Ange Postecoglou hailed Tottenham’s youngsters after they came of age in Budapest tonight.
Postecoglou named four teenagers in his starting XI – Mikey Moore, Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray and debutant Will Lankshear – and the quartet passed the test with flying colours as Spurs won 2-1 at Ferencvaros.
Pape Sarr put the visitors ahead in the first half and Brennan Johnson came off the bench to score his fifth goal in five games with four minutes to go.
Barnabas Varga pulled one back late on but Spurs held on to register their second successive Europa League win and fifth in a row in all competitions.
Postecoglou said: “Irrespective of who you play in Europe away, it’s always a challenge. You saw with the atmosphere the crowd create, they get really behind their team and the conditions as well. So there’s a whole range of things you need to deal with.
“Obviously, we made quite a number of changes to the team, including putting the young boys in, but I thought they handled it really, really well.
“We needed to defend and defend well, we played some good football and created some good chances. Maybe we could have had a couple more but, most importantly, we won an away European tie which I think is a credit to the lads.”
On the youngsters, he added: “We’ve got to be careful with them but at the same time we’ve brought some really talented players to the club and my pitch to them was that we would develop them so I have to make sure I do that.”
Brennan Johnson makes it five goals in five games! 💥
The Spurs winger is in inspired form ✨
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Moore shines brightest
Moore was the youngest of the teenage quartet at just 17 years of age but Postecoglou is a big fan of the winger.
“His ability to just deal with pressure and keep the ball in really tight areas and make really good clean decisions for such a young boy. It’s not easy out there when defenders fly in and he took one within the first 30 seconds, but he drives on,” he said.
“He’s got so much growth and he wants to learn. I couldn’t be happier with him and I’m very pleased that he’s part of our football club.
“I thought he was outstanding. It’s brilliant for a 17-year-old to play 90 plus minutes in a European away tie. He just handled it superbly. I kind of knew he would and I think it’ll help his growth as a footballer once you get through an experience like that.
“I think he’ll grow and evolve and I didn’t feel like I needed to take him off. He still looked strong at the end and was still contributing.”
Johnson earns Ange praise
Next up for Spurs is a trip to Brighton on Sunday with Johnson looking to score in a sixth successive game.
Postecoglou said of the Wales forward: “He’s in a great vein of form right now. He’s really confident.
“They thrive on that sort of stuff, but his numbers have always been good. I was always curious as to why he was singled out because his numbers were always good when stacked up against the other wingers. Now he’s probably ahead of them with his numbers.”
