Ben Davies has admitted the level of detail Antonio Conte and his coaching staff go into during training sessions means that every single player is fully aware of their exact responsibilities during each match.
Spurs put in an extremely disciplined showing at Anfield on Saturday against a Liverpool side who have looked unstoppable at home over recent months.
The away side managed to restrict the Reds to barely any clear-cut chances and came away with a deserved 1-1 draw.
Davies admitted there was a lot of preparation that went into the game and spoke about the clarity that he and his teammates had regarding their responsibilities.
The Welshman told Football.London: “He’s a very detail-orientated manager. All week we’ve been prepping for this game but it’s more a case of we look after ourselves first rather than who we’re playing against.
“We’ve got a way of playing which I think is pretty clear. He’s drilled that into us since he’s arrived and it will be small tweaks based on who we’re playing: how we press, how we defend and I have to say he makes it very, very easy for us out on the pitch.
“You know your role, you know your responsibilities. If this man’s running here, you know where you need to be. If you’re running in this zone, you know where you have to be. The level of detail he works to is incredible.”
MORE SPURS STORIES
Davies was one of Tottenham’s best performers at Anfield and hardly put a foot wrong through the ninety minutes.
The 29-year-old had the unenviable task of marking Mohamed Salah, and along with Ryan Sessegnon, managed to keep the Egyptian quiet.
There was one particularly impressive block from Davies in the second half where he threw himself across Salah’s shot to stop an effort from the edge of the box that was seemingly goal-bound.
When asked about the block, the defender said: “He’s an incredibly dangerous player and when you get him on that left foot, you know he’s going to shoot at some point. I got lucky in a way, I just threw myself at it and got a foot in the way.
“It got me on the leg on my left foot. As defenders, that’s where you want to be. You want to be throwing yourself in front of it and I thought we did that well today.
“We were determined not to concede and even the goal, to concede a deflected goal is sometimes tough to take, especially when you know we’re going to have to suffer a bit in these games.
“You know you’re going to have to defend and we did that pretty well for most of the game.”
Spurs Web Opinion
I do not think Ben Davies still gets the credit he deserves from parts of the Spurs fan base because of the preconceived notions that people have of the 29-year-old from watching him play at left-back.
He has demonstrated since Conte arrived that he is perfectly suited to the left centre-back role, just as he has for Wales in the past.
In fact, had he been a new signing in January, instead of a player who fans already have their minds made up about, a lot of people would be raving about how good a defender he is.
Keep up to date with all the latest Tottenham news and opinion by following SpursWeb’s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts.
