Rodrigo Bentancur has revealed that Tottenham have worked hard on their tactical plan against Manchester City and insisted that the Lilywhites can get the right result this evening.
Despite Tottenham falling to back-to-back home losses recently, Bentancur’s display was one of the few bright sparks for the North London club in both matches.
In his cameo off the bench against Southampton and as well in his first Premier League start against Wolves, the 24-year-old looked tidy in possession and showed excellent defensive awareness.
Bentancur has now admitted that he is still getting used to the demands of the Premier League.
The former Juventus man told Sky Sports: “I think it’s going to take time to settle in because the Italian and English leagues are quite different, especially when you come to think about the intensity and the speed of the game in this country compared to Italy.
“This settling in period will take a bit of work. It’s something I’m currently working really hard on and I’m hoping to get used to English football in as short a time as possible.
“My main role [as a midfielder] is to close down space, cover my defence if someone steps out to attack, help my teammates recover the ball and then start the play.
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“I’m more defensive than offensive, but the main thing is that I give 100 per cent and want to help my teammates in whatever way I can. If I can score some goals and get some assists this season, that’ll be more than welcome.”
There are certainly very few tougher tests in the Premier League than playing City at the Etihad stadium and Bentancur admitted that Spurs cannot make any mistakes this evening.
However, the midfielder insisted that Tottenham can get a result if they stick to what they have worked on in preparation for the game.
He said about taking on the Premier League champions: “Whenever you play against Man City you know you’ve got to concentrate 100 per cent against them for the entire match. If you give City even half a centimetre where you shouldn’t they can punish you, so it’s all about getting our mentality right for this game.
“We’ve worked so hard in training and we’ve got a tactical plan to take there. We want to make sure we apply that tactic and what we’ve been working hard on, to put in a good performance and get the right result.”
Bentancur also admitted that he has a lot of admiration for Kevin De Bruyne and that he is excited to go up against the City star for the first time.
“De Bruyne is someone I’ve followed a lot,” he said. “He is one of the best midfielders in the world. It’s a good test for me early in my career, so if I’m selected it’ll be a real chance to put me through my paces.”
The Uruguayan international would have certainly hoped for a smoother start to his Spurs career but he insisted that the losses against Southampton and Wolves serve as added motivation for the side to get a result at the Etihad.
When asked about the two successive defeats against Wolves and Southampton, he said: “It wasn’t the start to English football that I had dreamed for. Things can happen like this, it doesn’t always go your way. But what it does do, it focuses your mind when you have two defeats and we’ll be going all out at Manchester City to try and win the game.
“In those two defeats we created lots of chances but you’ve got to take them, and we didn’t convert them how we wanted to. But we’re really focused on the next match. We’ve trained super hard this week, and we’ll try our best to go and put in a positive performance up at City.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Based on this interview, as well as the few other ones he has given, it is evident that Bentancur has a winning mentality and an excellent attitude. Apart from his obvious qualities as a player, perhaps his personality was also a key factor why Conte and Paratici decided that he would be a good fit.
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