Jose Mourinho has talked about how Sergio Reguilon and Matt Doherty have adapted to life at Spurs and showered praise on Reguilon for the way he has performed in his first season in the Premier League.
Reguilon’s arrival last summer was overshadowed by the signing of Gareth Bale, with the two deals being announced on the same day.
However, the left-back has proven to be one of the best acquisitions of the seven new faces that arrived through the door last summer.
While the Spaniard has established himself as first-choice, Ben Davies has also had plenty of game time under his belt this campaign and Mourinho admitted that he is happy with the different qualities that both players bring to the table.
The Tottenham boss told Football.London: “We have two very good left-backs. I am so happy with that. Also because they are different players. If one is better than the other in some aspects, that also applies to the other one. I am very happy.
“Of course, Reggy comes from a culture of very technical football. He was born and made in a winning club, a club that is always playing to win, where since you are a kid you are educated in that direction.
“He goes forward, he is quick, he is creative, he assists, he is enthusiastic. He has things to learn of course, he is a young guy and the Premier League is a different animal than La Liga – not better, not worse, just a different animal – where he needs different qualities to survive and to succeed.
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“However, first season in the Premier League is normally not easy for a certain kind of player. I am very happy with him.”
Mourinho also admitted that the plan in signing Doherty was always to use him on a rotational basis with Serge Aurier rather than to have the former Wolves man taking over the mantle from the Ivorian as first-choice.
When asked if he is surprised by Doherty having to play second-fiddle to Aurier for the majority of the season so far, the Portuguese coach responded: “We cannot do it with one right-back for 50 or 60 matches. The plan was always to have two players per position basically. Ben Davies and Reguilon, Kane and Vinicius and so on.
“The plan was never to get a right back and stay only with one right-back. We have both. I don’t have the stats but independent of injuries I believe they both played a reasonable number of matches divided by all the competitions that we have played. We are fine.”
There were reports of a falling out between Mourinho and Aurier during half-time of Tottenham’s 3-1 defeat to Liverpool in January but the Spurs boss refused to delve into what happened between him and the former Paris Saint-Germain defender.
He added: “How I handled the situation at half-time against Liverpool? always the same. I make my decisions for the good of the team, sometimes I am right and other times no, but I always do it for the team.
“I always go back to the extreme situation of Eric Dier against Olympiacos, where I made the substitution after 25 minutes. I always do it for the team and if sometimes players are not happy, that’s life.”
Spurs Web Opinion
I always find it appalling to see the type of disrespect that Ben Davies gets from a section of Spurs fans from social media. He has been a great servant for the club over the years and always gives his all. The Welshman is a valuable squad player is underrated as a defender.
Having a player with his attributes gives us more options in terms of how we set up as he can be used in a flat back four as well as in a lopsided formation like we played last season, with the right-back playing as a winger. He has also shown that he is very useful playing as a left-centre-back in a back 3/back 5.
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