Why Signing Archie Gray Was A Masterstroke By Spurs
Teenage sensation Archie Gray is as composed on the ball as he is versatile. With Ange Postecoglu wanting to play front-footed football predominantly WITH the ball... Tqwashe signing of Archie Gray could be a key component of his vision....
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00:00Oh, right, this is going to be a difficult video to make, not because of the subject
00:08matter at all, but because of the temperature within my room.
00:12I think it's borderline **** right now.
00:16Yeah, anyway, we'll be covering Archie Gray today, and if I do pass out at any point in
00:21this video, then Adam Cleary will probably step in with an edit to let you know what
00:24my fate is.
00:25But yeah, nonetheless, let's crack on.
00:28Oh yeah, and by the way, quick one, if you're wondering why I'm dressed like an athlete
00:31as well, it's because I am one now.
00:32I actually went to Puma HQ, you can see me here, testing out their new Ultra boot, very,
00:38very poorly.
00:39Yeah, the less said about that, the better.
00:42Well, yes, recently on The Overlap, Gary Neville said something along the lines of, there was
00:4621 Garys born last year.
00:48What, Garys?
00:49Garys.
00:5021 Garys.
00:51Wow.
00:5228, under 30 Garys.
00:54And the names like Gary, Keith, Barry, Kevin, I guess, names like that, they're kind of
00:59dying out, the old, you know, rough and tumble English lad names, and now it's more cutesy
01:04names for boys like Noah or Archie, and the first one of them has spawned in, and he is
01:09very good.
01:10It's Archie Gray.
01:11So yes, of course, we are making this video retrospectively, of course, because Archie
01:19Gray signed for Tottenham during the Euros, and he has already played a couple of games
01:23for Tottenham and looked very, very good, and of course, Hojbjerg has left as well,
01:27which leaves that vacancy naturally when everyone's back, like Romero, Van de Ven, et cetera, for
01:31him to maybe step into midfield, and I think he's got all the attributes, so let's break
01:35it down.
01:36My back is literally stuck to this chair.
01:38Now, it's not really fair to let Archie Gray go band for band with all the Tottenham midfielders
01:43in terms of stats, because last season, he predominantly played at right back for Leeds.
01:47Yep, here are his average positions, you can see 64% was played at right back, 2% right
01:52centre half, 23% at defensive mid, 7% in centre mid, and 3% in the number 10 role as well,
01:58so a very, very versatile player from the offset, but if I was going to compare him
02:02to the Tottenham midfielders right now, you can see here he can kind of hold his own against
02:06the big boys.
02:07I mean, even playing from right back in a Leeds team, he averages 2.3 tackles a game,
02:11that's more than Pape Sarr, and just slightly more than Rodrigo Bentancur as well.
02:15His dribbles completed, 1.1 as well, really stands out, only Yves Bissouma, who is better
02:20by a fraction than Archie Gray.
02:22Successful passes does need some work, but listen, he's going to be demanded to make
02:26more passes in this post-Coglou team, and I think he'll adapt to that very, very quickly,
02:29especially with just more quality around him than he had at Leeds.
02:33Jules won as well, 4.6, which is more than Pape Sarr, who was actually very good in terms
02:37of a ball winner last season for Tottenham, so he really does tick every box, and we are
02:41talking about a very, very, very young kid here.
02:44Now, before we talk about how he's done in a Tottenham shirt so far, just looking back
02:47on last season, his stats are actually out of this world, considering he was a right-back
02:51who was 17 years old, playing in the Championship, which is one of the toughest leagues to play
02:55in.
02:56If we look at Gray's numbers in the Championship in 23-24, he led the way at Leeds for tackles
03:00with 97, the most by a Leeds player in a league season since Luke Ayling in 2020-2021, which
03:07was 108, and the most by a teenager in the Championship since Jadon Bogle with 110, which
03:12was like five years ago.
03:14And then he was also second for Leeds for the number of times he won possession back
03:17with 205, and the third for successful dribbles.
