Tottenham ace Ben Davies leaves Andy Gray stunned with ‘awful’ moment v Wolves
Ben Davies was steady if not spectacular on his return to the Tottenham side in Saturday’s 2-1 loss to Wolves.
The Wales international came into the line-up as one of four changes from the previous weekend’s late victory against Brighton and Hove Albion.
Davies had big boots to fill in the absence of Destiny Udogie, but he performed well enough on the whole for the Lilywhites.
Indeed, he was involved in 12 duels against Wolves – only Emerson Royal (17) was involved in more – winning seven of those [Sofascore].
Tottenham without Destiny Udogie and Pedro Porro
Davies is a defender first and foremost and he can boast the fact he was not dribbled past on a single occasion.
Despite having Nelson Semedo and Pablo Sarabia to deal with, he stood firm and rarely looked troubled, even if Spurs did concede twice.
The 30-year-old also won a couple of headers, which is unsurprising given his ability to play in the centre of defence.
In fact, the 2.88 aerials Davies wins per 90 minutes places him in the top one per cent of all full-backs across Europe’s top five leagues [FBref].
The problem Davies faced against Wolves is that many wanted to see some attacking flair in the absence of Udogie and Pedro Porro.
Davies managed one attempt on target against Wanderers, which Jose Sa was equal to, and he also completed four our of four dribbles.
To complete 100 per cent of his dribbles is some doing, yet the lasting memories many will have of his performance was the late headed miss.
Ben Davies miss costly as Spurs lose to Wolves
A cross into the box was crying out for the Welshman to head home for a late equaliser, but he instead guided it wide of the target.
It was a miss that Andy Gray could not believe on beIN SPORTS’ live coverage of the match [17 February, 5:16pm].
“Spurs managed to get one more chance late on through a Ben Davies header,” Gray said. “He really should do better. That’s awful. He knows it.”
That headed miss and the earlier volleyed attempt left Davies with an expected goals (xG) return of 0.54.
For context, no Tottenham player came close to that, with Dejan Kulusevski scoring his goal from an xG of 0.45.
That wayward opportunity aside, Davies also did well with his passing, completing 41 out of 46 (89 per cent) across his 90 minutes on the field.
While that is down on his season average of 92 per cent [WhoScored], he has spent most of those games at centre-back when simpler passes are the norm.
Perhaps most noteworthy of all, Davies created three key chances for his team-mates against Wolves, which nobody could match.
The late miss was disappointing, but it should no means define what was a decent performance overall from the reliable and versatile defender.
In other Tottenham news, Daniel Levy deserves praise as Spurs are now above the likes of Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in a certain finance table.
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