Player Watch Player Watch: Djed Spence

[Westmorlandspur]

The patently obvious call is dropping Forster and having Austin and Whiteman as backups to Vicario.

Going into these group stages with 4 goalkeepers and 6 recognised defenders is quite frankly scandalous.

The goalies are irrelevant. Whiteman picked just to fill a club trained space. Heaven forbid he plays in one of the games.

 

[Westmorlandspur]

Huge overreaction to this news going on. Spence had a good preseason, but he’s never shown anything beyond that. In fact I bet half of the people belly aching about this had him in there lists of people the club needed to move on at all costs before he played well against a few Korean and Japanese teams in the summer.

Given the pressures on squad places due to lack of club trained options, it’s understandable that we’ve picked an experienced goalie, and Gray who is capable of covering in several positions.

Spence can only really play right back for us, he was pretty poor when he played on the left against Bayern so I’d worry about him playing there.

It’s tough luck for him, but it’s not the travesty that the reaction from some on here are making it out to be.

At last. Someone talking sense instead of these halfwits whining about 4 goalies. Not a clue.

 

[beats1]

Just because Djed has been improving doesn’t mean he has reached the level we require.

Just because we want another defender in the squad doesn’t mean we should leave out a model pro in Forster. Especially for someone who has only proven himself over a short period.

This such a bad take, I don't get it

He isn't the required level. Who the fuck do we think we are? People all of the time talk about our fringe players like they are never good enough. Yet we can't afford the good squad players and even when did have good squad players(like Lo Celso) we couldn't give them minutes lol. So we have to develop our own but we can't do that unless we play them

At same time no would suggest Gray or Bergvall aren't at the required level because they're the new shiny toy

Also Chelsea left out their best player we shouldn't leave out Forster because he's a model pro, despite the fact we have 4 gk's and he can't dive low anymore

 

[jolsnogross]

It's an odd one. You'd like to think we're going for the Europa league this season, so 3-4 changes to the team to ensure freshness, but strongly gunning to win the thing. You'd have thought Spence would be a good option for that.

Regardless of Spence, I don’t want to see 7-8 changes for cup games and then wondering why the wholesale reserve team isn't performing. The EL has a guaranteed 8 games, so use them well

 

[spurs9]

Huge overreaction to this news going on. Spence had a good preseason, but he’s never shown anything beyond that. In fact I bet half of the people belly aching about this had him in there lists of people the club needed to move on at all costs before he played well against a few Korean and Japanese teams in the summer.

Given the pressures on squad places due to lack of club trained options, it’s understandable that we’ve picked an experienced goalie, and Gray who is capable of covering in several positions.

Spence can only really play right back for us, he was pretty poor when he played on the left against Bayern so I’d worry about him playing there.

It’s tough luck for him, but it’s not the travesty that the reaction from some on here are making it out to be.

It's not about Spence though, it's about depth in defence. 6 Players for 4 positions with our injury record there is crazy. Hopefully, Dorrington fully recovers from injury soon and gets a chance.

 

[mil1lion]

Are people honestly saying they would prefer to see Austin in goal with Spence right back than Forster in goal and Gray right back? A poor keeper is way more costly and Gray is likely to be as good if not better than Spence at right back.

 

[Scot-Spur]

This such a bad take, I don't get it

He isn't the required level. Who the fuck do we think we are? People all of the time talk about our fringe players like they are never good enough. Yet we can't afford the good squad players and even when did have good squad players(like Lo Celso) we couldn't give them minutes lol. So we have to develop our own but we can't do that unless we play them

At same time no would suggest Gray or Bergvall aren't at the required level because they're the new shiny toy

Also Chelsea left out their best player we shouldn't leave out Forster because he's a model pro, despite the fact we have 4 gk's and he can't dive low anymore

Comparing Gray and Bergvall to Spence is a “bad take”.

Spence is 24, 5/6 years older than both others mentioned. If they are at the level Spence is now then they should have been moved on.

Lo Celso has never fitted in here, is he a good player? In the right system and surroundings sure, however that isn’t here.

Players excel in systems that suit their play styles. If Spence was good enough he would be playing. Simple as that.

As for the Chelsea point, they are a complete circus.

 

[Scot-Spur]

Are people honestly saying they would prefer to see Austin in goal with Spence right back than Forster in goal and Gray right back? A poor keeper is way more costly and Gray is likely to be as good if not better than Spence at right back.

Same people would be the first complaining if we put in Austin and he let in a howler.

 

[Tucker]

It's not about Spence though, it's about depth in defence. 6 Players for 4 positions with our injury record there is crazy. Hopefully, Dorrington fully recovers from injury soon and gets a chance.

Except it’s not 6 players, it’s 7. Gray can play full back, and can even deputise at centre back.

 

[npearl4spurs]

Do we know Forster is still better than Austin post-injury? It's not like we have seen much from Austin to make an assessment. I thought he looked pretty good in pre-season.

But the proof is in the pudding in training. Forster must still have more than Austin from that and from what this decision seems to say

 

[spurs9]

Are people honestly saying they would prefer to see Austin in goal with Spence right back than Forster in goal and Gray right back? A poor keeper is way more costly and Gray is likely to be as good if not better than Spence at right back.

Personally, I would probably rather see Luca Gunter play GK than either Forster or Austin. Forster looked past it v Fulham last year and 1 year on with 0 game time, he won't have gotten any better.

 

[mil1lion]

Personally, I would probably rather see Luca Gunter play GK than either Forster or Austin. Forster looked past it v Fulham last year and 1 year on with 0 game time, he won't have gotten any better.

A teenager in goal? Madness

 

[spurs9]

Except it’s not 6 players, it’s 7. Gray can play full back, and can even deputise at centre back.

It's still not enough. Spence could have also filled in at LB, where we are desperately short too. Personally, I would rather see what Gray can do in midfield than have to play him in his secondary position.

 

[spurs9]

A teenager in goal? Madness

In an emergancy? I don't think it more mad than playing an aging GK that has shown he isn't up to it a year ago.

 

[Johnny J]

This decision is [madness/sensible].

 

[Tucker]

It's still not enough. Spence could have also filled in at LB.

Not imo, he looked like a fish out of water there in preseason.

 

[mil1lion]

In an emergancy? I don't think it more mad than playing an aging GK that has shown he isn't up to it a year ago.

It's only 2nd choice so only takes an injury or suspension to Vicario. Can you imagine one of these keeper in Istanbul? If Gunter messes up he could really struggle. Forster is far more experienced and won't be hurt at this stage of his career anyway.

 

[dontcallme]

Tottenham releases Europa League squad list for 2024-25 campaign

Djed Spence omitted from squad in one of the more bizarre decisions.

cartilagefreecaptain.sbnation.com

Sorry not been keeping up with this. The article states "Brandon Austin and Alfie Whiteman are the only two eligible club-trained players, so that does reduce Spurs’ squad size down to 23."

So unless I'm missing something if we'd omitted one of the 4 keepers we couldn't have put Spence in anyway.

 

[coysjod]

Why is everyone so sure that Forster is up to it anymore? Didn't look too assured before and has gotten even older now...

 

[Mr Pink]

On the surface it looks a very odd decision, partucularly after Ange's post pre season remarks.

As ever, will wait for more information before going off the deep end

Perhaps things have changed behind the scenes