03:21Remember this is from right-back.
03:22And although he got two assists last season, one of them was this at the Liberty Stadium
03:27to Wilfrid Nyoto.
03:29You can see here he's in the right-back position, and he jinxes back inside.
03:32But then, listen, I'm not praising him for spotting this run from Wilfrid Nyoto, it's
03:35a very, very obvious run to spot, but it's not an easy pass to execute.
03:40But he does, the shape on it down the channel is inch-perfect, and it was finished very
03:43well by Wilfrid Nyoto, and he probably will be in the Premier League as well next season.
03:46But what that assist really shows is how comfortable Archie Gray is on the ball for a 17-year-old.
03:51And this is why I think he's equipped for the Premier League to start from the offset,
03:55because the other young players in the league who've got similar attributes on the ball
03:59are the likes of Adam Wharton, Kobi Mainu.
04:01These are of a similar age bracket, and if they can do it in the league, I don't see
04:05any reason why Archie Gray can't, because I think physically demanding how thick and
04:08fast the games are, the Championship for a 17-year-old is arguably just as hard.
04:13That might be a hot take, I realise, but I think you know where I'm coming from in terms
04:16of the physicality of the league and how relentless it is in terms of the fixtures, and he did
04:20pretty much play like most games towards the second half of the season.
04:24Well, let's break down Gray in a Spurs shirt.
04:26Now, so far, he's actually played in the left centre-half position, and I think this is
04:29largely because of the absentees in the Spurs team with it being pre-season.
04:33I mean, you can see Emerson Royale shoehorned in at centre-half, and I don't think he'll
04:37be playing there in the Premier League this season.
04:39But it is still a position where he's really been able to showcase his defensive reading
04:43of the game in particular, and also some of his ball-playing abilities, because against
04:46Visal Kobe, he did actually move into midfield in the second half.
04:50So firstly, that defensive ball reading, I mean, you can see here it's a very loose header,
04:54but look at how he anticipates the movement of the ball and clears his lines.
04:58But it's really his incisiveness from defensive positions on the ball which I think is so
05:01impressive, because if you really look at his passing options here, when he's got slightly
05:05more time on the ball than he would usually like to have in midfield, he could either
05:09go back to the keeper, maybe switch it across the backline, but no, he opts for the harder
05:13option and the pass is weighted perfectly, and it enables Spurs to beat Visal Kobe's
05:17attacking press.
05:18Again, another example, defensive position, and it's that incisive pass, he doesn't like
05:23to always take the easy ball, and I think that's exactly what Andrzej Postakoglu will
05:27want from all of his players throughout the team.
05:29I think he wants to be a front-footed manager with risk-takers throughout the entire XI.
05:36I think it's this one for me, though, that's the best example.
05:39He's playing almost as a central lone centre-half here, and you can see here Visal Kobe are
05:43playing quite a deep 4-4-2, very compact, very nice.
05:47There's no real obvious passing options on in this frame, but look at the pass he goes
05:51for.
05:52That is inch-perfect into the feet of Kuleszewski, and then immediately Spurs can shift it out
05:56wide onto the right, and they actually score from this resulting attack as well, so really
06:00Archie Gray made that with that incisive pass into the number 10 position, and we'll come
06:04onto it a bit later, but I think when Spurs have got the quality of players that they
06:07have, Maddison in those pockets, Kuleszewski, Hyun Min-seon maybe, if Archie Gray can pick
06:12these passes out from centre-half by driving forward with the ball, imagine what he could
06:16do in a number 6 position as well.
06:18But it's not just his passing range from defensive positions which is impressive, it's really
06:21how well he carries the ball as well.
06:23I think this is very, very reminiscent of Declan Rice, actually, in his early West Ham
06:27days.
06:28Of course, remember, he played a lot at centre-half when he first broke through the ranks at West
06:31Ham.
06:32So yes, I mean, there's passing options on, but he just drives forward with the ball.
