" One incident shows why Mason is preferred to Dembele

[HotspurFC1950]

As someone who has to rely on SC and one or two other means of information I have found SC confusing on this subject with wildly conflicting opinions.

To get a good picture of our games I read Paul Smith's Spurs Odyssey match reports. Very good.

This is from another Spurs blog.

"
One incident shows why Mason is preferred to Dembele

There was a moment that summed up how some Spurs players approach a game of football and why Pochettino has had to change their mental approach.On 82 minutes Spurs broke and Harry Kane ran at the Manchester United defence. Ryan Mason sprinted forward, ran past the ball carrier and Kane played a superb ball between the defenders to create a glorious chance. Apart from the finishing nothing wrong there, that's exactly what Pochettino has had to change.

If you watch the replay again look to Kane's right and Mousa Dembele running forward. He is not sprinting, has no intention of running past the ball carrier and hangs back to give a safe backward pass. What Kane needed, if possible is a player running beyond him on his right, pulling a defender with him and giving him options.

That approach has been the problem with our midfield this season until the last month. We have not had off the ball movement but more importantly we have not had runners going beyond the ball carrier so there has been nobody in the box and no passes to create chances. It's why we have lost four home games this season.

That one incident demonstrates the difference, do what the head coach wants or do what is in the players comfort zone. That one incident shows why Mason is in the side and Dembele isn't. He is great at what he does but he wants to be behind the ball all the time. If that had been Christian Eriksen he would have been sprinting forward to Kane's right wanting to create space to perhaps score himself.

It's an incident some of the players could learn from."

 

[ohh_when_the_spurs]

Agree, we have lacked movement like that for a good few years

 

[DaSpurs]

Completely and entirely agree. Have been banging on this drum for quite some time now this fall. Very, very good reason I suspected Paulinho and Dembele would lose out under Poch, and have only continued to do so.

 

[HotspurFC1950]

Two words "common sense" come to mind.

 

[prawnsandwich]

I will have to watch the incident again to see what Dembele did but nobody can doubt how great the run was from Mason. He was belting towards the area and was so unlucky not to score. A fantastic moment for Harry and Ryan just like that goal that Pele didn't score in that World Cup game.
Well, a bit like it.

 

[chinaman]

And to be fair, he has been doing that in the last few matches, at least 3 if I remember correctly. To a lesser extent Bentaleb has also done that as well.

 

[prawnsandwich]

They are the future. I wonder how the United game would have panned out if Bentaleb was well.

 

[DEFchenkOE]

Dembele was the fresher player as well. Mason made a similar run against City as well and was unlucky not to score. Just not in Dembeles nature to do it.

 

[Strikeb4ck]

They are the future. I wonder how the United game would have panned out if Bentaleb was well.

Stambouli did brilliant yesterday in his 1v1 job vs Rooney. I like Bentaleb but he's looked a bit shaky of late.

 

[Mr Pink]

Dembele just doesn't have that in him for whatever reason. Its very frustrating.

They have different skill sets though, and whilst I'd be playing Mason ahead of him, if it was a choice between the two, there are definitely some things Dembele still does better than Mason.

As for yesterday, Dembele still did well when he came on. We know his limitations when we're attacking but what he does do very well, when he's in the mood, is strengthen our ability to hold on to the ball and boss the middle of the pitch.

 

[Kendall]

Dembele has loads of ability, but I don't trust him anymore.

Plus he looks like one of Rizzle Kicks and that doesn't sit well with me.

 

[rocklink]

Townsend is also same ... never make any long burstling run without the ball .....

 

[Strikeb4ck]

Townsend is also same ... never make any long burstling run without the ball .....

He came back on defense to help Chiriches almost every time to be fair.

 

[Kiedis]

We're just not used to having central midfielders that run beyond the striker. Mason is the only one besides Paulinho in todays squad, and our earlier partnerships of Parker/Modric, Sandro/Dembele, Carrick/Davids were never about getting goals for themselves.

Jenas was probably the last guy to have that sort of tendency.

 

[spurs-r-us]

Stambouli did brilliant yesterday in his 1v1 job vs Rooney. I like Bentaleb but he's looked a bit shaky of late.

Ambitious to call Stambouli anything more than 'okay' yesterday. Rooney pulled the strings like nobodies business.

 

[Strikeb4ck]

Ambitious to call Stambouli anything more than 'okay' yesterday. Rooney pulled the strings like nobodies business.

Er what? He had a header on goal and not much else. Look at what he did to Newcastle (and what he usually does to us), that's what I would call running the game/pulling the strings. Stambouli was on him the whole game and greatly limited him.

EDIT: From Manchester Evening News themselves...
"Rooney: Was in and out of the game and none of the spark he showed against Newcastle on Boxing Day. 6 (out of 10)"

 

[Barry Mead]

I'm no fan of Dembele but to be fair if one central mid is going to make the run then the other should hold. If anyone else should be supporting the run it's one of the advanced players. The question is who had the midfield responsibility and who had the attacking? Townsend and Chadli were replaced by Dembele and Lamela but Stam was also making advanced runs it was hard to be sure who had responsibility.

All that said it was a great run by both Harry and Mason, great vision from Harry and just a shame it wasn't rewarded with a goal. Dembele might have been wrong not to make a run but funny enough I thought his late contribution was better than normal

 

[Khilari]

Thought our midfield was a little sparse. With Eriksen behind Kane, I thought Mason and Stambouli struggled to contain Utd in the centre of the park. Mason showed great energy and closed down well.

When Dembele did come on, he gave us more drive in midfield. Shame he doesn't do that for 90minutes week in week out.

Also thought Stambouli acquitted himself well. Not inventive and not as good at linking up play as Capoue (yet) but showed some nice touches to keep possession and really got stuck in.

 

[Larryjanta]

Agreed. I think people are overlooking Mason's inexperience because he is 23 and has been around for ages. At 23, he still looks less physically developed as many 16 year olds so being 23 counts for little for me. he's had half a season as a prem player, that's all that counts. His performances have been, on the whole, excellent but he's going to make mistakes/have poor games as he is still learning. We have a real gem here and I wish people would get off his back, in the same way they got on Kane and Bentaleb's back.

 

[philip]

I'm no fan of Dembele but to be fair if one central mid is going to make the run then the other should hold. If anyone else should be supporting the run it's one of the advanced players. The question is who had the midfield responsibility and who had the attacking? Townsend and Chadli were replaced by Dembele and Lamela but Stam was also making advanced runs it was hard to be sure who had responsibility.

All that said it was a great run by both Harry and Mason, great vision from Harry and just a shame it wasn't rewarded with a goal. Dembele might have been wrong not to make a run but funny enough I thought his late contribution was better than normal

Agree. The likes of Townsend, Lamela, Eriksen are there to make the runs beyond the striker. If Mason does as well, we need the other CM to sit back and hold the midfield.