Wimmer on our defensive set-ups

Kevin Wimmer says our centre-halves feel at home with either three or four at the back – and they train for both eventualities.

Austrian international Kevin lined up alongside fellow central defenders Toby Alderweireld and Cameron Carter-Vickers during Sunday’s 2-0 win over Aston Villa in the FA Cup, with the trio flanked on the right and left by Kieran Trippier and Ben Davies.

It’s a formation that we’ve seen in a number of recent matches in the Premier League with the likes of Jan Vertonghen, Eric Dier, Kyle Walker and Danny Rose all playing their roles to fine effect.

Following Toby’s substitution with 20 minutes to go against Villa, we seamlessly reverted to a back four scenario and Kevin believes the players’ ability to cope with either formation is serving us well.

“We train for this every week so everybody knows what he has to do when we have three at the back or four at the back,” said the 24-year-old. “We train for everything so it’s not a big problem when the manager says during the game that we want to change the formation because everybody in the team knows what to do.

“It’s nice that we can play different formations – we changed to a back four again for the last 20 minutes on Sunday and still did well.”

Our clash with Villa at White Hart Lane presented Kevin with an opportunity to reprise his central defensive partnership with Toby for the first time since their tandem excellence last season.

Unsurprisingly, the former 1. FC Köln star says he relishes the chance to operate alongside the experienced Belgian international.

“I think three at the back is a very nice formation because you always have so many players next to you when you are defending,” he said. “It’s also nice when you play next to Toby like Cameron and myself did on Sunday. It’s always good to have a man like him next to you because he’s very safe, very good on the ball, he wins the ball, he makes very good passes and he’s a great defender all-round.”