Euro 2024 is giving Radu Dragusin the chance to show Spurs what he can do

With his back caked in mud, Radu Dragusin let out a triumphant roar having put his body on the line for 90 minutes in Romania’s final Euro 2024 group-stage game against Slovakia.

It was hot and sticky inside the Frankfurt Arena at kick-off, but a thunderstorm turned the pitch into a soggy mess by full time. Apart from a couple of nervy moments, including a sliced clearance which looped up awkwardly and angered his goalkeeper Florin Nita, Dragusin remained composed throughout a 1-1 draw that resulted in his country topping their group and qualifying for the round of 16.

Edward Iordanescu’s side will face the Netherlands in Munich on Tuesday, a game that will pit Dragusin against his Tottenham Hotspur team-mate and fellow centre-back Micky van de Ven.

Dragusin, who turned down Bayern Munich to join Spurs from Genoa in January in a deal worth £25million ($31.6m), is one of the highest-profile members of Romania’s squad. The centre-back attracts a lot of attention — and that comes with pressure to perform.

Romania did not qualify for the last Euros and had only reached the knockout stages once before, back in 2000 (they also haven’t qualified for a World Cup since 1998). Dragusin made his senior debut in March 2022 and has quickly become one of the leaders of this exciting generation.

Dragusin featured in all of Genoa’s league games in the first half of the 2023-24 campaign but only made nine appearances for Tottenham. He was limited to four starts and a total playing time of 429 minutes, mostly stuck on the bench behind Ange Postecoglou’s favoured central-defensive duo of Van de Ven and Cristian Romero.

The 22-year-old will be hoping his performances for Romania this summer will boost his chances of breaking into the Spurs starting XI next season. He certainly hasn’t done himself any harm so far…

Dragusin made his debut for Spurs as a substitute in a 2-2 draw with Manchester United on January 14. After a few more cameo appearances against Brentford, Everton and Aston Villa, he started for the first time when they faced Fulham in March. Things did not go according to plan at Craven Cottage as Spurs lost 3-0 and looked anything but defensively sound. Rodrigo Muniz scored Fulham’s opening goal by darting away from Dragusin and latching onto the end of Antonee Robinson’s cross.

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He retained his place for their 2-1 victory over Luton Town two weeks later but was an unused substitute in their next six fixtures as Van de Ven returned from injury. Dragusin had to wait nearly two months for another start, which came in the 2-0 defeat to Manchester City. The slightly bizarre circumstances around that game meant the defender’s performance was unfairly overlooked.

Dragusin played as a left-sided centre-back, even though he is naturally right-footed, and did a good job of marking Erling Haaland. In the 18th minute when Haaland was driving straight at Van de Ven, he snuck in from behind to poke the ball away with his right boot. It was an impressive all-round display that demonstrated he has the mental resilience to cope with high-pressure situations.

“He is a super kid and he really wants to learn,” Postecoglou said during ITV’s coverage of Romania’s 2-0 defeat to Belgium last week. “He actually went to Juventus at a very young age, so he has been schooled in Italian defending. He is a defender who loves defending. He is a brave passer as well; he is sort of adding that to his game. He is only 22, but he is a great kid and I am super happy that we have him at Spurs.”

Dragusin joined Juventus when he was 16 after spending five years in the academy of Regal Sport Bucuresti. He made his debut for Juventus at 18 in a 3-0 victory over Dynamo Kyiv in the Champions League group stages in December 2020. He only made three more appearances for the Italian side, but it was a crucial period for his development.

Dragusin came up against Cristiano Ronaldo, Paulo Dybala, Alvaro Morata and Federico Chiesa every day in training and met his future Tottenham team-mates Rodrigo Bentancur and Dejan Kulusevski.

He received advice from Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci, who were the starting centre-backs for Italy when they beat England on penalties in the final of Euro 2020. Chiellini and Bonucci taught Dragusin about the importance of a defender’s positioning and resisting the urge to lunge into tackles. Dragusin only picked up three yellow cards in 40 Serie A appearances across spells with Juventus, Sampdoria, Salernitana and Genoa.

That awareness was on display in Romania’s loss to Belgium. He was constantly moving and instructing his team-mates to step up or drop back depending on what was required in each scenario. It is a small compliment that Romelu Lukaku, Belgium’s all-time record goalscorer, spent the majority of his time on the shoulder of Dragusin’s centre-back partner Andrei Burca.

According to Opta, Dragusin has not attempted a tackle at the Euros but has made 22 clearances — which is the third-highest of all the players at the tournament. There were multiple occasions when Dragusin intercepted crosses from Jeremy Doku and Kevin De Bruyne which were aimed towards Lukaku. He may not be the most active defender, but you do not need to be when your body placement deters strikers from dribbling or midfielders from passing it near you. He was caught out in the build-up to De Bruyne’s goal, but Burca should have cleared Koen Casteels’ long goal kick.

There are areas of Dragusin’s game which need to be refined. Over the past two years, he has spent a lot of time improving his left foot to help him become more confident on the ball. Being comfortable playing on the left and right side of defence is a skill that will be extremely useful for Postecoglou.

Data from FBref shows that Genoa had an average possession share of 44.1 per cent in Serie A last season. Tottenham’s figure stood at 61.6 per cent — the second highest in the Premier League after Manchester City (65.2). Postecoglou expects his defenders to be bold with their passing and Dragusin will need time to meet these demands.

In the 42nd minute of Romania’s draw with Slovakia, he attempted a slick pass between the lines but it was cut out, while a few ambitious diagonal balls towards the left wing were intercepted, too. They may not have worked, but it was encouraging to see him try and one long ball in the second half nearly put Dennis Man through for a one-on-one, but Martin Dubravka raced off his line to claim it.

It is easy to imagine him pulling off these types of passes to release Brennan Johnson, Timo Werner and Son Heung-min into threatening positions for Spurs.

Just over 12 months ago, Dragusin helped Genoa earn promotion to Serie A after finishing as runners-up behind Frosinone in the Italian second tier. His time at Juventus may have afforded him some exciting opportunities early on in his career, but he does not yet have as much top-level experience as Romero or Van de Ven.

Within two weeks of arriving in north London, Tottenham had been eliminated from the FA Cup which, given Spurs were not in Europe and also already out of the Carabao Cup, hugely decreased his chances of earning valuable minutes. He should get far more opportunities in the Europa League next season though and pre-season will be crucial to help him adjust to Postecoglou’s style of play.

It has been an encouraging first six months at Spurs, but there should be a lot more to come and, whatever happens on Tuesday evening against the Netherlands, he will return full of confidence after creating history with Romania.