Rio Ferdinand and Jolean Lescott are in awe of the kind of performances that Djed Spence is producing for Tottenham, and while the former noticed one unique attribute in the full-back, Lescott feels that the Spurs man is misunderstood.
Djed Spence has good reason to feel hard done by after missing out on Thomas Tuchel’s first England squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.
Not only has the Spurs man been in ridiculous form over recent months, but he has also proven his versatility, impressing at right-back as well as left-back.
Djed Spence was even nominated for the Player of the Month award last month, and Ferdinand feels that one thing sets the Tottenham man apart from other defenders in the league.
Rio Ferdinand reveals what makes Djed Spence unique
Ferdinand, who knows a thing or two about what it takes to succeed in the Premier League as a defender, has noticed something very unique about the former Middlesbrough man.
The Man Utd legend pointed out during his conversation with Joleon Lescott in The Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast that Spence oozes confidence in one-on-one situations, which is not something he has seen in a defender in a long time.
Ferdinand referred to the interview he conducted with the full-back that, at the time of writing, was set to come out soon.
Here is a transcript of the conversation between the pair:
Ferdinand: “I’ve not seen confidence from a kid like what (Spence has got). You’ve got to watch this guy when he talks, the confidence.”
Lescott: “The confidence comes from actually doing it, and what he’s saying, you can then combat it against things that haven’t happened, And, as he said, if you look at his 1v1s, how many players going past Djed?”
Ferdinand: “That’s what he said he spoke about 1v1s and there was some confidence I ain’t seen in a Defender for a long time.”
Joleon Lescott believes Spence is misunderstood
As the conversation continued, Lescott insisted in the podcast that Djed Spence was “very misunderstood” by many in the game.
When Ferdinand pressed him on why that is, the former Everton and Man City man said: “Because his persona is that he doesn’t love the game. Djed loves the game. He loves it. His family loves the game. Do you know what I mean?”.
This is very similar to what has been reported about Spence by other sources over recent weeks.
Last month, journalist Jay Harris explained that Spence’s introverted personality is sometimes misconstrued, with some interpreting that as the defender having a bad attitude.
Harris explained: “I’ve spoken to people who know him quite well, and they’ve said that Spence is a bit introverted, and he can be quite aloof. And so there are times when people probably have misinterpreted that as him not caring or him having a bad attitude.
“But I think what we’re seeing before us now is a 24-year-old who was a young boy. He’s a young man now. Apparently, during his time in Italy with Genoa, that was quite a powerful experience for him because Leeds didn’t work out for a number of different issues, but mainly because he had quite a bad knee injury, which ruled him out, I think, for two and a half months, three months in total.
“So he’s gone from barely getting a game in the championship to playing at the San Siro twice with Genoa. And so he’s returning to Spurs, and he’s thinking, wow, if I want to kick on with my career at the highest level, I seriously need to knuckle down. He did that.”
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