06:36The pass was terrible here, but he's 17.
06:38In the second half, Gray pushed up into the 6th position, and he played some amazing keep
06:42ball really in this game, given it's a pre-season, you know, we're not going to see blockbuster
06:46stuff all the time, but it was very tidy, very simple, very efficient from Gray in the
06:50second half.
06:51And I just think he's got a great temperament about him, it's when to know when to make
06:55that defence-splitting pass, and when to kind of keep things simple, and not only that,
06:59from the centre of the park in the second half, he sometimes drifted out to the left-hand
07:02side as well to give Spurs a little bit more width.
07:04So he's truly just comfortable in all areas of the pitch, and this was exemplified with
07:08his touch map last season for Leeds United, considering as well that he predominantly
07:12played right-back.
07:13So you can see here, obviously, no surprises, there's a lot on the right-hand side, but
07:18again, he's not afraid to go play on the left-hand side, which is quite unheard of from a left-back,
07:22and I know he did play 23% of his games in the centre of the park, but that is an awful
07:26lot of touches right there on that left-hand side of the pitch, which is something that
07:30traditionally a right-back or centre-defensive midfielder would never really occupy those
07:35positions.
07:36So it gives Postacoglou a hell of a lot of tactical flexibility, you know, whether he
07:39wants to create an overload using Archie Gray, who's so good on the ball on that left-hand
07:43side and pushing bodies up, maybe Pedro Porro or someone like that on the wide right, and
07:48then maybe having a bank of four or five across the middle with three at the back, something
07:52like that, can really see Postacoglou utilising that this season, given how comfortable Gray
07:56is on the ball in all areas of the pitch.
07:58And not only that, not only that, what does Postacoglou like to do with his full-backs
08:02traditionally? Well, he likes to invert them, and given the fact that Archie Gray has played
08:05so much of his career at full-back, this could just work absolutely perfectly. So he can
08:10either play Gray at full-back and invert him into the middle, then push the central players
08:13out wide, which we know he likes to do, or Gray can start from that central defensive
08:17midfield position, then push out onto the left and have the likes of Udoge or Porro
08:23inverting themselves, and it just gives Spurs so much more assurity in possession, I guess
08:28would be the word.
08:29So there we go guys, a quick little video on Archie Gray, the man himself, the boy himself
08:33really. I think he's going to play a lot more minutes than a lot of neutral fans think this
08:37season, and I mean listen, I think if you're, what's the saying, not if you're old enough
08:41you're good, no, it's if you're good, right, if you're good enough, you're good enough,
08:43it doesn't matter about age, and I think case in point would be Adam Morton. Similar attributes
08:47on the ball occupies a similar position on the pitch, and he was doing it at Blackburn
08:51Rovers and instantly was able to take that step up. It's all about maturity on the ball
08:55and reading of the game, and I think the reading of defensive situations for Gray,
08:59the reading of passes that Archie Gray's got at his disposal, when to commit, when not
09:03to commit, the positions to occupy on the pitch in Postacoglou's system, I think he
09:07ticks every box systematically. So I don't think age should be an issue, he seems like
09:12a good lad, head on his shoulders, etc, etc. So I think this is a hit to be honest, and
09:16I think it'll probably prove to be Spurs' signing of the summer, regardless of who they
09:20sign now, I think he's that good.
09:22Anyway guys, yes, don't forget to subscribe, I am actually dying, I don't know if you can
09:27see the sweat glistening, you actually can't, don't know what I'm on about, probably seem
09:31like a drama queen now. Anyway, we've got the new magazine, I don't have it to hand,
09:34it's not been delivered yet, but it's all about the Premier League season review, so
09:38you can tuck into that by buying it at any good retailer, at underscore Adam Monk on
09:42socials if you want to check it out. And yeah, that's it, have a lovely day, week, whatever
09:47you're doing, enjoy the pre-season, and then there'll be more transfers as well to do videos
09:51on, so I'll see you guys very, very soon. Goodbye.