Ange Postecoglou backed young Tottenham forward Will Lankshear to learn from his roller-coaster night in front of a raucous Rams Park crowd after he was sent off in a thrilling 3-2 loss at Galatasaray in the Europa League.
Lankshear scored his first goal for the club in the 18th minute from Brennan Johnson’s cross to cancel out Yunus Akgun’s sixth-minute opener.
However, the 19-year-old forward received two bookings in quick succession after half-time to earn a maiden red card in professional football, the second for an overeager tackle on Gabriel Sara by the halfway line.
Spurs were already 3-1 down at this point after a first-half double by Victor Osimhen, but Postecoglou turned to his bench and watched Dominic Solanke score in the 69th minute to set up a grandstand finish.
It was too much of an ask for Tottenham’s 10 men, though, as Galatasaray held on to leapfrog them in the Europa League table.
“Will took his goal well, he worked hard for the team,” Postecoglou reflected.
“Obviously he hasn’t had a lot of experience at senior football so he would have learnt a lot today.
“The red card, it was a bit of overenthusiasm in that moment to give away a foul, but he’ll learn from that.”
Lankshear was one of three teenagers in the Spurs line-up and while Lucas Bergvall struggled before his 66th-minute withdrawal, Archie Gray showed his potential with another gutsy display at left-back despite being forced to deal with a barrage of Galatasaray attacks.
Postecoglou added: “The same with Lucas. Giving him an understanding of the levels here, it is not easy when you are playing away in Europe.
“You can only allow them to learn that by exposing them to it.
“I thought Archie was great. It was a tough game for us defensively at different times but I think we’ll get so much growth out of him because he’s not playing in his position.
“I guess for three teenagers in the starting line-up, I think they’ll learn a lot from it and hopefully it helps with their development.”
Galatasaray moved ahead of Tottenham in the table after four matches with victory in a five-goal thriller in Istanbul.
Boss Okan Buruk described it as an important night for Turkish football.
“We dominated most of the game. We had a lot of chances,” Buruk said.
“Of course the Tottenham team is one of best teams in the Premier League. They have certain players on their side and, when we take a look at it, they didn’t play with their best squad they could have created, but very important players they have and we have seen this.
“When we look at it generally, our system and the game plan we had has functioned for most of the game until they went down to 10 men.
“We have shown very clearly the Turkish league is a very important league, Turkish teams are very important and Turkish football adds important value. This we have clearly shown.”