Alasdair Gold believes that Antonio Conte could hand Ben Davies a start for Tottenham Hotspur this weekend.
Conte may well have to shake things up this weekend as his Spurs side prepare for their third game in a week and also have another Champions League tie on Wednesday making it four in a very short period of time.
This accompanied by the usual ever-present Emerson Royal being suspended following his red card in the North London derby, Conte could be forced into a few changes throughout his side and Davies could well earn a recall into the side after missing the last three league games, according to Gold.
Gold has claimed on the Gold and Guest podcast that Davies may well replace Clement Lenglet against Brighton on Saturday night.
(1:04:50) “I think he’ll probably stick with a back three, maybe Davies for Lenglet I guess you could bring him in to start in that kind of game.”
TIF Thoughts on Ben Davies…
Who should start for Spurs this weekend?
Davies!
Lenglet!
It wasn’t too long ago that Conte was full of praise for his Welsh defender and was very much wax lyrical about him, but after picking up a knee injury not so long ago, he may now have a battle on his hands with Clement Lenglet for that starting spot on the left-hand side.
Conte wasn’t the only one that was praising Davies last season with former Spurs ace Michael Dawson labelling him as ‘perfect‘ for the Italian and his system at Tottenham, so he will be hoping to rediscover that sort of form.
Under Conte last season, Davies started all but one league game as the Italian saw him as clearly important in his backline playing as one of the three centre-backs, something he’s done for Wales on numerous occasions.
However, with a natural left-footed centre-back in Lenglet having now arrived at the club, Davies appears to now have some serious competition to get a starting spot at Spurs, but that will be healthy for the squad and Conte will be hoping it pushes both of them on to become better players.
And, the Frenchman was given the joint highest rating from Spurs’ clash with Arsenal last weekend, so perhaps it would be a bit of a surprise. Especially as he also received the joint highest rating against Frankfurt in the Lilywhites’ last outing too.