Speaking to todays Western Mail Swans youngster Ben Davies is very happy with the way things are going:<\/p>\n
With Neil Taylors horrific injury it meant the 19-year-old was handed his chance to impress despite having managed just six minutes of top flight football beforehand.<\/p>\n
Although admittedly raw, Davies has not let anyone down with his displays at left-back, earning praise from the likes of Alan Tate for \u201cnot thinking he\u2019s made it before he has\u201d as he continues to adapt with every new step of experience.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s been enough to see him keep out Bosman signing Dwight Tiendalli, a player with a Champions League background after time with FC Twente, as well as a second call-up into the senior Wales squad.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all moved rather quickly for a player who had been scheduled to be more reserve than regular on Match of the Day this season.<\/p>\n
But Davies concedes that the do-or-die opportunity meant he had no option but to prove he could handle the pressure of playing Premier football \u2013 and he\u2019s happy to be making the most of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings are totally different to what I was used to last year, but it\u2019s great and I can\u2019t complain,\u201d said Davies, his appearance against Reading his eighth senior outing having made none prior to August.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got the chance to play a game and Michael Laudrup must have thought I did well to keep playing me. It\u2019s a totally different to playing under-21s football or reserve football, but I can only do my best and hopefully stand up to the opposition we play against.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything\u2019s a lot quicker, the players are a lot more switched on and there\u2019s no time to rest in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut as a young player all I\u2019ve got to do is work as hard as I can and do my best in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I\u2019ve got to keep enjoying what\u2019s happening because I don\u2019t know when I might get a chance like this again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never thought things would happen like this, but it\u2019s probably the best way because I\u2019ve got to take it in my stride.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laudrup went out to sign Tiendalli after citing Davies\u2019 age as a factor against him playing all year, although the Dane is yet to drop the youngster.<\/p>\n
There have been some harsh lessons to learn as part of a Swans defence rightly criticised for leaking goals, two-a-game on average since the third game of the season which will stick in the throats of those proud of last term\u2019s clean sheet record.<\/p>\n
But Davies says he is ready to improve with every outing and appears unconcerned should Laudrup eventually opt to take him out of the firing line, already taking confidence from the faith shown and determined to repay it.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo far I\u2019ve kept my place and it shows the manager\u2019s got a bit of faith in me and that\u2019s only down to how I\u2019ve been playing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully if I can keep on playing well, I\u2019ll have more of a chance to play games.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf needs be I could play all season, but it all comes down to Michael Laudrup and what he wants to do.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome people think, as a young player, it\u2019s impossible to play every week because I might get worn out.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment I\u2019m happy to play every week and do the best I can. I think I\u2019m settling down into the role and into the Premier League; things happened very quickly at the start, but I think now I\u2019ve held my own in this league so far.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully I can keep progressing, keep performing and improve.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Speaking to todays Western Mail Swans youngster Ben Davies is very happy with the way things are going: With Neil Taylors horrific injury it meant the 19-year-old was handed his chance to impress despite having managed just six minutes of top flight football beforehand. Although admittedly raw, Davies has not let anyone down with his […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":453,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/453"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jackarmy.net\/wp67\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}