Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Jake Livermore is keen on continuing to receive first-team playing time after the 22-year-old made his 23rd appearance of the year in Spurs’ 2-0 victory over Everton on Wednesday.
Livermore started the game for an injured Scott Parker, playing a full 90 minutes in central midfield.
Following an impressive shift, Livermore told London 24: “I want to be here at Tottenham.”
“I want to establish myself here in midfield – but obviously I realise it’s difficult with the quality in front of me.
“To be honest if you’d said at the start of the season that I’d have played 23 games at this stage, I would have been delighted with that. The manager’s shown good faith in me and I’ve been happy with the opportunity I’ve been given.
“I’m playing behind England’s main man and Luka Modric one of the best midfielders in the Premier League, if not the world.
“There’s players like Jermain Defoe on the bench, and Niko Kranjcar and Steven Pienaar. We’ve got a great squad, we’re all fighting for the same spot and we want Tottenham to do well, so when called upon I just want to come in and do my job.”
The former Derby County loanee also admitted that he models bits of his game after Scott Parker, who Livermore referred to as “England’s main man”.
“I think everyone’s got their own style of play, but every time I watch Scotty [Parker] play I take bits from him,” Livermore added.
“In my eyes he’s England main man and if I can take bits of him, bits of Luka and bits of Sandro then you can only learn, playing amongst these sort of players. You’d have one hell of a player if you could put those three together!”
Prior to breaking into Harry Redknapp’s first-team, Livermore certainly paid his dues.
The Tottenham youth star has been loaned out six times since 2008, but all of his hard work has finally paid off.
As a result, Livermore stressed that it is becoming increasingly difficult for young starlets to break into top Premier League clubs.
“I think it’s definitely got harder to break through, especially at the bigger clubs where there’s bigger competition,” he said.
“But I’ve been happy with the game time I’ve had, especially being at such a good club.
“Is it hard to stay confident? I think thats all down to the individual. I’ve never doubted my ability and the managers put a lot of confidence in me as well, throwing me into big games, like at Manchester United. He brought me on against Manchester City too, and Arsenal.
“It gives you a great big lift. I’ll have to give him a lot of credit for keeping my confidence high. And, generally, I think when you’re playing with good players every day, it’s hard not to be confident.”
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