Postecoglou has ‘outstanding’ Djed Spence to thank for saving his Tottenham job
Tottenham have been through it this season across all competitions but especially in the Premier League.
Spurs sit 14th in the table and are just one point ahead of 16th-placed Everton who they only managed to take over thanks to their 2-0 win over Brentford on Sunday 2 February.
Thanks to this poor form, the future of Ange Postecoglou has been brought into question on numerous occasions this season with fans calling for his head in what feels like every other game.
While Everton going ahead of them in the table after their 4-0 win over Leicester on Saturday may have been unsettling for fans, the fact that Djed Spence was in Spurs’ team against Brentford seems to have made all the difference.
The Englishman was even dubbed the man of the match by the injured James Maddison and may well have saved Postecoglou’s job thanks to his heroic defensive work.
“He’s been outstanding since he’s come into the team. He had to bide his time. It’s fair to say we needed Djed to really be patient and also just mature a little bit and I think he has and once he got into the team he’s looked fantastic,” Postecoglou said in quotes relayed by Alasdair Gold (2 February).
“And he was important for us today, I think we’d missed him the last couple of games. He’s one of these defenders that loves the challenge of taking on the elite in the Premier League wingers, there’s some outstanding ones.
“And Bryan Mbeumo’s right up there, especially here. You can see he loves that challenge. Like I said, that’s another reason we kept Micky on ice, knowing Djed was back in, was going to help us enormously. So pleased to get him back in the team.”
Djed Spence was heroic for Tottenham against Brentford
As per Sofascore, in the 90 minutes Spence was on the pitch against Brentford, he maintained a pass accuracy of 86 per cent and had 67 touches of the ball from left back.
While his all-round performance was fairly impressive, it was his defensive work where he really shone as he managed to make five clearances, one interception, four tackles and one clearance off the line to keep Spurs in the game.
In terms of both aerial and ground duels, the defender also comes off pretty strongly on those with him winning 50 per cent of those in the air and 63 per cent of those on the ground.
Spence also showed his hand in attack because, of the 31 accurate passes he played, two were deemed to be ‘key’ which shows how much of an influence he was on the game.
If the Englishman can keep his performances to that level for every game until the end of the season, it’s hard to see how he’s ever going to be kicked out of Postecoglou’s starting XI.
In other Tottenham news, Spurs are still “desperate” to strengthen in one key position before the transfer window slams shut.
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