Spurs Star: New Role Makes me a Complete Player

Tottenham Hotspur's Clint Dempsey has expressed his happiness in the new central role handed to him by manager Andre Villas-Boas and stated it makes him a complete player.

The USA international played mostly as a winger or forward for his country and former club Fulham but is now being deployed as the attacking central midfielder, behind the lone striker, in Villas-Boas' 4-2-3-1 system.

"It [a central role] makes me more of a complete player as I can play in a number of positions at the highest level. I like playing in any position that allows me to attack and score goals," ESPN quoted Dempsey as saying.

The 29-year-old, who scored 23 goals for the Cottagers last season, opened his Spurs account with a crucial strike in the club's historic win over Manchester United at Old Trafford last month.

"It was a great time to open my account and the importance of the game made it more special. We've been playing a lot of games lately so it's good to have got the results we have in the last few fixtures," the American said.

Tottenham, who sit fifth in the Premier League table after four successive wins, welcome London rivals and leaders Chelsea to White Hart Lane after the international break, and Dempsey warned the Blues that Spurs' win over United had given the team the confidence and belief they can defeat any of the "big" teams.

"We know we can get results against the top teams, even away from home as we showed against United. We showed a lot of character in that game, especially in the second half, and it will be no different when we play Chelsea. We will all be up for it and wanting to get the job done," the Evening Standard quoted the Tottenham star as saying.

"We're in fifth place and we can go even higher than that. We have a lot of confidence in our team, we work hard and we have a lot of quality. It's about being consistent for the whole season and that's what we're working on," Dempsey added.