Since leaving Leeds United for Tottenham Hotspur, Archie Gray has seemingly turned into Ange Postecoglou’s very own version of Stuart Dallas.
Gray was handed his third start for Tottenham on Thursday night as they picked up a second consecutive win in the Europa League, defeating Ferencvaros 2-1 away from home.
With Spurs down to 10 men, Gray was praised for his performance in the 3-0 victory over Qarabag last week, but it appears as though he went up another level in Hungary.
Gray is now effectively seen as cover all across Spurs’ back four after former Leeds loanee Djed Spence was actually left out of the Europa League squad completely.
Spence came on at left-back at half-time of Spurs’ 3-0 win over Manchester United last weekend, and with both Radu Dragusin and Destiny Udogie ruled out, it was up to Gray to cover.
Spurs media make huge prediction about Gray
For the first time ever, Gray actually played at centre-back in pre-season for Spurs due to Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven and Dragusin all being away on international duty.
It had looked as though that would be just a brief experiment by Postecoglou, but Gray was actually tasked with playing there in a competitive match last night.
Gray started the match at centre-back before then being shifted over to the left in the second half due to Ben Davies’ struggles.
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Considering those are two positions he rarely, if ever played at all at Leeds, Football.London were left hugely impressed by Gray’s display, so much so they have predicted him to achieve huge things while at Spurs.
They wrote: “Archie Gray – Spent the first half as central defender and the second as a left-back. The 18-year-old is going to be a fantastic player for the club.
“Playing completely out of position but he showed so many great touches, including one backheel that sent Spurs away on a big counter attack. Worked so hard throughout. 8.”
National media question Gray defensively
Gray wasn’t always the most assured defensively when playing right-back for Leeds, but certainly grew into the position as the season went on.
And playing here there and everywhere apart from midfield for Spurs, it is looking like he will have to continue learning on the job.