Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou has lavished praise on two potential candidates to replace Yves Bissouma at Leicester on Monday night.
Bissouma will sit out Spurs’ Premier League opener after he was given a one-match suspension by the club.
It followed the emergence of footage last weekend of Bissouma inhaling from a balloon believed to contain nitrous oxide – widely known as laughing gas – inside it.
Mali international Bissouma, who apologised for his “severe lack of judgement”, quickly established himself as a key figure during Postecoglou’s debut campaign in charge of Spurs and started 26 times in the Premier League.
However, his misdemeanour has opened the door for summer recruit Archie Gray or Rodrigo Bentancur to start at the base of a three-man midfield at King Power Stadium.
“Yeah, Archie has settled in really well,” Postecoglou said.
“Again, great kid but a really, strong mindset. We’ve asked him to play different positions, but he’s handled it really well.
Wholesome Sonny and Archie 🫂 pic.twitter.com/wJUUqe40mT
— Tottenham Hotspur (@SpursOfficial) August 15, 2024
“Part of the attraction of bringing someone like Archie to our club, and it is the case for a number of players we’ve brought in, is he can play more than one position, so when it’s required, we can use him in those areas.
“He is going really well, I am really happy with him and he has every chance to play on Monday.”
Gray has played at centre-back and right-back during pre-season, but also spent 45 minutes in the number six role against Bayern Munich in Seoul earlier this month.
Bentancur played in the same position for the second half of last Saturday’s friendly fixture with Bayern in London and looked back to his best.
It has been a difficult 18 months for Bentancur, who ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament at the start of 2023 and then suffered an ankle injury upon his return in November.
The Uruguay international only made 15 starts last season and was embroiled in a racism storm in June when he made a racist joke about team-mate Son Heung-min, but apologised and appears ready to kick on.
Postecoglou added: “Rodri last year was very much, a bit like our season, it was very much stop-start at times.
“At times he looked really good, got some rhythm and then something would happen whether it was an injury or another disruption.
“In terms of his mindset, he is in a much better place of knowing that from an injury perspective he is free of that.
“He is 12 months down the track after a significant injury, which always takes a bit of time and it’s been great to have him back part of the group.
“He came on in the second half last week and I thought he looked really good. He has looked good in training.
“Hopefully that is where some of our improvement comes from. Guys who last year for one reason or another couldn’t get to the levels we know they can.
“If we can do that with guys like him and the ones who had good seasons last year, if we can improve them as well, that improvement I am looking for will be there.”
Tottenham have no injury concerns ahead of Monday after Richarlison (calf) and goalkeeper Fraser Forster (foot) recently returned to training, but the Brazil forward will have his minutes managed during the opening weeks of the season.