Spurs have been criticised for their style of play under Jose Mourinho, but Toby Alderweireld says a lot of their football is about them reacting to the tactics of their opponents.
The Lilywhites are now happy for their opponents to have a lot of the ball while they soak up the pressure and hit them on the counter-attack.
With Harry Kane and Son Heung-min in top form, Spurs have been able to inflict pain and losses on their opponents for much of this season.
While most fans think that they just prepare for games to come and defend against their opponents, Alderweireld says that they usually do that in reaction to how the game unfolds.
He says some of the teams they play against like Liverpool and Manchester City have so much quality that they usually have to stay solid at the back and use their limited possession to hurt them on the counter.
Alderweireld said via Mail Online: ‘It doesn’t bother us. You can’t put everything on us. Sometimes the opponent is good. It’s the Premier League.
‘Arsenal have a good team, City have a good team, Liverpool have a good team. They want to press us and sometimes it’s difficult for us to get underneath their press.
‘Then it’s a totally different game you are asking from us. Then we have to fight, then we have to defend, we have to be solid.
‘I think that we did it so good that people think we are just doing it because we are so good at it. We are not arrogant to say, “Every game we decide how we want to play”.
‘No, we want to play in their half, we want to play attacking football, but sometimes the opponent has so much quality and plays very well and it’s difficult for us.
‘Then there’s a reality check, like, “Look, if this happens, we do this, and then we defend, and then we try to hurt them in the counter-attack”. It’s not only our game, or our decision, to do this.’