Bentley back in the groove

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp admits David Bentley needed a change of approach to get his White Hart Lane career back on track.

Bentley has struggled for consistency since moving from Blackburn in the summer - a situation that has not been helped by being played in a variety of positions for Juande Ramos, then Redknapp.

The new Spurs manager told Bentley in no uncertain terms that he needed to increase his work rate to make an impact - and was pleased with the results against Portsmouth on Sunday when he was brought on as a substitute. "Maybe he thought 'because I'm coming to Tottenham, I have to be a bit more entertaining'," said Redknapp.

Redknapp, whose side face Burnley in the second-leg of their Carling Cup semi-final tonight added: "The work ethic suffered a bit with him; he wasn't working as hard as he had in the past. But now I think he'll get back to that - and with the great skill he has got, I'm hoping we'll see the best of David."

While manager at Pompey, Redknapp watched Bentley face Spurs - and his statistics went off the charts, as did those of his Blackburn team-mates.

Redknapp was not seeing the same at Spurs and talked to the 24-year-old right-winger last week about grafting more.

"I told him straight," he said.

"I told him what I thought of him and his performances - what he can do and what he was doing.

"He took it well. He took it on board and said 'fine, I'll accept that'. He's trained really hard, closed people down and won tackles. He's back to what we saw at Blackburn."