Archie Gray: Poor performances will never shake me, I'm grateful to play for Tottenham
Share:
Tottenham's Archie Gray insists he is not shaken by his difficult afternoon in Sunday's 3-2 defeat to Everton and revealed he spoke to his dad, former Premier League player Andy, for advice after the game. The 18-year-old has largely been impressive since filling in at centre-back during Spurs' midwinter injury crisis but he struggled at Goodison Park, where he was turned by Dominic Calvert-Lewin for the hosts' opener and scored an own goal which made it 3-0 in first-half stoppage-time.
![[Ange Postecoglou consoles Archie Gray after Tottenham's defeat by Everton]](https://static.standard.co.uk/2025/01/19/16/14/archiegrayangepostecoglou19012025a-jpg.jpeg?quality=75&auto=webp&width=960)
Gray was one of three Spurs centre-backs on Merseyside but head coach Ange Postecoglou is expected to revert to a more familiar four-man defence for Thursday's Europa League game at Hoffenheim, with the teenager set to fill in at left-back. Asked by reporters in Germany about his performance against Everton, Gray said: "I don't think it'll ever shake me. I don't think any negative in football will ever shake me.
"It's something I can learn from. I spoke to my dad after the game and he just said you’ve got to learn from these things if you want to be a good footballer. Obviously he was a footballer as well, you’re going to have games like that where you struggle. If you want to be a top, top footballer, you’re going to learn from those games.".
Postecoglou believes that Gray will end up playing in midfield but he has been one of the few positives of Spurs' slump with his displays since deputising alongside Radu Dragusin at centre-back, while Ben Davies, Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero have been missing through injury.
