Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou believes promising teenager Mikey Moore is ready to start a Premier League game but vowed not to rush the winger’s development.
Moore made only his second senior start for Spurs in Thursday night’s 1-0 Europa League win over AZ Alkmaar.
The 17-year-old switched to his favoured left-sided position in the second-half and tormented AZ full-back Seiya Maikuma, prompting James Maddison — Spurs captain for the evening — to joke afterwards that “from minute 45 to 65, I thought we had Neymar on the left wing!”
The clamour for England under-19 international Moore to start in Sunday’s trip to Crystal Palace will grow after an exciting display but Postecoglou said: “I think we all understand with young players you do have to be really careful but I don’t get the sense that’s going to affect Mikey at all.
“And there’s no denying he was great last night. I thought he was great the whole game, especially in that period so exciting for us.
“He’s ready to start any game. I just feel especially with young players you’ve got to be really careful about their introduction into senior football. It’s not like even last year he had a full season of football.
“He had a couple of injuries. He went from under-18s to playing very little under-21s before we integrated him so you have to look at that. He’s still physically growing and you have to take that into account.
“I think he’s ready to start a Premier League game for sure but for us what we want to continue to do is develop Mikey in the right way, give him the platform to keep improving. So far, whatever we’ve asked of him, he’s made a real impact and the plan is to continue to do that.
“Mikey just wants to be Mikey. He’s very mature for a 17-year-old. He handles things really well, both positive and negative. He works hard every day. And he’s making an impact at an age where it is very difficult at this level. But that’s the beginning of a process for him.”
Spurs are likely to be without Son Heung-Min after only just returning from a hamstring injury.
“Sonny is still not right,” Postecoglou said. “He’s still not feeling 100%. He won’t train so unlikely for the weekend. We’ll see how he is beyond that.”
