The players from Tottenham Hotspur’s iconic side of 2018/19, in which they reached the Champions League final under Mauricio Pochettino, are all slowly beginning to leave the club.
Talisman striker Harry Kane was one of the most recent players from that famous side to leave the club. The England captain joined Bayern Munich last summer, for a fee of £86.4m, where he has scored 43 goals in 43 games so far.
The likes of Christian Eriksen, now at Manchester United via Inter and Brentford, Dele Alli who is now an Everton player, and Kieran Trippier, who is now at Newcastle, have all left in recent years. Meanwhile, legendary centre-back duo Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghan now play at Royal Antwerp and Anderlecht respectively.
Just a couple of the members of that Spurs squad remain at the club today, including Son Heung-min. The legendary attacker has scored 161 goals and has 83 assists in 403 games for the Lilywhites.
However, the other player from that squad who still remains in the first team today, has struggled for minutes under Ange Postecoglou this season, and a tough performance against Arsenal in last weekend’s North London derby has led to people calling for him to be dropped.
Ben Davies' stats vs Arsenal
The player in question here is Welshman Ben Davies, who had a tough afternoon at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last weekend against his side’s biggest rivals. There is no doubt Davies is a modern-day Spurs stalwart, having played 330 games for the club, scoring nine and assisting 23.
However, his opportunities this season have been few and far between. Davies has featured in just 19 games in all competitions for Postecoglou’s side, with 17 of those coming in the Premier League.
Davies is one of the highest earners at Spurs, who have a fairly low wage expenditure compared to the other ‘big 6’ sides. He is the tenth-highest earner at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, on £80k-per-week, according to Capology.
Against Arsenal, Davies was directly up against Bukayo Saka, and he had a tough afternoon, ultimately handed a poor 4/10 rating courtesy of FFC's player ratings.
As per Sofascore, the 31-year-old won just six out of his 11 ground duels, and one out of three aerial duels. Not only that, he lost possession ten times and was dribbled past on two occasions.
It was certainly not an easy game for Davies who let Saka cut in all too easily for Arsenal's second goal of the game. The Wales international slotted into the side to replace the injured Destiny Udogie, who will miss the rest of the season and the Euros.
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ByMatt DawsonApr 28, 2024 Who might replace Davies in the starting XI
Former Spurs player Jamie O’Hara believes that his former side need to “get rid” of Davies because “he’s not good enough”. Indeed, this is a harsh statement, given he has played 330 games for the club.
With that being said, wanting him dropped for the game against Chelsea on Thursday is justifiable, given he will be coming up against Cole Palmer, one of the best players in the Premier League this season. Palmer has 20 goals and nine assists in 29 games in the league. If he struggled with Saka then another left-footer of the Chelsea star's calibre won't end well.
Should Postecoglou decide to drop Davies from the starting lineup, there is one leading candidate to replace him; Emerson Royal. The Brazilian is normally a right-back, but five of his 21 appearances in all competitions this season have come from left-back, instead.
The 25-year-old has scored once this season and is yet to register an assist. He is a good defender, averaging 4.59 tackles and interceptions per 90 minutes as per Fbref. That places him in the top 6%. Not only that, Emerson averages 6.56 ball recoveries per 90 minutes, ranking him in the top 5%.
An alternative option to Emerson could be to bring January signing Radu Dragusin into the side and push Mickey van de Ven out to left-back. The 23-year-old is naturally a centre-back but has played on that side 15 times in his career, although not since joining Spurs last summer.
Postecoglou certainly has some decisions to make this week regarding the starting left-back against Chelsea.
He may well decide to stick with Davies and show faith in the player, go with Emerson or even the less experienced choice of bringing Dragusin into the team and pushing Van de Ven out to left-back. Either way, the man tasked with the job will have a tough night ahead, against Palmer, one of the deadliest players in the top flight.
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