Former Leeds United player Archie Gray began his first extended stay in the Tottenham side as a centre-back during the Europa League draw at Rangers.
Despite Gray never playing as a central defender for Leeds even once, the 18-year-old could spent the next few weeks there due to a major injury crisis at Spurs.
Cristian Romero, Micky Van de Ven and Ben Davies are all set for a number of weeks on the sidelines, and Ange Postecoglou has openly admitted he sees Gray as someone capable of playing there.
Since joining Spurs, Gray has played in every position across the back four and after playing on the left against AS Roma recently, Postecoglou heaped praise on the former Leeds star.
But this really is a unique opportunity for Gray in the coming weeks, with Rangers kick starting a run of matches that also sees Spurs face the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool.
Spurs media rate start of Gray centre-back run
Despite Spurs’ issues as of late, many would have tipped them as comfortable winners away at Rangers, despite how special Ibrox can be on a European night.
Rangers have had plenty of issues of their own this season and aren’t even in the top two of the Scottish Premiership as it stands, but gave Spurs a huge scare on Thursday.
The two sides played out a very entertaining 1-1 draw as Hamza Igamane opened the scoring just after half-time.
Dejan Kulusevski – who has been Spurs’ best player this season – had to be brought off the bench to save the day, netting a 75th minute equaliser.
Rangers could have gone on and won it when some slick play inside the box from Cyriel Dessers saw him skip past Gray to go one-on-one with Fraser Forster, but the former Celtic stopper saved the day.
Football.London pointed out Gray as getting ‘turned inside out’ by Dessers late on but overall, were fairly praising of what the teenager produced on his first start as a centre-back.
They wrote: “Archie Gray – First start as a centre-back for the 18-year-old and on the whole he was solid, winning headers and decent with the ball at his feet. Was one of those who got turned inside out by Dessers late on, but on the whole he did well for someone out of position and so young. 6.”
Ange Postecoglou delivers verdict on Gray performance
Postecoglou was asked directly about Gray’s performance in his post-match press conference, and the Spurs was very impressed.
Gray was hailed as ‘outstanding’ by his manager and feels the way he ‘handled himself’ was very impressive for someone so young,
He said: “He’s 18, it’s a big experience for him. I thought he handled himself really well. We’re asking him to do something that as an 18-year-old in his first year at this level, to play in an unfamiliar position in such big games, I thought it’s outstanding what he’s doing.
I thought Lucas was excellent when he came on as well. He was due to start tonight but wasn’t feeling well today. He was a bit under the weather today. We had to keep him on the bench, but that’s a massive positive for us. Those two as 18-year-olds to be already contributing and experiencing these things will be of enormous benefit to us.
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