Davies, Dembélé, Sissoko React to Tottenham’s Win Over Burnley
Tottenham players discuss yesterday’s 2-1 win over Burnley and how Danny Rose performed on his way to winning Man of the Match honors.
Helping contribute massively during Tottenham’s midweek win over Hull City, Danny Rose continued his fine form into Sunday’s home fixture against Burnley.
The 26-year-old right-back attacked the Clarets defense by bombing up the pitch in a four-man backline. With Sean Dyche looking to maintain some defensive solidarity with two banks of four at the backline and midfield, some wide play was needed to stretch everybody out.
Danny Rose took care of the left flank while Kyle Walker did the same on the other side. Spurs were patient when they approached Burnley’s own half and if they defended well on the right flank, Tottenham would switch the point of attack to the opposite flank and vice versa.
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In a nutshell, Rose has been in fine form and only a minor knock managed to keep him from finishing the full 90 minutes before Ben Davies was brought in to replace him.
“He had an excellent game today, I thought he was fantastic.” Davies said on Danny Rose’s performance throughout the entire match.”
“To play with players like him and compete with each other, it’s all you can ask for in terms of competition in the team and it’s only good for Spurs as a club.”
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“We’re competing, everyone knows that, but when we’re together and we both compete against each other like we do – and when we both get the chance to play like today – it’s only going to improve us both as players.”
“I’d like to think that I’ve improved as well and if me being here has helped Danny and the club as a whole to progress then that’s brilliant.”
Yesterday’s 13-minute substitution appearance was Ben Davies’ first time back on the pitch since missing the rest of November due to an ankle injury.
Having Davies return to the squad will help give Mauricio Pochettino depth at the left-back position to give Rose some much needed rest with the schedule set to get more congested next year.
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Tottenham had begun attacking Burnley’s defense early and often, finding some good opportunities to take an early lead, but after 21 minutes, the visitors managed to score the opening goal.
An error by Kyle Walker put Spurs in a tough situation but Mousa Dembélé feels like he deserves some of the blame too as he redirected a low cross into the path of Ashley Barnes to put Spurs behind.
“It was a disappointing goal to give away, I was involved as well which I was upset about, but after that I think we reacted very well and I think it’s important that we won this game.” Dembélé said.
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“It was another game that we had to win and we did. We’re very happy with everybody’s performance but Danny Rose was the star of the night. We know how good he is and it’s nice that he got the winner today.”
Although Burnley had conceded about 2.3 goals per game on the road, it was difficult to breakdown their defense. For 27 minutes Spurs found themselves in a tough battle until they scored the equalizer.
“It was not an easy team to face, they have a certain way of playing and it’s not easy to combat that but we did the job and that’s the most important thing.” Mousa Dembélé said. “I think we did okay, the first 15 minutes I think was a bit less good but after that we tried to play from the sides and I think we did well.”
Lastly, Moussa Sissoko spoke about his contribution. A good sign to see the 27-year-old starting to find his feet following a three-match ban and then not delivering on Mauricio Pochettino’s expectations after Tottenham spent £30 million.
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“I’m happy to get an assist today. Obviously I was on the bench but the manager wants every player who comes on to try to help the team and that’s what I tried to do with the assist so it’s perfect in the end.” Sissoko said, the Frenchman’s third straight game where he has put in a good shift coming off of the bench.
“We won the game, that’s good just before Christmas and it’s a good present for the fans. Now we have some days without a match but we’ll come back fit and strong to hopefully win the game at Southampton on December 28.”