Tottenham star defends Ange Postecoglou & praises 'spectacular' teen duo

Pedro Porro has rubbished suggestions that Ange Postecoglou is working injury-hit Tottenham's players too hard in training and has revealed his admiration for the "spectacular" duo of Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall.

Spurs slipped to a 12th Premier League defeat of the season at the weekend, going down 3-2 to Everton after a torrid opening 45 minutes saw the visitors implode and head into the half-time interval three goals behind.

Goals from Dejan Kulusevski and Richarlison made the scoreline respectable for Spurs, but they sit 15th in the Premier League table after a disastrous run of form that has coincided with continued injury problems.

Cristian Romero, Micky van de Ven, Guglielmo Vicario, Dominic Solanke, Destiny Udogie, Yves Bissouma, Brennan Johnson, Timo Werner and Wilson Odobert all missed the trip to Merseyside, with the majority, if not all, likely to have been included in Spurs' matchday squad had they been fit.

There have been suggestions that under-fire Postecoglou, whose job is safe for now, is perhaps to blame for his methods on the training ground, but Porro has come out in defence of his manager by stating that every player has their own recovery regime and that their workload is well managed and looked after.

"We have a plan for all of our training," Porro told football.london. "Those players who aren't playing so much have their own plan to come back and me too, I train at the club but I also do my own work outside the club, recovery work, prevention of injury.

"Everyone has their own schedule, if the training sessions are less intense it's for those players coming back, they have the training they need, and also for the players who are playing, we need a lot of recovery."

Spurs' catalogue of injuries has seen Gray and Bergvall exposed to more first-team football than they may have expected to play at this junction of their career, but both have been extremely impressive despite results not going the club's way.

Their form has caught the eye of Porro, a €40m signing in January 2023, who at the same time as praising the duo suggested he was not entirely surprised by how good they had been.

"When you have injuries and you have signed young players who perhaps are for the future, then you sign them for the future but also so you've got options if you get injuries," the Spaniard said. "Lucas, Archie and others have been doing so well, but that, at the end of the day, is why the club have brought them in. They've had their opportunity and it's up to them to take it.

"They're doing a spectacular job for the club and if we go through a bad moment and they're suffering like us all at this moment, then that'll make them great players in the future because they're putting everything out there for the team."

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