The Danny Rose divide

The Danny Rose Divide, that’s what I’ve begun to call it. After nearly every match the young fullback has started for Tottenham this season he’s had incredibly varied reviews. Some believe he has cemented his spot at left back for us, some believe the risk that’s involved in his play-style does more harm than good.

Take the recent Liverpool match for example. Liverpool youngster Jordan Ibe started at right wing against us and Rose was matched up against him. Several times during the match Ibe’s dribbling abilities turned Rose in circles and helped the Reds create chances down their right flank. However, Rose’s pace and attacking capabilities proved useful for us as well, with Danny helping ask questions of Liverpool’s backline. So, it begs the question:

Is Rose’s attacking prowess useful to the point of sacrificing defensive soundness?

An idea I’ve seen thrown around by fellow Tottenham supporters is one that I have begun to buy into and I’ll go into detail here. Our two senior left backs, Ben Davies and Danny Rose, offer differing skill sets. Davies is viewed as a more conservative option by many. Ben has been developed as a left back throughout his entire youth career and has had many years to learn the ins and outs of defending against different types of players. He doesn’t seek to get forward as often and is considered more capable defensively.

[linequote]Rose’s pace and attacking capabilities proved useful for us as well, with Danny helping ask questions of Liverpool’s backline[/linequote]

Rose, on the other hand, gets forward as often as possible at the expense of staying back on the defensive side of the pitch. This is very likely due to his training as an attacking winger in ours and Leeds’ youth system before a shift to left back in his later development years. So the strategy put forward by some supporters is to use Rose when we feel as though we can take that extra risk and be a bit more vulnerable at the back. This would typically happen against lower table teams like Leicester, Sunderland, etc. Davies would be used when we need to be more defensively built, most likely due to a serious attacking threat in the opposition’s squad. For example, Davies would be played against Manchester City, Chelsea, teams like that.

Let’s take a look at a specific example for each player of what they do best. One of the few starts Ben Davies has had for Tottenham in the Premier League this season was against his former club, Swansea City. I’m sure many of you will remember Davies’ beautiful goal-saving tackle on Wilfried Bony, but let’s take another look at it.

At the very beginning of the .gif you’ll see Davies lined up evenly with our two central defenders. This shows us how he tends to think more defensively and it paid off for the lad in this situation. He manages to react quickly to the through ball to Bony and get back quickly to make an incredible tackle and keep the score at 1-0.

The example I’ll use for Rose comes from the other end of the spectrum, his goal against Chelsea on New Years Day.

Once the .gif starts, look at the bottom right. You’ll see Danny Rose notice an attack has begun and begin to sprint directly down the left wing.

[linequote]Davies would be used when we need to be more defensively built, most likely due to a serious attacking threat in the opposition’s squad[/linequote]

This enables him to get into the box once Nacer Chadli’s shot comes back off the post and put the rebound into the back of an empty net. This goal is a fantastic example of Rose’s attacking awareness and lightning-quick pace.

I have started to sign on to that line of thinking and maybe we’ll see our manager take up this tactic in the near future.