Tottenham Hotspur left back Djed Spence recently gave the Spurs faithful something rare to cheer about, as the newly minted England international at the 2026 World Cup provided a delicious assist to Spurs legend Harry Kane in a friendly match.
Thomas Tuchel clearly values Spence highly, and he turned a lot of heads by selecting a backup fullback from a club that nearly got relegated over world class Real Madrid starter and Liverpool icon Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Spence could get a start or two at the World Cup, but while he is known for his vaunted defensive work in one on ones, Spence is not known for his passing, creativity, progression, or output on the attacking end at left back, given he is a right back by trade. And that is what concerns many fans of the Three Lions about his controversial selection on Tuchel's part.
Djed Spence is not much of an attacker
But Djed Spence himself isn't hiding from the critics, and he acknowledged the fact that he needs to improve his attacking output for both England and Tottenham. Spence said, via Chris Cowlin, “It is my position now on the left so I just have to practice more and there are things to perfect and hopefully produce more assists like that one for the rest of the tournament. Everyone knows how good I am one v one, but going forward is a bit different playing on the left because it’s not my natural side going forward. There’s still stuff I can improve on and I’ve got to try and get more numbers in attack.”
The first step to improvement is being honest, and Spence is refreshingly brutally honest about his shortcomings here. As much as he can come off as arrogant on social media, a lot of what Spence does is just banter aimed at opponents, and Tottenham Hotspur fans do love that.
On the pitch, Spence works incredibly hard, and while his technical quality and decision making can be criticized, nobody can fault him for a lack of effort and intensity, which is probably why he is so good at winning the ball defensively and effective on that end.
Tottenham will want to see genuine growth from Spence on the attacking end, regardless of if it is at left back or right back. Because Spurs may use him more as a right back next season without a set backup for Pedro Porro and now with Andrew Robertson joining Souza and Destiny Udogie over on the left.
Add us as a preferred source on Google