Europa League Offers Ben Davies Chance to Shine for Tottenham Hotspur

Tottenham Hotspur left-back Ben Davies is likely to be back in the team for Thursday's Europa League match with Asteras Tripolis.

Save for 20 minutes off the bench against Liverpool in August, cup football has been where the summer signing from Swansea City has had to make his mark. Thus far he has not done enough in these appearances to displace his position rival Danny Rose in Premier League games.

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With four Europa League fixtures left in 2014, it is here—barring injury or suspension to Rose—where Davies is going to have to make his impression if he wants to earn a regular first-team role in the short term.

It can be done. Ryan Mason's work turning around the Capital One Cup tie with Nottingham Forest won him a chance in Tottenham's next league game. The midfielder grabbed it in that 1-1 draw with Arsenal, and right now shows no signs of letting go.

Davies' rival for playing time, Rose, is well aware of the threat posed to him by his fellow defender.

"I’m not complacent and I’m always striving to improve," the full-back told the London Evening Standard's Paul Smith last week. "I can’t take anything for granted, I know I’m only one bad game from losing my place with strong competition here."

Rose's self-assessment that he is "far more tactically aware and more consistent" is reasonably accurate. Yet, he has not been so dominant at left-back that Davies finding some form in the cups would not tempt head coach Mauricio Pochettino into considering a change.

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"There were doubts and going into this season," Rose also noted in the Evening Standard interview. "I did wonder whether I would be playing." While the 24-year-old has been decent enough (particularly going forward against Sunderland, more so defensively versus Arsenal and Southampton), it is intriguing to wonder if Davies might have exacerbated those doubts with better performances himself up until now.

The Welshman has not yet shone for Spurs in the tougher games he has played.

Davies had a particularly challenging night out in Serbia against an unrelenting Partizan Belgrade side. At home to Besiktas, he was a threat going forward—a 71st-minute exchange with Aaron Lennon to tee up a Harry Kane shot was particularly excellent—but looked less assured at the back.

He started well in the 1-1 draw with a good sliding interception, and did well to recover the ball 14 minutes later when he initially lost it. But in and around those better moments, there were poorer challenges as well as occurrences when he switched off. The latter was almost punished 12 minutes in when he and Federico Fazio ignored Demba Ba and the striker hit the woodwork.

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Davies was a mature and composed performer with Swansea, but it should not be forgotten that he is still only 21. Given he is not getting the stretches of games he received with his former club, it is not all that surprising he has looked a little rusty.

"Being at Spurs is a big change from being at Swansea with a new gaffer and a new system," he admitted to Tottenham's official website earlier in October.

"But I’m enjoying life and I’m settling in my apartment now. I’m happy here, so now it’s time to fully concentrate on football."

That personal contentedness should contribute to him finding his feet at Spurs soon enough, though. Professionally, there have been positives outside of his battle for a first-team place with his club too.

Davies has been part of a Wales side that have recorded encouraging results in the early stages of European Championships qualifying. His performances for the national team saw him win the country's Young Player of the Year award for the second time in a row too.

Earlier this season Davies told TottenhamHotspur.com the competition with Rose "is going to help us both." He was hardly like to say otherwise, but wholly genuine or not, what he then said is something he must remember.

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It is going to make us both better players, hopefully, and that's all we want to do as professionals.

We both want that jersey, but whoever does get it at the end of the day we are supporting the team and we'll support each other. That's the way it is going to be.

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For Davies right now that means taking advantage of his playing time in the Europa League, and doing the best he can to help the team advance in that competition (and if Spurs continue to progress in it, the Capital One Cup too).

His work bringing the ball forward has already impressed—important given the requirement for width provided by full-backs in Pochettino's system. In defence, Davies needs to get back to playing with a little more calmness, but he has shown in the past the talent is there.

It has been a difficult start to life at Tottenham for the youngster. But should he do so, the rewards of finding form and getting ahead of Rose will be well worth the trouble.