Ange Postecoglou has lavished praise on Djed Spence for the way he has grown over the last few months at Tottenham and has made an exciting admission about the right-back’s potential, while also handing him a challenge.
A lot of Spurs fans were frustrated at Postecoglou‘s unwillingness to give Spence opportunities at the start of the season. His decision to leave the right-back out of the Europa League squad for the League Phase also raised a few eyebrows.
Postecoglou says he deliberately made it difficult for Spence at the start of the campaign to test his hunger and credited the Englishman for the way he responded.
The former Middlesbrough man has been Tottenham’s best player over recent months, but Postecoglou believes that there is more to come from the full-back.
Djed Spence cannot lose his Tottenham hunger – Ange Postecoglou
The Spurs head coach has now praised Spence for his ‘outstanding’ displays recently but challenged him to continue improving rather than resting on his laurels.
Postecoglou insisted that the 24-year-old has a lot more room to grow and backed him to make up for lost time now that he is settled following a few disruptive years.
The 59-year-old said about Spence (via BeanymanSports): “Yeah, as I said last week, he’s been outstanding, he continues to be outstanding. The challenge for Djed is to keep going, you know, not to be satisfied with what he’s got now and with the same hunger and attitude that he’s taken his opportunity.
“As you said, that’s all you can sort of provide is an opportunity, he needs now to make sure that he doesn’t look back from that and keeps pushing on because he’s got so still so much I think growth in him and potential.
“He hasn’t really been settled in his career apart over the years, at Forest where he kind of really had some great form, but since then it’s been stop-start for him or he’s just got to ensure now that now that he’s up and running, he keeps going.”
Spence has made himself undroppable at Spurs
Given the level that Spence is performing at, he has to be one of the first names on Postecoglou’s teamsheet at the moment.
The Australian will face a tricky decision on which one of Destiny Udogie or Pedro Porro to leave out, particularly as Tottenham get set to play some crucial games in the latter stages of the Europa League.
On this season’s form, one can argue that Udogie should be left out, but playing Spence and the Italian on the two flanks will make Spurs much more formidable defensively, which is something Postecoglou may consider away from home.