Sigh. Someone else who acts on feelings rather than addressing the facts as outlined in the timeline.
EL - zero minutes, not even included in the team (!)
This was a lack of trust in
Brandon Austin rather than Djed Spence. I addressed this in the timeline here:
Oh - and the REAL MISTAKE Postecoglou made wasn't in not believing in Spence (he clearly did as shown above) it was NOT BELIEVING in Brandon Austin. If he did then Spence gets in the EL squad over Forster and the whole process outlined above would have been accelerated.
You may wish to conjecture that Spence was left out of EL because he was an "afterthought" but that is nothing more than conjecture. The far more plausible answer is above.
EPL - first start in 15th December (!) in 16th round. Up to then he had played 64 minutes. He was available for 12 of these games, so he played 6% (!!) of the minutes. And even out of that 45 came when Udogie had injury. So excluding that part he got 19 (!!!) minutes when both were fit. So NO he did not play in EPL when Porro and Udogie were fit. Saying that someone getting 19 minutes in 11 games (excluding when he came on on HT for U-dog) "played" is factually wrong. He did not play in 98% of the time.
You are, of course, forgetting that Spence was a fringe player who was about to be sold in July. Second chance means starting from the bottom and earning trust and belief from teammates and coaches. The timeline shows exactly that happening incrementally until
Spence gets injured.
In his first EPL start neither Porro nor Udogie were injured. Spence rotated for the 1st choice RB in Porro who was on the bench. This is exactly how it's supposed to work and, presumably, would have happened sooner but for Spence's groin injury.
FA Cup - first start in 9th February (!), in Tramworth game got on for extra time only.
Spence was
rested against Tamworth. He had already broken into 1st Team squad. How on earth is this a slight on Spence?
Carabao - first start in 19th December (!) he got 2nd half vs Coventry and delivered there as well, but still Udogie started and Spence used as substitute.
Spence was injured in our Carabao cup tie Vs City so, again, this is a bizarre complaint. As a fringe player he got 45 against Coventry and impressed against a lower league opponent. He then started the next Carabao Cup game he was fit for.
So he was actively and consistently ignored until middle of December. By that time we had played 23 games.
No we wasn't "ignored" He had been slowly but surely integrated into the first team squad starting from the very first game of the season, then got injured. When he returned from injury he did indeed spend unused time on the bench which I address in the timelime here:
The next 3 games is where Postecoglou leaves him on the bench as we suffer a series of disappointing results. This is the one patch of the year where you can legitimately say Postecoglou made a mistake. But considering Spence started at the bottom of the pile he wasn't getting ahead of Porro and Udogie who were NOT INJURED and we desperately needed results and under pressure managers rely on what they know has worked for them. But, yes, feel free to have a crack at Postecoglou for this stretch of games.
The salient point here being that Porro and Udogie were both fit and played every game during this stretch. Personally I feel that Spence is better than both of them but ALL managers trust their 1st choice players in times of trouble. Hopefully now Spence is considered 1st choice.
I mean okay, up until the two halves (vs Coventry on 18th September and vs ManU 29th September) I can partly understand it. But with those halves he absolutely proved his value and dependability. Then based on Transfermarkt data he missed games 19th Oct to 3rd of November (missing 4 games in roughly two weeks) with injury. But after return it still took 5 weeks (!) until he started a game for us.
But as with many things, question is from what angle you'd prefer to look at it. I see this as clear missed opportunity to ease workload on other players and give Spence minutes.
I definitely agree with this latter bit. But I've been a Spence fan since he was bought. I'm hugely glad he was given a second chance and even happier he's taken it so brilliantly.
But the facts are these: he was given a second chance. He was being integrated into the first team rotation. This process was slowed by injury and the unfortunate decision not to trust Brandon Austin as 2nd choice GK.
There is
nothing to suggest he was just "an afterthought"; nor that he "only got opportunities because of injury". This is simply not true and the people saying it - even after its been spelled out time and time again - are definitely "choosing an angle they prefer to look at at"- it's just a bullshit angle not supported by any facts.
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