Tottenham boss Jose Mourinho has defended holding back Troy Parrott.
With Tottenham losing 3-2 to Wolves on Sunday in the Premier League and having no out-and-out strikers at his disposal, Mourinho only decided to call on the 18-year-old in injury-time despite desperately chasing the equaliser.
"He is not ready, he is not ready," Mourinho said of the Irish striker. "He's a good kid, a good talent, he's a kid we want to help. He's a kid who needs help, not just on the pitch but outside the pitch.
"He's a kid we are going to take care of like we have since the beginning and he's a kid who is obviously going to have a real opportunity in the right moment when we feel it is the moment.
"Why was he on the bench? He was on the bench because Erik Lamela told me before the game he was not even ready to go on the bench.
"So, in that moment, without Lamela, we brought Troy in and in the last five minutes we put on a striker who at least knows the position so he could try to fix Conor Coady, giving Dele some more space and freedom.
"That is the way it is. We have to try to keep close [to the top four] until the moment we have our power back."