It was a moment that Tottenham Hotspur fans have patiently been waiting for all season. On his 38th appearance for Spurs since joining from Leeds United last July, Archie Gray started in central midfield for the first time.
There were not many positives to take from Sunday’s miserable 2-0 defeat to Fulham but it was encouraging to see Gray finally able to play in his favoured position. The 19-year-old operated in midfield for an hour until Cristian Romero was replaced by James Maddison, at which point he dropped into central defence alongside Ben Davies.
Gray excelled in Leeds’ academy as a midfielder but played regularly at right-back for them under Daniel Farke in the Championship last season. The England Under-21 international has covered every single position in defence for Spurs, including starting eight Premier League games in a row at centre-back.
But did he show enough against Fulham to prove that he could be the long-term answer to Tottenham’s problems in the No 6 role? The Athletic rewatched his best and worst moments from Craven Cottage to find out.
Before kick-off, Gray participated in his own individual training drill with assistant coaches Mile Jedinak and Nick Montgomery. They took it in turns to fire passes into his feet to test his control. Jedinak then stepped in closer to Gray and made a few hand gestures as he imparted a few final words of advice.
Ange Postecoglou did not include a creative midfielder in his starting XI, which meant there was uncertainty about how Gray, Yves Bissouma and Rodrigo Bentancur would work together. Bentancur was positioned the highest while Gray sat deepest. Bissouma would occasionally drop in next to Gray to help Spurs progress the ball or to help shackle Emile Smith Rowe, Andreas Pereira and Alex Iwobi.
Gray’s first involvement of the game was to move in between Raul Jimenez and Smith Rowe to receive a pass from Guglielmo Vicario before popping it off to Romero. It was encouraging to see a display of leadership as he instructed Bissouma to move further away to create more space.
In the same sequence, the ball ends up with Mathys Tel who gives it to Gray and indicates with his left arm that he wants the next pass to go forward. Gray is surrounded by four Fulham players and has a limited number of options. He returns the ball to Tel, who underhits a pass back to Vicario which is nearly intercepted. Gray and Tel point at each other in the aftermath.
They are two teenagers still getting to grips with new positions and, in Tel’s case, new team-mates.
Midway through the first half, Gray showed good defensive awareness when Antonee Robinson was charging up the left wing.
Gray steps across Smith Rowe at the last second to win back possession and find Brennan Johnson.
Playing as a No 6 is a demanding role and losing concentration for even a split second can have disastrous consequences.
Dominic Solanke receives the ball from a throw-in and passes it back towards Gray, who briefly switches off. The ball awkwardly bounces off his left foot and Iwobi collects it, but Gray does well to force him wide with Romero.
Iwobi and Gray clashed again just before half-time.
Gray closes down the Nigeria international and makes first contact with the ball but it ricochets past him. He refuses to give up and engages Iwobi again. The Fulham midfielder complains about the treatment he is receiving but the referee waves play on and Djed Spence eventually pinches the ball and passes it to Tel.
Tottenham’s lacklustre performance against Fulham meant that Gray was mainly responsible for putting out fires. There were not many occasions where he was able to show off his quality in possession. This incident just before he moved to centre-back shows where there is room for him to improve.
Gray drops deep to receive the ball from Romero ahead of Jimenez and he turns before driving into space. Sander Berge approaches him so, instead of firing a reverse pass into Lucas Bergvall’s feet, goes for the easy option of laying it off to Spence.
Hopefully in the future, as he plays more regularly in central midfield, Gray will become more confident at taking risks in possession. Gray’s performance against Fulham was decent and he deserves further opportunities. It is important to remember that Fulham head coach Marco Silva packs central areas with Smith Rowe, Pereira, Berge, Iwobi and even Willian, who likes to cut inside onto his right foot to shoot. It was always going to be difficult for Gray to impress.
Something else happened on Sunday that suggests Gray has jumped up the midfield pecking order. Bissouma was substituted at half-time for the second league game in a row and Postecoglou explained his decision by saying, “I just feel Biss can sometimes let the game drift by him.”
“He needs to be a little bit more dominant in the way he gets on the ball,” Postecoglou added. “I needed him to play, though, because he hasn’t played a lot. At the same time, you’ve got to perform. It’s fair to say, Biss and a few others are probably lacking a bit of confidence. That’s affecting him but we’re at the point of the season now where we need guys to get out there and put those things to one side and perform.
“It’s not about getting through to him or a lack of effort. I just think with players, sometimes they go through these spells and he needs to find a way to break through that and we need to find a way to get that out of him.”
Bissouma has made 22 appearances and started 14 times for Spurs in the top flight this season but his minutes have reduced dramatically recently. He did not come off the bench in last month’s 1-0 defeat to Manchester City and only made brief cameos in the victories over Manchester United and Ipswich Town.
In the Europa League, the 28-year-old was an unused substitute in the first leg against AZ and his involvement was limited to around 15 minutes in the second leg. All of the evidence suggests that Postecoglou no longer trusts Bissouma in important games. The Mali international will only have a year left on his contract in the summer and Spurs will surely cut their losses.
Bissouma has seen a big reduction in his minutes of late (Bradley Collyer/Getty Images)
Bentancur will enter the final 12 months of his deal at the same time as Bissouma but Postecoglou spoke much more positively about him last month when asked about a potential extension.
“Rodri has been great,” Postecoglou said before the 1-0 defeat to Man City last month. “In terms of his contract situation, that is handled by other people and obviously a lot of our strategising is not just about the short term but the longer term. Rodri, this latter period, is getting back to the levels he wants to be. He was coming off a long-term injury last year, came back looked good and then got another injury.
“It’s really disruptive. Even this year he got off to a false start with his long suspension. You can see he just needs regular game time and he is getting up to speed. A good guy around the group as well. He is experienced now. From our perspective, in this run-in, he is going to be important.”
Bentancur is not a natural defensive midfielder but he has played the majority of his minutes for Spurs this season in that position. Do not be surprised if, for the rest of the campaign, Bentancur’s job is to mentor Gray to become an all-conquering No 6 while Bissouma watches on from the sidelines.
One potential hurdle for Gray is Johnny Cardoso. During negotiations with Real Betis over the sale of Giovani Lo Celso last year, Spurs included a first-refusal clause relating to Cardoso which becomes active this summer. The central midfielder, who has been capped 18 times by the United States, has made 20 appearances in La Liga this season and scored in Betis’ 2-1 victory over Real Madrid earlier this month.
Cardoso extended his contract with Betis until 2030 in February but Tottenham’s clause remains in place. The 23-year-old could be Bissouma’s replacement and a ready-made option for the central defensive-midfield role while Gray continues his development.
(Top photo: Richard Pelham/Getty Images)
