Ange Postecoglou has opened up on his unique management approach for Djed Spence, explaining why he deliberately made it difficult for the full-back to break into the Spurs side.
Many Tottenham fans were left stretching their heads earlier this season as to why Spence was not being handed more opportunities. This was compounded even further by the fact that he was left out of the Europa League squad for the group stages.
The 24-year-old finally got his opportunities during Tottenham’s injury crisis, and he has not looked back since, delivering multiple Man of the Match performances and arguably emerging as the club’s most consistent performer over recent months.
It is a huge turnaround by a player who was shipped out on loan twice last season and appeared like he could be on his way out of the club last summer.
Ange Postecoglou’s strange Djed Spence plan worked for Spurs
The Australian manager’s decision to use the full-back sparingly looks even more jarring in light of how the former Middlesbrough man has stepped up over recent months.
However, Postecoglou has now explained that he deliberately made it difficult for the defender as he wanted to see him to test him and see if he continues showing the required hunger and desire.
Spence rose up to the challenge and the Tottenham head coach admits that he is pleased that the right-back is still at the club.
When asked if he has been surprised by how well Spence has done recently, Postecoglou responded (via Football.London): “To a certain extent [I’ve been surprised], but I’ve always kept an open mind about these things. There’s obviously a player there, there was never any doubt about that. Why it hadn’t worked out, you always try to figure out, there must be a reason,” he said “So I don’t know if it’s a surprise but it’s a credit to him.
“I made it difficult for him, to be fair. I didn’t make it easy for him, it’s not like I said to him ‘Djed, you’re here, we love you, stay’. I purposefully made it difficult for him because I thought that was going to be the test. To see, earlier in the year when he wasn’t playing or part of squads, how he was training, he was reacting to things, and he never got disengaged.
“He was always engaged and that made an impression on everyone – me, the coaches, his teammates – and from then on, it’s just been all about him. All I did was say ‘You’ve earned a shot at it, here it is’ and he’s been brilliant. You know there’s a player there and sometimes you just need certain things to click into gear.
“The penny drops at different times for different players. For some of them, it drops at 18, for some it drops a bit later when they realise this is what I have to do to get the most out of my career, and it’s a credit to him. He’s an outstanding player, I’m super pleased we’ve still got him in the building. It would have been super easy for him to be playing elsewhere.
“You try different things, you want to try to get the best out of players or at least get them to be the best version of themselves. It wasn’t just tough love. That probably doesn’t work with Djed either because he’s probably had that at some of his previous experiences and it hasn’t worked out well.
“Me and the other guys were certainly very encouraging for him, but I wasn’t going to give him the opportunity to play, that was the bit I was going to hold back for as long as possible to really test how much he really wanted it and what he was prepared to do to get that opportunity.”
Postecolgou responds to claim that injuries forced his hand
Cynics will suggest that Ange Postecoglou only handed Djed Spence opportunities because his hands were forced by Spurs’ injuries, but the 59-year-old insists that he does not care how things are perceived on the outside.
He remarked that he and his coaching staff will continue pushing the defender to be the best player he can be instead of allowing him to rest on his laurels.
When asked about some people feeling that he only turned to Spence because he had no other choice, the Tottenham manager responded: “That won’t change their mind, mate. Every right decision I made is an accident and every mistake I make is deliberate. Of course, there has [been a method with Spence] and I’m proud of that, not for me but for us as a club and for the coaching group that we thought there was something there.
“Because there was plenty of evidence for us not to go down that track. We’re in the Premier League here, we can’t take too many gambles with what we do. So you’ve got to have a clear understanding over what the road ahead was. Look, 99.9 per cent of it was Djed. All I can do is open that door and give him the opportunity, so that’s him.
“But that 0.1 per cent is us getting him to that opportunity where he feels like ‘OK, I can give the best version of myself and prove that I belong here’. The credit lies with him and the beneficiaries are us, the football club, but for him, the challenge now is ‘don’t settle for that now. Push on’. There’s no reason why he can’t. He can be a top, top player. He’s already at a great level but don’t settle for that. My role and for all of us here is to keep pushing him on.”