Ange Postecoglou says Tottenham's teenagers will learn from Thursday's wild defeat to Galatasaray in the Europa League after goalscorer Will Lankshear was sent off and Lucas Bergvall struggled in Turkey.
Lankshear, 19, Bergvall and Archie Gray, both 18, started in Istanbul as a patched-up Spurs went down 3-2 to end their 100 per cent start in the competition.
Lankshear equalised with his first senior goal to cancel out Yunus Agkun’s brilliant strike but Victor Osimhen scored twice before the interval to give Gala a 3-1 lead.
The Spurs forward was dismissed for a second bookable offence -- a rash challenge on Gabriel Sara -- on the hour but Postecoglou's 10-men finished strongly, with substitute Dominic Solanke scoring before a late push for an equaliser.
Bergvall was replaced in the second half on a night when he struggled to keep the ball but Postecoglou was delighted with Gray, who started at left-back and created Lankshear's goal with a fine diagonal for Brennan Johnson.
"Will took his goal well, he worked hard for the team," the head coach said. "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.
"The same with Lucas here. 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."
Goalkeeper Fraser Forster kept the score respectable with a string of saves either side of the interval, while Osimhen and Mauro Icardi both had goals disallowed for offside.
Postecoglou believes the defeat was "self-inflicted" and felt his side were particularly poor at holding on to possession in the first half.
"Especially in the first half, we gave the ball away too much," he said.
"Not because of the opposition, we just lacked composure and we needed to be a bit more calmer on the ball. Because we weren’t, we allowed Galatasaray to get a foothold in the game. We knew if we could keep the ball well in the first half we would finish strong but we didn’t do that and paid the price."
