Tottenham head coach Ange Postecoglou says he cannot "keep a lid" on the hype surrounding teenager Mikey Moore after the winger's electric performance against AZ Alkmaar in the Europa League.
Moore was outstanding after switching to the left wing in the second half of Spurs' 1-0 win over the Dutch side, which was settled by Richarlison's cool penalty in the 53rd minute.
The 17-year-old created a number of chances and lifted the crowd with his mazy dribbling, prompting Spurs captain James Maddison to say afterwards: "From minute 45 to 65, I thought we had Neymar on the left wing.”
Asked about Maddison's comment, Postecoglou said: "It’s pretty hard for me to keep a lid on it now, ain’t it? He was exciting. You cannot deny it. There is no point denying it.
"I love the way Mikey is taking it all in his stride, he works hard every day. He wants to develop, he understands that this is a journey.
"It’s very easy for a young guy like him, who has just turned 17, to feel like he has somehow made it, but you ever get that sense. It’s exciting, it is.
"You have got such a young player, who wants that responsibility to make an impact, rather than just sometimes with young players they are a bit worried about making mistakes. He is developing well.
"We have to be really careful about how we use him, and when we use him, that is the key for us, particularly in these early stages.
“I have no fear throwing him in, absolutely not. I know and I see it every day, he’s a great young player and definitely more to come.”
Moore should have opened the scoring with his first Spurs goal after just five minutes, but glanced a header wide from a few yards after running onto Timo Werner's cross.
“He has to work on his heading – he had a couple of those opportunities," added Postecoglou.
"He is not the complete product. He has got a really mature outlook. He doesn’t let those things faze him.
“If he tries to take a player on and it doesn’t work, he won’t shy away from it the next time. I played him out on the right but he definitely looks more comfortable on the left.
"But in the context, he still contributes when he is on the right. It’s not like he’s totally lost out there. He has got a great mature outlook on football.
“He handles it all very well, I still think he has got a bit of growing to do. When I look at him, he certainly has in the last six to 12 months, but with all these things, rightly so, you are worried about putting too much pressure on players.
"Particularly in today’s world. But the thing that gives me most confidence is how he is handling everything. I don’t think if he does hear what Maddison said about him, that it will affect him tomorrow.
“That’s the key thing for us. It’s exciting. I was excited. I wanted us to pass him the ball. Keep giving him the ball. Great to see."
Moore moved from the right to left for the second half after Postecoglou replaced the wasteful Werner with Brennan Johnson.
The German twice missed good openings in the first half as his miserable run in front of goal continued, and Postecoglou admitted Werner's confidence is low.
"He is definitely down in confidence, you can see that," the head coach said. "It is a difficult thing to get out of sometimes.
"It can feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. All we can do is try to support him and keep trying to get him to a place where he feels a little bit more confident with certain things.
"He has played a great ball in for Mikey to score early and if that goes in, that’s an assist for him, it gives him a lift but it doesn’t happen.
"It happened at Ferencvaros as well, he played a great cross that Will Lankshear just missed but these things happen.
"He needs to find a way out of it because for us in those positions we need players to make an impact. I thought in a couple of moments he lacked some self-belief that we need to try to restore in him somehow."
