‘Really eager to learn’ – Postecoglou admits he loves working with 24-year-old at Spurs
Ange Postecoglou has said that he never had any doubts about Pedro Porro from day one and revealed that the Spaniard has been extremely keen...
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Ange Postecoglou has said that he never had any doubts about Pedro Porro from day one and revealed that the Spaniard has been extremely keen to learn and get better.
After a difficult first six months at Tottenham following his move from Sporting Lisbon in January of last year, Porro had already been written off as a flop by some.
After the Spaniard’s initial struggles, there were doubts over whether he is good enough defensively to succeed in the Premier League.
In addition to that, when Postecoglou walked through the door, there were also question marks over whether Porro could play as an inverted right-back, having played solely as a wing-back throughout his career until that point.
When the Tottenham boss was asked if he himself had those doubts, he told Football.London: “No, I didn’t. After working with him, obviously during the pre-season with him and Eme, and obviously all our full-backs.
“We play that role a little bit differently, so there’s always some different characteristic you look for. With the lads we have here, I thought it was the one area of the pitch we had some really good reinforcements in.
“I really enjoyed working with Pedro right from the start. He’s got great energy, he’s really good technically. He’s really eager to learn, he’s done a lot of work on his defensive side with Wellsy (Matt Wells) and the defensive unit as a group. I think he’s benefitted from that and grown into it.
There is more to come from Pedro Porro
Postecoglou pointed out that Porro has barely been troubled defensively all season and suggested that there is even more to come from the right-back.
The Australian continued: “I still think there’s a lot more growth in him because he’s tackling the defensive side of his job, which is the area people obviously had some scepticism around.
“When you play as a wing-back, you don’t need to defend particularly in a one-on-one situation, but he’s been outstanding this year at dealing with some really good wingers in this league and rarely has he been left short.
“So I think there’s a lot more in him and I’m really pleased that he’s embraced the way we play our football.”
While Porro and his opposite number Destiny Udogie were causing teams a lot of problems in the final third at the start of the season, they have perhaps not been as impactful going forward over the last few months.
When asked if it was a case of teams adapting to Tottenham’s system and blunting their threat, Postecoglou responded: “No, I don’t think so. I said after the [last] game, we’ve been working Pedro and Destiny and I think they’re still getting into some great areas.
“They probably haven’t had the output [of late]… but I’ve consistently said all year that in terms of our front third, a lot of our players there is still a long way to go in terms of where we want to be.
“Pedro scored last week. Destiny was in the box when he scored. So I still think it’s an effective way for us to get through opposition teams with the qualities those two players have – different qualities in terms of the way they get into those attacking thirds. It’s just stuff we’re working on with them constantly and again we’re seeing some improvement.”
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Over the course of the season, you could see both Porro and Udogie slowly but surely getting a better understanding of the inverted role, having previously been used to hogging the touchline.
It now looks like it has almost become second nature for the Italian and the Spaniard to receive the ball centrally on the half turn and I have no doubt that they will be even more effective next season.
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