Not for the first time during his short but eventful period in charge of Tottenham, some of Ange Postecoglou’s decisions provoked a mix of intrigue, scorn and admiration ahead of his side’s game against Aston Villa.
Debate over Postecoglou’s skyscraper-high defensive line against Chelsea carried the football news agenda for a good few days; a starting line-up against Villa with no established central defenders or defensive midfielders proved a worthy sequel.
Critics will continue to assert that Postecoglou’s steadfast commitment to an expansive, high-risk and high-reward style of play regardless of circumstances will do more harm than good. Three successive defeats are proof that the wheels have come off, so the theory goes.
But that glosses over how close Spurs have come to triumph in spite of adversity. Eric Dier and Son Heung-min were a matter of inches away from bringing a dishevelled team down to nine men level with Chelsea. Against Villa, Dejan Kulusevski and Pedro Porro hit a post each, Son had a disallowed hat-trick from hell and a plethora of xG friendly chances were spurned.
“The reality is this is how we want to play football and that’s that,” Ben Davies tells i. “This is how we train and what we push for every single day and I don’t think you’ll see us altering ourselves very much under this manager.”
In other words, this is Angeball – and it is here to stay.
“Ange has come in and done incredibly well,” Davies adds.
“We’ve played an exciting brand of football and I think it’s what the fans have wanted to see. The last few results haven’t been exactly as we’d have wanted but at least we’ve shown a style that we want to utilise and how we want to go forward with that.”
In the opening months of project Postecoglou, Davies had a watching brief. It wasn’t until their 10th Premier League game of the season – a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace – that Davies made his first start under the Australian. But with Micky van de Ven out injured and Cristian Romero suspended, he has been catapulted right into the thick of it, starting back-to-back matches in an unfamiliar position.
Davies has played as a central defender before, notably for Wales and under Postecoglou’s predecessor Antonio Conte, but rarely in a back four. And seldom, if ever, in a team that squeezes up the pitch to such an extent.
“I haven’t played a lot of football [as a centre-back] in a back four and there have been some tough games to come in and do that,” he admits. “But look, I’m enjoying it and feel like I can help the team in that situation.”
On the high line, he adds: “We try to keep a strong starting position now and we try to play as much football on the front as we can and when we win it back we want to be as close to the opposition’s goal as we can. It’s different of course but I think it’s something that’s been working well for us this season so far.”
In the two full matches that Spurs have played without the formidable Van de Ven and Romero axis, Postecoglou has used three different players in the middle of defence. Of the trio, Davies is the only one to have started both. Eric Dier, a natural centre-back dropped out for Emerson Royal last time out. If, as expected, Davies maintains his place in the XI against Manchester City, he’ll be up against Erling Haaland next.
That Davies is apparently Spurs’ third-choice in his second position speaks to the trust that Postecoglou evidently has in him. That reliability has underpinned the Welshman’s career at Spurs, which now spans five different managers.
Davies might not possess the sprinting pace of Van de Ven, nor the combativeness and aerial qualities of Romero, but he is tactically disciplined, positionally aware and an intelligent reader of the game. He was named man of the match in Spurs’ 2-1 loss to Wolves.
He is an avid reader off the pitch too. Davies speaks to i fresh from participating in a Premier League Primary Stars and National Literacy Trust workshop at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, aimed at encouraging children between the ages of 5-11 to develop their literacy skills and build their confidence in reading, writing and spoken language.
“It’s a very worthwhile cause that we’re a part of here,” Davies says. “It’s very important for these kids to understand the importance of good literacy. Being able to use the stadium and bring these kids into a footballing environment [is great]. Football is such a powerful voice it can really give these kids a bit of a boost and encouragement to get their heads into some books and focus on their education.”
During a National Literacy Trust campaign in 2015, Davies revealed that Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is one of his favourite all-time books. The 30-year-old has swapped reading HP to reading about NFTs since earning a 2:1 in Business and Economics in 2021. Number Go Up, Zeke Faux’s account of the rise and fall of cryptocurrency, is the book currently perched on his bedside table.
He remains a Potterhead at heart, though, and has some competition in that regard at Spurs.
“That was probably the first introduction to a proper good read that I had as a kid,” he says, before laughing off the prospect of emulating team-mate James Maddison and getting a Harry Potter-related tattoo. The Spurs playmaker has Harry’s scar, wand and the mythical 9 and 3/4 Kings Cross platform inked on his right forearm.
Maddison is one of 10 Spurs players currently unavailable due to injury or suspension, with Rodrigo Bentancur, only recently returned from a serious ACL lay-off, the latest casualty.
“It’s obviously sad what happened to Rodrigo,” Davies says of the Uruguayan, who faces 10 weeks out with ankle ligament damage after a foul by Villa defender Matty Cash.
“He’s someone who has worked so hard for so long to get back fit. He’s been continuously positive throughout. It was a shame to see him go off but it’s football. Unfortunately, it happens and now the focus is on getting Rodrigo back as fit as he can be.”
“Look we have a lot of injuries but the reality is in football people don’t really care too much, it’s about the results and where you finish in the table that will matter,” Davies adds. “We can sit here and think about who we haven’t got or give it a good go with who we have.”
Giving it a go is a prerequisite for any group of players managed by Postecoglou, regardless of which players are available. Spurs are in the eye of a storm but the plan is to battle through it rather than seek refuge.
Like any book, Spurs’ season can be compartmentalised into three parts: the beginning, the middle and the end. The start was better than expected, the middle is proving challenging, but what of the end?
“We’re going to stick to what we have been doing, stick to our style, stick to our methods and after that, it’s taking each game as it comes and we will see where we are come the end of the season,” Davies says. “We’ll keep doing exactly what we’re doing right until the end.”
Premier League Primary Stars reached more than 1.1 million pupils in 2023. Find out how you can get involved at their official website.
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