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Ange Postecoglou opens up on ‘significant’ Tottenham star’s dwindling play-time

Originally posted on To The Lane And Back
By Rohan Sengupta | Last updated Apr 25, 2025 5:13 PM ET

Archie Gray has been a rare shining light for Tottenham this season

Tottenham Hotspur have faced a lot of problems throughout the season. One of them was the injury crisis that hit the Lilywhites’ camp, which left as many as 12 players sidelined at one point in time.

Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven—the club’s first-choice centre-backs—spent a significant amount of time on the treatment table owing to their respective injury problems. Their back-up, Ben Davies, was also out on the sidelines for more than a month with a hamstring problem, while Radu Dragusin’s season ended in February following an ACL rupture.

This forced Ange Postecoglou to rely on makeshift solutions. He decided to use young Archie Gray, a midfielder by trade, across his team’s defensive unit. The England youth international played at full-back before being deployed in central defence, where he partnered Davies and Dragusin at different intervals.

This has seen the Durham-born talent play 23 times in the Premier League in his debut Tottenham season thus far. Overall, he has made 40 appearances, emerging as one of the rare bright spots in an otherwise torrid campaign for the North Londoners.

However, since the injury crisis has eased, with several key players returning to full fitness, Archie Gray has seen his minutes dry up. The availability of Romero and Van de Ven, coupled with Destiny Udogie, Djed Spence and Pedro Porro sharing minutes at full-back positions, has led to the teenager being less involved of late.

Ahead of Tottenham’s trip to Liverpool on Sunday, Ange Postecoglou shed light on Gray’s recent lack of game time in his pre-match press conference. He has stated that his dip in minutes was down to giving others a chance to build their match sharpness.

“I guess with all these things, people just look at them in a moment of time. I think if you’d said at the start of the season that Lucas, Archie and Mikey Moore would have played as much as they have I’d have said it was impossible,” Postecoglou told Football London.

“We’ve got a real clear focus of where we need to be for the remainder of the season and players need to be in a good condition and Archie is in a really good condition so others have needed minutes.

“There’s no doubt that Archie will play a really significant role for us in the remainder of this season.”

Gray has demonstrated his quality and versatility in his first season at N17. He has barely looked out of depth while playing in central defence, showing great maturity on and off the ball. The Englishman has time and again shown how lucky Tottenham are to have a special talent like him.

At 19, Gray is very young, and his game time needs to be managed carefully to avoid a potential burnout. The return of key players from injuries have allowed the ex-Leeds United starlet to get some much-needed breathing space. He has a long way to go in his career and will have ample opportunities to play, with Tottenham set to play against Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League semi-finals next month.

This article first appeared on To The Lane And Back and was syndicated with permission.

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