toby, Tottenham lack that crucial long ball from deep to spark attacks. When you lose the guy who's been responsible for almost half of your direct play from the back, your attack is inevitably going to suffer.

Unfortunately, the very fact that one Toby Alderweireld approaching his early 30s has been making more direct passes than the rest of the Spurs defence combined does not look good.

His partner Jan is 2 years older and also having his contract run out, while his replacements Sanchez, Dier and Foyth offer much of a muchness from deep. The Colombian looks too afraid to punt a long pass and seems uncomfortable on the ball, Dier's injury concerns and temperament outweigh his other qualities at the moment, and the card-happy Argentine has to first worry about the basics of defending without fouling, let alone even talk about ball-playing from deep.

Speaking of defending without fouling, the Belgian pair are one of the safest and most secure partnerships in the league. They made only 10 fouls each in the entirety of the last season, the lowest of any first-team Spurs player.

In contrast, Sanchez and Dier double that each, while Foyth accumulates the most bookings per 90 out of any other player in the squad. Of course, statistics do not tell the whole story, but anyone who has watched Dier or Foyth play will know that they are extremely prone to fouls and carded offenses. Dier especially tends to rile up the opposing team and even the referee, which could in itself warrant a booking. Foyth himself conceded two penalties alone against Wolves last year. Granted, that was only his debut, but he went on to get sent off against Bournemouth and as of now looks an extremely risky defender.

Across a whole season, this risk from the Sanchez-Dier-Foyth trio could amass over 5-10 set pieces and penalties that may prove to derail the team's ambitions. Pundits and supporters may rave about the performance against Crystal Palace - but time is fast running out for the Spurs defence. We may soon see a Sanchez-Dier or Sanchez-Foyth centre-half pairing commonplace as soon as even January, and if both Belgians do indeed fail to renew their contracts, this may become a formality.

While Pochettino and the media seem caught up with the potential loss of Eriksen, the chief playmaker, and Vertonghen, the captain and leader at the back, the loss of Toby is arguably an even bigger concern than the other two stars.

Toby combines the calm and assured leadership of a top-class defender with the ball-playing creativity and directness expected of deep-lying playmakers, and is growing ever more crucial to this Spurs side.

The loss of Eriksen might hopefully be mitigated by the introduction of Lo Celso and the resurgence of Erik Lamela this season, while Pochettino's dropping of Jan in the first few games reveals an underlying realization that the 32-year-old isn't going to be able to play forever, and that a transitional changing of the guard is needed.

However, while Sanchez and the others could arguably stake a claim for Vertonghen's position in the future, Toby's pseudo-playmaker defender role seems to be irreplaceable at the moment.

Nobody in the squad as of now can replicate his long-range passing as consistently and as effectively as he does, and when he finally leaves or retires (hopefully at Spurs), Pochettino and the team will struggle to replace him.