It is not only the self-awareness. What actually hits dwelling with Ben Davies is the willingness to articulate the way it feels to have all of these eyeballs educated on him; within the stadium and much past – to be on the centre of the insanity.
“This sport comes with insane quantities of strain,” the Tottenham defender says. “And also you’ve seen some gamers discover it extremely troublesome. Let’s be sincere, we’re in a strain cooker as Premier League gamers, of powerful occasions being across the nook. Each motion you do is judged by tens of millions of individuals around the globe. It’s fairly intense.”
The query for Davies is: how does he cope? Or, to place a associated spin on it: how does Ange Postecoglou, because the Tottenham supervisor, create an surroundings for Davies and his teammates to greatest specific themselves? As a result of one other a part of it’s that that is Spurs, a membership synonymous with violent shifts within the temper music.
After they beat Crystal Palace on 27 October, they remained high of the desk with eight wins and two attracts from their opening 10 matches – their greatest begin to a league season since 1960-61, after they completed as champions. They have been nailed on for a top-four end and, who is aware of, even a title problem.
What adopted main as much as the worldwide break was a pair of untamed defeats against Chelsea and Wolves. They not solely conceded 4 occasions towards the previous, they misplaced 4 necessary gamers to harm and suspension – Micky van de Ven, James Maddison, Cristian Romero and Future Udogie. After the Wolves game, after they conceded twice in stoppage time to lose 2-1, folks needed to know whether or not every little thing was falling aside. Do Spurs deal solely in extremes? “That’s as much as you to determine,” Davies says; so calm, virtually softly spoken.
The 30-year-old is sitting in a room that overlooks a number of the membership’s coaching pitches. He’s preparing for Sunday’s go to of Aston Villa; Spurs are fourth, Villa fifth and it guarantees to be a cracker. However on the wall is a wonderful {photograph} of the 26-man squad that Spurs took to Madrid for the 2019 Champions League final towards Liverpool – they misplaced 2-0 – and it does demand a fast look again. “Good occasions, weren’t they?” Davies says. “We knew we have been a superb facet however getting that far was most likely greater than we anticipated. Hey, on one other day, it may have been completely different.”
If the topic at hand is the motivational strategies of managers, then it follows that Mauricio Pochettino’s Champions League closing buildup work ought to get a point out, particularly the thoughts over matter bit when he had his gamers walk barefoot across red-hot coals.
“You’re like: ‘It doesn’t sound so dangerous,’ but it surely’s a really completely different story when it’s proper in entrance of you,” Davies says. “It was just a few strategies, displaying self-confidence and tricking the mind to realising it’s not as dangerous because it truly is.”
What has most struck Davies about Postecoglou is how every little thing he does comes from a spot of affection and respect for the sport. If his gamers can channel that themselves, virtually going again to an age of innocence, then they are going to be freed to carry out. “It’s simply stripping all of it again,” Davies says.
“While you’re a child, it was everybody’s dream to play soccer. All people has achieved that dream by being at this degree however within the supervisor’s mindset, that needs to be our gasoline, the motivation of why you might be right here. Don’t lose sight of that. It’s to be the most effective of you, actually – that private facet of it, why you play soccer within the first place. It’s a superb reminder for folks to have.”
It’s pure to match Postecoglou with Pochettino – inevitable, maybe – and it’s the identical with two of his more moderen predecessors: José Mourinho and Antonio Conte. Davies makes the purpose that “the comparisons are fairly simple taking a look at the place we ended up with Pochettino” but it surely “positively wasn’t easy crusing” within the Argentinian’s first few months in 2014. Mourinho and Conte began extra positively solely to explode and Davies believes the membership is on a extra even keel with Postecoglou, higher set for longer-term progress.
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“When you’re doing well, people get excited by the first sign of any sort of wobble,” Davies says. “It’s no time for panic. If we focus on the next game every single time, don’t get distracted by things going on outside, the narrative, the question marks over style of play or personnel … if we stick together, we’ll hopefully be there or thereabouts at the end.
“We are probably in a mini period right now when a couple of results haven’t gone our way. But we are all determined, knowing the manager has got our back, that we can bounce back. And we’re going to go at it playing our way of football.”
In other words, with a back four squeezing high up the pitch – which against Villa, as at Wolves, is expected to feature Davies in the middle, alongside his good friend Eric Dier.
Davies is into his 10th season at Spurs; he is the longest serving player behind the out-of-favour goalkeeper Hugo Lloris, with 318 appearances to his name. He might have thought he had seen it all but his recall to the starting XI against Wolves posed a stern new test. Davies had played for Postecoglou only in his favoured position of left-back – and not very much at that. “To start as a centre-half in a back four for Spurs … the previous time was maybe under Pochettino – Arsenal away in the League Cup [in December 2018],” Davies says. “We received 2-0. It was when Dele [Alli] got hit with a bottle. Do not forget that one?”
Davies will proceed to take the can-do Postecoglou perspective into battle. “With the excessive defensive position, you’ve simply acquired to be extra concentrated as a result of you realize you don’t have that additional layer of canopy, the deeper you might be,” he says. “However I feel it may give you a false sense of safety if you plant on the sting of your personal field. You invite extra strain, you find yourself having to do much more defending and penalties could be worse in case you mess up on the sting of your field. Whereas you’ve all the time acquired an opportunity the upper up you might be.”
