Tottenham have a big battle on their hands and it’s great news for Mauricio Pochettino
Mauricio Pochettino loves competition for places within his starting XI. He’s got just that between Danny Rose and Ben Davies at the moment.
The International Break is usually a pretty boring time for fans of club football. Unless a key player gets injured, it generally doesn’t mean much to their standing in the Premier League. Danny Rose has proved to be the exception to the rule for Tottenham.
The left back’s excellent play for England against Spain and Switzerland may do wonders for his standing at Spurs. Anyone who watched him play for the Three Lions couldn’t help but be impressed with the energy and pace he played with. Simply put, Rose looked like the player he was for Tottenham two seasons ago.
That’s really bad news for Ben Davies. The Welshman has been the club’s first choice left back for the better part of a year now. Unfortunately, he’s off to a pretty horrid start to the 2018/19 campaign. His mediocre (at best) play opened the door for Rose to start a key match at Manchester United before going on international break. Davies may be in line to lose even more playing time to Rose moving forward.
Don’t expect Pochettino to hand Rose the starting job based on his England exploits, but he certainly kept a close eye on both matches. At the very least, Rose’s fine play will earn him a bigger opportunity to displace Davies in training this week. Expect a real battle to develop between the two prideful players in the coming weeks.
Tottenham fans should hope to see the battle sharpen the skills of both players. Davies is never going to be a star, but he’s a very solid fullback when he’s playing his best football. He has a long way to go before he’s back at that level given the way he’s played lately.
Rose, on the other hand, has the potential to be the best left back in England. He too has a long way to go to reach his full potential again, but he’s showing real signs of progress. Don’t be at all surprised to see him force Pochettino’s hand soon. Spurs could easily end up going back to alternating left backs again until one player really grabs the position by the scruff of the neck.
Next. Toby Alderweireld is starting to put pressure on Spurs. dark
In the end, this is great news for Spurs fans. Pochettino’s teams are at their best when players are forced to work harder by their peers. Such intense competition at left back is going to improve the Spurs product on the pitch.