Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou believes England hopeful Djed Spence is playing as well as any full-back in the Premier League but has urged the "laid-back" defender not to settle for his current level. Spence has been enormously impressive since finally making his first start for Spurs against Southampton in mid-December, two-and-a-half years after joining the club from Middlesbrough.
Despite playing out of position at left-back, he was named man-of-the-match in each of Spurs' last two league games -- the wins over Brentford and Manchester United -- but could switch to his natural right side for Saturday's visit to Ipswich, with Pedro Porro likely to be rested.
Spence has set his sights on a call-up to Thomas Tuchel's first England squad, which the German will name next month, and Postecoglou is confident that he would take international football in his stride. "Fair to say in terms of full-backs in recent times, his form is as good as anybody's," the Australian said. "I think he'd be up there.
"But for him, the challenge now is, ‘Don’t settle for that now. Push on’. There’s no reason why he can’t. He can be a top, top player. He’s already at a great level but don’t settle for that. My role and for all of us here is to keep pushing him on.".
Asked if Spence would be fazed by international football, Postecoglou added: "I don’t think so. "He’s got a really laid-back personality...and sometimes that gives a false impression. "That laid-back nature also means he won’t be fazed by anything that will be thrown at him. It works both ways. What some people see as maybe a weakness in him, that he looks a bit too casual, but...come game-day he’s not fazed by any challenges thrown to him. I think that’s partly why he’s done really well since he’s been thrown in.
"He’s had some difficult experiences but that’s what life is about. Those difficult experiences can actually help you. He’s played in Italy, in France, in the Championship. I’m sure he’s taken those things along, even if they haven’t been positive, and said, ‘OK, there’s nothing really to fear, here’. I think he takes that into games.".
Spence has had a consistent champion at Spurs in the form of Postecoglou's assistant, Matt Wells, but he was largely overlooked by the manager in the first half of this season, making just five appearances from the bench before an injury to Destiny Udogie opened the door.
Postecoglou, though, revealed that restricting Spence's minutes for "as long as possible" was a deliberate strategy to see how the 24-year-old would react. "Of course there has [been a method with Spence] and I’m proud of that, not for me but for us as a club and for the coaching group that we thought there was something there," Postecoglou said.
"Because there was plenty of evidence for us not to go down that track. We’re in the Premier League here, we can’t take too many gambles with what we do, so you’ve got to have a clear understanding over what the road ahead was. "Look, 99.9 per cent of it was Djed. All I can do is open that door and give him the opportunity, so that’s him. But that 0.1 per cent is us getting him to that opportunity where he feels like, ‘OK, I can give the best version of myself and prove that I belong here’. The credit lies with him and the beneficiaries are us, the football club.".
Postecoglou continued: "You try different things, you want to try to get the best out of players or at least get them to be the best version of themselves. "It wasn't just tough love...I never made it purposefully tough for him and the other guys [on the coaching staff] were very encouraging for him.
"But I wasn't going to give him the opportunity to play, that was the bit I was going to hold back for as long as possible to really test out how much he really wanted it and what he was prepared to do to get that opportunity. "To a certain extent [he has surprised me]. But I've always kept an open mind about these things. There's obviously a player there, there was never any doubt about that.
"I made it difficult for him, to be fair. I didn't make it easy for him, it's not like I said to him, 'Djed, you're here, we love you, stay'. I purposefully made it difficult for him because I thought that was going to be the test. To see, earlier in the year when he wasn't training or part of squads, how he was training, he was reacting to things.
"And he never got disengaged. He was always engaged and that made an impression on everyone. Me, the coaches, his teammates. And from then on, it's just been all about him. "All I did was say, 'you've earned a shot at it, here it is," and he's been brilliant.".
