Ashley Phillips and one other 18-year-old defender have impressed Postecoglou – Journalist reports

Alasdair Gold has revealed that Ange Postecoglou has been quite impressed with Tottenham academy centre-back Alfie Dorrington.

With Davinson Sanchez departing to Galatasaray last week, Tottenham are short of options in central defence, with Eric Dier being the only senior centre-back that Postecoglou could turn to in case one of Micky van de Ven and Cristian Romero gets injured or suspended.

There is also the risky option of offering a debut to 18-year-old summer signing, Ashley Phillips, who the Spurs head coach named on the bench ahead of Dier for the club’s trip to Turf Moor last week.

It has been widely reported over the past couple of weeks that Postecoglou has liked what he has seen from Phillips in training (Michael Bridge), which perhaps raises the possibility of the youngster being thrown into the deep end.

Postecoglou likes both Phillips and Dorrington

However, Gold has wondered if the teenager can cope with the pressure of having to step into the first-team and also discussed the possibility of Dorrington potentially being handed his debut.

The journalist said on Gold and Guest Talk Tottenham Podcast: “Ashley Phillips, definitely Postecoglou has been impressed with him, but it’s a lot of pressure to put on an 18-year-old. Fans will want to see him play and journalists as well if there’s an injury will be saying he has to play.

“There’s also young Alfie Dorrington as well. Alfie Dorrington is coming up through the ranks very quickly. He’s a very talented and highly regarded player in the academy. He’s been training with the first-team quite a bit and will continue to.”

Spurs Web Opinion

We will certainly be in deep trouble if one of Romero or Van de Ven picks up an injury as it certainly would not be ideal to play either Dorrington or Phillips right now.

If Ange has decided that Dier is not part of his plans (which he seemingly has), I would not be surprised if he plays one of Davies or Emerson at centre-back in case of an emergency.

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