Archie Gray may not have played as much as he would’ve liked since leaving Leeds United for Tottenham, but that is set to change over the next few weeks.
Gray has seen almost all of his game time at Spurs come in the cup competitions, with the 18-year-old not making his full Premier League debut until last week’s defeat at Bournemouth.
That said, Gray has been getting some good experience in the Europa League, and his performance against AS Roma earned him special praise from manager Ange Postecoglou.
The biggest problem Gray has faced since arriving in north London, though, is his inability to nail down a proper position.
Despite midfield being Gray’s preferred position, 99 per cent of his minutes have come in defence. Even then, they haven’t all been at right-back, as he has also helped fill in on the other flank, and at centre-back.
Gray set for first prolonged Spurs chance in unique spot
After a promising first season for Spurs under Postecoglou, things certainly haven’t been so rosy for him in his second campaign.
Spurs sit in the bottom half of the Premier League table, and while Postecoglou deserves to take some of the blame, the number of injuries they have picked up has been crazy.
Cristian Romero and Micky Van de Ven both returned after a number of weeks out injured against Chelsea on Sunday, but were clearly rushed back too early, as they are now set for another spell on the sidelines.
Ben Davies is also unavailable due to a hamstring issue, leaving just Radu Dragusin as Spurs’ only fit senior centre-back option for the next few weeks.
With Spurs’ injury situation unlikely to improve for a while yet, Gray looks set to be handed a very unique opportunity of regular football at centre-back.
That is a position Gray didn’t play even once during his time at Leeds, but clearly Postecoglou has seen something in him, considering he had a couple of matches there in pre-season and a few short cameos more recently.
This is a huge opportunity for Gray as if he performs well, it may prove to Postecoglou that he deserves some minutes in his best position – midfield.
Some huge matches await Spurs between now and the end of 2024, too, with Rangers, Liverpool, Manchester United and Nottingham Forest all to come in the next two weeks. Leeds fans will be watching on keenly to see how he gets on.
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What Postecoglou has said about Gray playing centre-back
Postecoglou was asked directly in his pre-Rangers press conference whether Gray would be the man given the nod at centre-back.
And the former Celtic boss wasn’t afraid to sugar coat it, admitting Gray is the ‘one’ Spurs need to try and shoehorn into the role, which could be for the next ‘five or six games’.
He said: “Yeah (laughs), I have to get creative. I think Archie’s probably the one for us at the moment that we need to try and get to fill in there. He’s done right back, left back for us. Had to play at centre-back a little bit this year, he did during the pre-season.
“With him and Radu, they’re the two main sort of defenders. We’ve still got five or six games to navigate, so we may have to get creative at at some point and deal with it in a different way.”
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