Cartilage Free Captain's post-season player review series continues today with Welsh left back Ben Davies, who joined Tottenham Hotspur last summer from Swansea.
Ben Davies
Goals: 0
Assists: 1
Minutes played: 1,521
What went right?
When Davies was on the pitch for Spurs, he showed himself to be a more than capable defender. He was defensively responsible and showed the ability to be a decent crosser when he got forward. He's not as dynamic offensively as his counterpart, Danny Rose, but that's not really his game anyway. Still 22 years old, Davies has time to fine tune his game, but he has a nice foundation of skills do build on.
What went wrong?
Well, Danny Rose, for starters. No one was predicting Rose would have his breakout season in 2014-15, and as a result Davies was relegated to a backup role. It's really bad luck, since when Davies was on the field he generally played well. He just didn't play well enough to pry Rose out of the starting spot.
His season came to a premature end in April against Southampton when he dislocated his shoulder. Hopefully he's ready to go for the new season in August, especially if Manchester City or someone else decides they want to spend a silly amount of money on Rose.
What now?
Just heal up, I suppose. Davies is an excellent insurance policy to have in case Rose's 2014-15 form was a fluke or he ends up shipping off to a new team. It would've been nice to get a larger sample size from him this year, but we can't always get what we want, can we? I'd feel comfortable going with Davies as a first choice left back, and even better if it's still him and Rose next season.
Grade: 3 Chirpys