Ange Postecoglou has hailed the impact of several teenagers during Tottenham’s 5-0 rout at Southampton, saying “how many Premier League clubs are going to start two 18-year-olds?”.
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Swedish midfielder Lucas Bergvall and English defender Archie Gray both started at St Mary’s as the pair of 18-year-olds influence in Postecoglou’s side continues to grow.
Bergvall made his first Premier League start after several impressive showings off the bench and put in a composed performance.
He played a pivotal hand in James Maddison’s opening minute goal, while Gray once again played a selfless role to occupy one of the centre back positions in the absence of injured first choice pairing Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero.
The usual right-back played in a central position in the Europa League tie at Rangers mid-week, and Postecoglou was thrilled by what he saw from the rising stars.
“They were great. Lucas is growing all the time, but he’s 18. Archie is 18 and how many Premier League clubs are going to start two 18-year-olds in their line-up,” Postecoglou said.
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Forgotten man Djed Spence also played a key role in the build up to Maddison’s opener as he made his first Premier League start after he was signed by Tottenham in 2022 but has been loaned out to Rennes, Leeds United and Genoa at various time.
The 24-year-old right back was another who received the praises of Postecoglou.
“Djed has had to bide his time. To be fair, it’s the one area of the pitch where we’ve had cover this year with Archie playing at right-back, so he’s had to be patient,” the Australian said.
“It’s a testament to him and the coaches who have worked with him in training that he could come on today. We needed him for sure, not just to play but to make an impact and he did. Great reward for his patience and perseverance.”
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As for the pressure Postecoglou has been under after a disappointing run of results, “it helps”, he said.
Spurs had been winless in their last five matches in all competitions before their much-needed demolition of Southampton.
They have been decimated by injuries among a gruelling run of fixtures with more important games to come before Christmas as they face Manchester United at home in a Carabao Cup quarter final on Friday morning Australian time as well as hosting league leaders Liverpool next weekend.
Postecoglou was thrilled with the way his side put the foot down despite feeling the pinch of the squad being stretched thin.
“It was outstanding by the players. We had a tough European game away on Thursday night. We had 10 first-team players unavailable tonight and for the lads to come out with that much energy,” he said.
“We had to come out quickly because we knew we were going to get tired. We are asking a lot of our layers and the quality and energy showed was outstanding.
“You just want the players to feel good and get a reward for their efforts. We can’t rest or rotate and you want them to feel good. They get their reward tonight and we’ll recover and get ready for a big game on Thursday.”
The former Socceroos boss was also full of praise for two of his star attackers.
Maddison scored a brace, while Son Heung-min scored one of his own and played a hand in just about every other goal before he was subbed off at half time to manage his workload.
Postecoglou was thrilled that they rose to the occasion when the team needed them to.
“They were brilliant. I think they sensed they needed to tonight,” he said.
“We are just spread so thin that we’re asking young players and players who haven’t played a lot and others who have been playing all the time to go out there and still try to play to our identity, play the football we want to.
“I thought they both were the catalyst for that tonight, with both the football but also their mindset just going out there. We had to start strong today, we knew we would probably run out of gas at the end of the game considering the line-up we had out there, coming off Europe on Thursday night. I think the players sensed that and credit to them that they started the game in that way.”