Ange Postecoglou confesses that Spurs’ injury crisis has proven to be a blessing in disguise for Djed Spence, who is now ready to push for a regular starting birth.
It would have been easy for Djed Spence to feel hard done by with his lack of opportunities earlier in the season, but rather than sulking, the full-back has worked hard to impress Ange Postecoglou and is now getting his just rewards.
The 24-year-old impressed in both full-back roles this season, being solid in defence and adventurous in attack.
The former Middlesbrough man showed on Saturday that he has more strings to his bow, filling in as a centre-back alongside Archie Gray for the second half against Newcastle after Radu Dragusin was forced off at the interval.
Postecoglou says that Spence has really ‘knuckled down’ and shown the right attitude in training this season.
The Tottenham head coach also admits that the injury situation has proven to be a blessing for the Englishman, who might have struggled to get too many minutes otherwise.
Postecoglou told Football.London: “Djed, a lot of it is just down to him. He’s really knuckled down. He’s had to be patient. I think he’s been really good for us. Even in tough times, you get these spurts of opportunities for others that maybe wouldn’t have happened.
“The reality is with everyone healthy maybe he wouldn’t have got the opportunity and in January we’d be looking at a different scenario for him, but right now, he’s performing really well.
“He is very important for us. With Destiny going down, especially. Not because he’s available but he’s played well, and made an impact. Maybe he senses the opportunity to become not just part of Tottenham on a permanent basis in his own mind, where he feels settled, but now pushing to be a starting player and I think he has the capacity to do that.”
There have been plenty of murmurs over the last 12 months over Spence’s attitude issues and timekeeping, but Postecoglou remarked that the defender has perhaps matured and is now putting his best foot forward.
When asked about the right-back’s previous struggles for game time, the 59-year-old responded: “I don’t think there was something missing. There was possibly a reason he wasn’t settled but at the start of pre-season, I mentioned there was an opportunity for him here.
“We were going to give him that opportunity and not necessarily get him out on loan. The rest was up to him and a lot of that is how he dealt with the fact he had to train hard every day without a lot of prospect of playing.
“He impressed everyone with his attitude towards that. Maybe in the past, he was a little bit impatient, maybe his attitude wasn’t great in terms of the fact he wasn’t playing and wasn’t feeling like a regular.
“This year he’s had to bide his time and he’s done that in the best possible way and waited for his opportunity, and now when he’s got it, he’s grown. Some of it is maturity as well. He’s not a young boy any more and probably feels like if he’s going to have a Tottenham career now is the time to grab that, and I think he has done that.”
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