Ange can save his job by dropping Porro for “future £100m” Spurs star

It’s crunch time for Tottenham Hotspur and Ange Postecoglou in the Europa League.

The North Londoners put in one of their worst displays of the season away to AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League last week and will have to seriously up their game to overturn the Dutch side’s 1-0 lead.

Unfortunately, there were poor performances across the pitch for the visitors in Alkmaar and then more of the same at home to Bournemouth in the Premier League a few days later.

So, Postecoglou must make a number of bold changes to the side that picked up just a point on the weekend, including the removal of Pedro Porro from the starting lineup.

Porro’s fall from grace

When Tottenham completed the signing of Porro on an initial loan deal with an obligation to buy in February 2023, there was some justifiable excitement from fans, as in just 26 appearances for Sporting CP that season, he had scored three goals and provided 11 assists.

Impressively, despite the significant jump in quality between the two divisions, the Spanish dynamo continued his good form in the Premier League that season and ended the campaign with three goals and three assists in just 15 games.

The following year brought much of the same in terms of attacking quality, as in 37 appearances, the Don Benito-born star scored four goals and provided seven assists, but concerns over his defensive abilities were starting to creep in, with mistakes in games against Newcastle United and Fulham as a couple of examples.

This season has been significantly worse, though, and not even the fact that he’s produced nine goal involvements in 40 games can help his case.

For example, against Ipswich Town, he was so comically poor at the back that journalist Mitch Fretton described his performance as a “horror show,” then against Arsenal in January, Spurs content creator Seb Martin described his showing as like a “nightmare.”

Finally, it was another “terrible” showing, per Spurs content creator Jaco, from the former Sporting star over the weekend, as he managed to lose the ball a staggering 27 times, which more than justified the 3/10 match rating dished out by Daily Express journalist Tom Parsons.

Overall, while Porro is undoubtedly a threat going forward, he’s a total liability at the back, and in a must-win tie like tonight’s, Postecoglou must ensure he’s nowhere near the starting lineup.

The Spurs star who should take Porro’s place

When it comes to replacing Porro at right-back for tonight’s must-win game, there are two options: move Djed Spence from left-back or start Archie Gray.

For our money, the best option in this situation would be the latter, and there are a couple of reasons for that.

The first has nothing to do with the youngster himself, but doing so means the manager can play Spence on the left instead of Udogie, who, like the Spaniard, has come in for more than his fair share of criticism over defensive fragilities this term.

The second reason is that even though he is a natural midfielder by trade, the “future £100m” star, as dubbed by analyst Ben Mattinson, has more than proven himself as an able defender this season, whether at centre-back or full-back.

For example, he has made seven appearances at right-back and five on the left under Postecoglou, and more crucially, he has started every game of the Europa League campaign thus far and, aside from last week, has looked solid throughout.

Finally, according to FBref, he sits in the top 1% of full-backs in Europe’s top five leagues, the Champions League and Europa League, for medium passes complete and shots blocked, the top 2% for carries and the top 4% for progressive passing distance per 90, which for someone playing out of position is not too bad at all.

Ultimately, Porro has been a consistent liability at the back for Tottenham this season, so for a must-win game like this, Postecoglou must keep Spence on the pitch and bring Gray on at right-back.

Related

Spurs already have a perfect Danso upgrade in 18-year-old “freak talent”

The exceptional talent could demand a starting place at Spurs next season.