For all the talk of the huge number of missing Tottenham players this season, a small band of players have stepped up for Ange Postecoglou and he must not forget that.

The 59-year-old has been full of praise for the jaded group of 12 to 13 players who have been wheeled out every three days during an overstuffed fixture schedule. Now various players have finally begun returning to training at Hotspur Way and all eyes will be on how important those who have stepped in continue to be over the remainder of the season.

The two 18-year-olds, and Lucas Bergvall, are good examples of that, both having been exposed to the Premier League as a crash course rather than being more gently brought in over the course of the season.

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The biggest question though will be what happens with . The 24-year-old has gone from someone who looked to be heading out of Spurs in the summer, to impressing enough in pre-season to get a squad spot to now becoming one of most in-form players.

In the absence of , the right-back has started 11 of the past 13 matches in the Premier League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup, missing one through suspension and one through injury. He would likely have played in the Europa League as well had he not been left out of the squad at the start of the season because there were too many to fit in due to the rules and regulations.

In domestic competition, Spence has shone on the opposite flank and those Europa League absences have at least allowed him to have more energy for the matches around them as he looks to contribute to Tottenham's driving attacks as well as chasing back to defend.

The Tottenham fans have grown attached to the full-back with many criticising the original decision to leave him out of the Europa League squad. Spence has always earned a certain degree of sympathy for the way he was brought in as what Antonio Conte described to football.london back in the summer of 2022 as "a signing the club wanted to make".

Spence may well admit himself that since then he's had his own part to play in why things haven't worked out with loans to Rennes and Leeds starting well before fizzling out and then a switch to Genoa, which marked the start of an improvement.

Then last summer he worked hard in pre-season and showed his growth on and off the pitch and while it took until December for his first start, he has not looked back since.

After a starring role for Spence in the win at Brentford this month, keeping Bryan Mbeumo quiet for much of the game, Postecoglou told football.london: "Yeah he's been outstanding since he's come into the team. He had to bide his time. It's fair to say we needed Djed to really be patient, and also just mature a little bit, and I think he has.

"And once he got into the team he's looked fantastic, and he was important for us today, I think we'd missed him the last couple of games. He's one of these defenders that loves the challenge of taking on the elite in the Premier League wingers, there's some outstanding ones. And Bryan Mbeumo's right up there, especially here. You can see he loves that challenge. Like I said, that's another reason we kept Micky on ice, knowing Djed was back in, was going to help us enormously. So pleased to get him back in the team. He'll be important for us until Destiny gets back. He'll be important for us in this period."

Other than the Van de Ven comment which has proved to be longer than being put on ice, Spurs fans also took umbrage at the use of "until" in those closing sentences.

For Spence has proved that he has the ability to be far more than a back-up for anybody and should, on current form, be starting regardless.

Postecoglou likes the balance of the left-footed Udogie on one side and the more creative on the other. However, Porro, who will cross the 3,000 minute mark this season with his next game, while productive with seven assists and two goals in attack, has struggled defensively this season. A number of the goals scored against Tottenham have come from his area of the pitch, either through wingers exploiting space behind him or unmarked players scoring where he should be in the box.

For Postecoglou, who has lost some of the fanbase with the disappointing results during this tough season, he needs to make decisions that not only benefit the team but also keep the fans onside. Sometimes that can be a dangerous game to play but in Spence's case, he's the outstanding full-back right now at the club and deserves to remain in the starting XI on merit.

Postecoglou has brought him into the Europa League squad for the knockout stages, leaving out Fraser Forster, which is the first sign of the full-back's growing importance.

Udogie is expected to return to action soon and although Sunday's game against Manchester United could come too soon, it's worth pointing out that Spence's first hint at what he could bring this season came at Old Trafford in the 3-0 win after he replaced the Italian at half-time.

One solution could be playing both Spence and Porro on the right, pushing one of them into a more attacking role as seen briefly at Anfield last week.

Spence has worked hard to get himself into this position in the team and he has not let Postecoglou down. The Australian needs to ensure he rewards that in the weeks ahead and continues to give the full-back the game time he deserves.

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