Ben Davies

[TimothéeAtouba]

Far better than as a LB. I'm saying this for a time, and altough is not as simple, he has the qualities to becom at leas a good CB, and that would give him a place in the first team for us.

He needs to bulk up a lot more.

 

[Igula]

League 1 useless clogger tonight - get him out

I think he has shown his usefulness in Europa League games and potentially as a LCB with our weak group of CB’s but he should never see another game at LB in the PL for us unless Reguilon and Cirkin are both out injured.

He is nowhere close to good enough.

 

[Igula]

You genuinely think Cirkin would have handled the long balls and the physicality of Burnley better tonight?

He wouldn’t have handled them worse and would have been an option or potential threat going forward unlike Davies.

 

[Igula]

I'll repeat - BURNLEY SCORED ZERO - ergo Jose picked the right defence for the game.

All your 'whataboutism' is just nonsense, neither Regulion nor Cirkin could have done better than concede ZERO - stop trying to turn an important away clean sheet win into a tactical failure - nobody's buying it.

It’s such a BS way of looking at things.

Just looking at the result without seeing how we got there and then handing out individual accolades for the game is ridiculous.

Davies was not string defensively, he didn’t make any good defensive plays, he didn’t stop goal scoring opportunities.

 

[Igula]

He didn’t stop any goal scoring opportunities?

So no defensive headers won? the very reason he started in front of the two weaker aerial alternatives. Really you need to stop now you're just embarrassing yourself ....

No he didn’t stop any goal scoring opportunities.

 

[Shotgunofmichalebrow]

Davies very rarely gave the ball away except for when he was attempting crosses which are a notoriously low percentage pursuit at the best of times. He was also very rarely ran past. He and dier dealt with their channel very well

Where as the side with Sissoko and Doherty looked like it belonged in league one.

 

[stevee]

Sacrilege!!

Ive never been so insulted

I’ll bet you’re one of those people who add Dry Ginger to 30 yr old Scotch

Le Clique has now been made aware of your cuntish behaviour!

Not me mate, Guinness only, nothing added.
Murphy's is for little girls with a sweet tooth. Guinness is a mans drink.

 

[Bazali]

We have options... What's not to like.

First time in years!

 

[ArcspacE]

For those calling for him to never be seen in the shirt again, what happens when Reggie has a 'poor' game?

'Well then we want Cirkin!'

Ok cool. What happens when Cirkin has a 'poor' game?

'Then we need to sign someone better!'

Who the hell would sign for us when they're one 'poor' game from being banished by fickle, ignorant 'fans'?!

Difference is - Davies has had poor games continuously for 3 years and was utter shit on Monday again.

 

[ArcspacE]

Davies, Sissoko, Winks, Sanchez the more they played, the worse we became over the last 3 years.

We are not getting anywhere as long as players of this calibre keep starting games for us.

Failure to upgrade them in time has already cost CL football this season.

The 4 knights of Doom who literally took us back 5 years

 

[iz futbal]

That's my point.
Davies isn't a creative midfielder. He's not a playmaker, he's not even a winger.
He's a defender that did his job well.

Maybe we would of been weaker in defence if Reggie starter, I don't know but I'd bet there aren't many teams in La Liga that play like Burnley and maybe he would of been exposed.
All hypotheticals of course but the main point is that we kept a clean sheet and STILL people are slagging off Davies, Dier.

To be fair Dier did his best to not keep the clean sheet with how he let their player have a freeheader from close.

 

[ArcspacE]

We are the highest scoring attack in PL because of the team including the attackers; and so it must go vice versa, surely?

No - because we have Reguilon as an attacking full back now who has contributed massively

No surprise our best PL season 16/17 coincides with a peak Walker/Rose.

 

[stevee]

LB is not purely a defensive position though. Against a team like Burnley, it’s probably 50% attack. And Davies did it poorly. Talking about fullbacks like they’re center backs is inappropriate.

Let's say I agree that Davies was poor going forward, which tbf he wasn't great.

The point is that that is not his primary role.
Where is the criticism of Son, Kane, Lucas, etc, whose actual job is to create and score, for doing nothing.

 

[stevee]

Most goals scored in the PL - attack isn’t the issue

We kept a clean sheet.
Our attack was awful against Burnley, but it was Davies fault.
Nah.

 

[ArcspacE]

We kept a clean sheet.
Our attack was awful against Burnley, but it was Davies fault.
Nah.

Yes partly - becuase as an attacking fullback would have offered much needed width and pace against a team defending narrow

 

[ArcspacE]

That's my point.
We won the game and kept a clean sheet, where they had only one real chance. We had 2 or 3.
Our defenders did their jobs very well. Our attackers did their jobs, just about.
But somehow our defenders get criticism.

I thought Davies was poor and offered nothing going forward as usual - not sure what is so offensive about that opinion. I don't rate him as a player - he's bottom 5 PL level at best.

 

[TheSpurEst]

Nail on head. Perfect professional: diligent, concentrates on marking his man
(looking at you Kyle Walker, Aurier),

doesn't play suicide balls across the box (Walker, Sanchez)

doesn't give away silly penalties (Walker, Sanchez, Aurier)

doesn't give away cheap free kicks in dangerous spots (Aurier, Sissoko)

doesn't get red cards putting the rest of the team in the shit

doesn't get early yellows, which puts him at real risk (where do you start on this one)

doesn't get suspensions which screw up the rotations

The first and key role of a defender is to defend. If you can put in a belter of a cross, then that's only great if you haven't given away a silly goal beforehand.

I imagine he trains very well, needs the minimum of coaching, managerial attention (Aurier, Sanchez)

There's a lot to be said for knowing your limitations and playing accordingly.

Strikes me as being a pretty bright bloke, could make a could pundit or even manager.



And he's a VERY capable CB

Yep.
Not the most elegant.
Not the most fancy.

But reliable. Somewhat limited as well, but plays according to limitations.

 

[stevee]

Lost the ball many times, including a suicide pass to their player early in the first half, got mostly owned in 1v1s and was generally out of position

Poor pass in the first half, I'd agree with.
Losing the ball in defence , I never noticed that.
Was never out of position and was never owned in 1v1s, got beaten once.

He was fine, not exciting, not great going forward, but did a very good job in defence.

Near the end of the game he gave me a heart attack. A cross came over from their left to the back post. Davies let it run out of touch, with a player behind him. My first thought was "what the fuck is he doing".
When you look at it again though, you see he looked and knew exactly where the attacker was and let the ball run out to waste some time. He could of launched it, losing possession, or given away a corner instead.
Excellent play by him.

 

[Igula]

You think nearly all our players are crap and Mourinho doesn't know what he's doing .

You're either on a wind up trolling the shit out of this place or more likely you're clueless and don't understand thevfirst thing about the game.

I don't think that at all.

I think there are some players (Davies, Winks, Moura, Dier) that should not start for us at a the PL level but are fine if they are used in Europa League.

I would say the only two that I think are crap and shouldn't be here at all is Hart and Sissoko. I think Winks, Moura and Dier should all be replaced by more useful players but if used in Europa League and early round Cup games they can still be useful to the club.

I think Mounrinho knows what he is doing but too often goes for the negative/"safe" route with his line-up and tactics. I think we saw this all season last year, in the Everton game to start the season and more recently against Burnely and to end the West Ham game. He has shown in other games to be more willing to play the attacking style that we have been successful with and I hope that he continues this rather than defaulting back to the negative style he seems to prefer.

 

[ArcspacE]

Ah 16 / 17, the season where Ben Davies played more times in every single competition than Danny Rose.

Doesn't mean he performed better