Tottenham full-back Djed Spence has improved leaps and bounds in recent months and deserves to be a regular starter
Tottenham Hotspur’s injury crisis appears to be cooling off as a few of Ange Postecoglou’s key players have made a return to the first team. This has coincided with a positive run of results in the Premier League.
Spurs made it three league wins on the spin last weekend, beating Ipswich Town 4-1 at Portman Road. The result helped them continue their winning momentum and avenge November’s home defeat. Ange Postecoglou will be delighted as after months of question marks around his future and Tottenham as a whole, he finally has some respite.
One player who looks in top form in the last couple of months is Djed Spence. He has rejuvenated his Spurs career after being frozen out by Ange Postecoglou during the early parts of this campaign. The versatile full-back has impressed everyone at White Hart Lane and since being given a second chance to impress at the club, it could be argued that he has been the Ange Postecoglou-managed side’s best performer.
Djed Spence continued his rich vein of form with a strong display against Ipswich Town, whilst netting his first goal in Tottenham colours. At this point, he has become indispensable for Postecoglou.
I journalist Daniel Storey praised Spence’s performance in the 4-1 thrashing of Ipswich, stating that he is arguably the Premier League’s most improved. He added the Englishman’s development is a “genuine ray of light” in what has been a torrid season at N17 and backed him to become the club’s first-choice full-back next term.
“This hasn’t been an easy season for any Tottenham player to show their best, but Djed Spence might just be the most improved player in the Premier League and its Player of the Month for February,” Daniel Storey praised Spence in his column for I.
Spence flourished as a makeshift left-back under Ange Postecoglou, albeit one picked basically because everybody else was injured. He preferred to come infield on his right foot, thus inviting Son Heung-min to stay wide and create the overlap. His defending, completely unused at Tottenham before this spell, has always been better than people give him credit for.
“Now Spence is on the right, with Destiny Udogie fit. Not only is that his own preferred position, it also enables him to double up with Brennan Johnson as they did so effectively at Forest. Now Spence can overlap himself to put crosses into the box, while Johnson can get into the box and Dejan Kulusevski can push high and create overloads against full-backs.
“Nobody is celebrating an injury crisis that has ruined Tottenham’s season, but the development of Spence is a genuine ray of light. He deserves to be their first choice either on the left or right next season.”
Indeed, Spence has flourished as an inverted full-back in Big Ange’s system. When playing as a left-back in Udogie’s injury absence, the former England youth international coming infield allowed our skipper Son to stay out wide and create the overlap. Against Ipswich, he was back in his original right-back position and reignited his understanding with Brennan Johnson from their Nottingham Forest days together, with the duo scoring three of Spurs’ four goals in East Angelia.
The 24-year-old is getting better and better in a Spurs shirt with every passing week, with BBC Sport pundit Gary Lineker tipping him for an England call-up as well. Spence is in the form of his life and not many English full-backs are in better form and shape than him right now.
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It would not be surprising if the Tottenham defender is picked by Thomas Tuchel for England’s upcoming 2026 World Cup Qualifiers against Albania and Latvia next month. At Spurs now, it seems difficult to imagine a starting XI without Spence in it.
