Bentaleb's Benfica spirit shines through

Nabil Bentaleb has had his doubters at Tottenham primarily because he took the place of fans favourite Sandro, even though he was a shadow of the player we saw before his injury.

Bentaleb's Benfica spirit shines through


At just 19 and unknown he was brought on at Southampton by Tim Sherwood and commentator Gary Neville, generally regarded as the best TV expert on the box, was amazed. He felt he showed he belonged in the team and that he looked as if he had been a regular for years. Spurs have found one he felt.

Naturally there were going to be mistakes and although fans don't often seem to realise it, players need a rest or fatigue injuries lick-in, as has happened recently to Southampton's Dusan Tadic.

Possibly his most impressive performance was in the UEFA Europa League away to Benfica when we were missing a host of centre-backs and had kids on the bench. We had Sandro and Zeki Fryers playing with Bentaleb in front of them and he shielded them brilliantly. Sigurdsson, his central midfield partner, was fine going forward but poor defensively when anyone ran at him so the main task was on Bentaleb's young shoulders.

Bentaleb though was also pinging balls out wide and switching play at pace, which resulted in one goal and should have resulted in the winner late on for us. But probably the most impressive moment was when we had a free kick in the first half just outside their box and Andros Townsend had a mental aberration.  They attacked the full length of the field down out left with most of our team in their penalty box.

It was left to Nabil Bentaleb to chase back and commit a foul near our byline to give our players time to get back. He immediately turned round and gave a verbal blast down the pitch to Townsend telling him to buck his ideas up basically.

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That shouted a desire, a will to win whatever the odds and that is just the mentality in a player Tottenham need. The 20-year-old Algerian has been talking to the media this week and demonstrated the same attitude.

“We don’t know how far is the best. We always want to improve, we know we can be better but we don’t know the limit."

Players who continually want to improve are the only players needed at The Lane, it's the reason Dembele now finds himself only getting bit part roles after having no role at all. It's a far cry from the let's have a team meeting and talk to players who don't even know there is a problem philosophy.

The thinking is poles apart, the mentality is poles apart, one breeds success, one breeds failure, I know which one I'd rather see.