This is the man who'll replace Luka Modric!

An article on HITC sport website has focused on how Ryan Mason, statistically, outperformed David Silva in last weekend’s 4-1 defeat at the Etihad.

The article showed figures detailing; touches, forward passes, accurate passes, tackles and ground duels won, as well as interceptions – all departments in which our number 38 trumped the Spaniard in.

‘Lies, damned lies and statistics’ – I hear you say, or that Silva undoubtedly had the better day, as his side ran out as comprehensive victors after 90 minutes.

Whether it was simply a bad day at the office for the Manchester City magician, or just another solid performance from Mason himself, for a man making only his third start in the league, albeit away to the champions, is a remarkable testament to Mason as a footballer.

Since the departure of Luka Modric in August 2012, player after player has been tried and tested in the centre of midfield at Spurs.

The most prominent aspect that stood out from the reign of AVB, was our slow build-up play and inability to quickly to go from defence to attack in one swift transition. The outcome? Wins by the odd goal, and fan dissatisfaction regarding the ‘unattractive’ football on display.

This Achilles heel of Spurs was there for all to see in AVB’s short-lived second season. Unsurprisingly, the British press had it down as a ‘Tottenham turmoil’ without Gareth Bale, when in fact, the damage had been done a year earlier.

It was Bale’s sheer brilliance in the 2012-13 season, that painted over the cracks left by Modric’s departure. If Bale was Spurs’ leading superstar, then Luka was our glamorous Hollywood director.

It was then no surprise that we were linked with Frenchman Morgan Schneiderlin, after Mauricio Pochettino’s arrival. The Southampton player has the capability of getting his side moving from attack to defence as quickly as possible – somewhat reminiscent of the Croatian.

As Southampton stood firm in the summer window, a Scheirderlin-less Spurs meant a jigsaw piece missing in the Pochettino puzzle. And who could have imagined that Mason would be this integral piece that would connect our attack and defence?

The 23-year-old has started three PL games this season, although caution would ask us to judge the player after 30.

However, what attracts us to Mason, is his intensity and urgency both in and out possession. He looks to get up and support our front three and has a knack of neatly combining tidy passing with bite in the tackle.

At 23, and after having numerous loan spells since his debut in 2008, you could argue that Mason has been allowed to ‘ripen’ as a footballer. While John Bostock was labelled the ‘new Gascoigne’ and Alex Pritchard supposedly coveted by Barca and Real, Mason has been quietly applying his trade in the lower leagues of the English game.

Mason has been allowed to find his footballing feet without a premature label from the British press, such as the one suffered by Jack Wilshere. Similarly, the midfielder hasn’t been subject to an ‘upward move’ or been the victim of a hefty transfer fee attributed to young English players such as Young, Rodwell and Adam Johnson.

You could say that Mason has been unluckily lucky! At 23, he has entered the Spurs’ XI confident in his own ability, with no pride or reputation to lose. On the contrary, he has it all to gain.

So what else can Mason offer Spurs? Goals, eventually.

His goal against Nottingham Forest in the cup was no fluke, as he scored six goals on loan at Yeovil, five on loan at Swindon, and topped the academy scoring charts in 2009, with 29 goals in 31 games.

Today, Mason told the London Evening Standard: “I had offers to move on and I kept going out on loan. But all along I wanted to play at Spurs.

“I always believed I was good enough. If I hadn’t believed that, I would have left.”

So without wanting to heap too much pressure on Ryan Mason so early into his Tottenham career, he is the man, I feel, that can spark the Spurs midfield back into life.

 

I agree totally Josh. He gets his head up, gets into the box and is a very exciting prospect. He looks as good, if not better than Lamela and he cost thirty million pounds!!!!

 

Interesting article. Would love to see Mason fulfil his potential, he should have scored that early chance versus City and he must be kicking himself, but his overall game has been everything you would want from a modern day midfielder. There is young talent at Spurs but players like Luca and Bale dont come along that often. If we went the youth route and built a team around Kane, Townsend, Mason, Carroll, Dier, and one or two others on the fringes, could we compete ? Its a possibility. I think we'd survive in the premier league but to really thrive its our expensive imports, we all know who they are, that need to deliver. Our big signings of late haven't been amazingly successful so a bit of youthful talent in the mix could reap real rewards. Coys

 

Think you mean heap pressure on in last portion of your excellent article!
Let's hope the younger members of our team motivate the others to push onwards and hopefully uupwards !
Coys!

 

Mason is a very exciting prospect and has been playing well but he can't be compared to Modric. We will never replace Modric (or Bale for that matter). That is why he starts for Real Madrid, he's an irreplaceable world class player.

 

I think i miss watching Luca even more than Bale. Bale has all the surging runs and goals but Luca just sets the tempo of a team, he really was the heartbeat of a fantastic spurs side. Looking forward we do need to find a truely exceptional midfielder in the Blanchflower, Mckay, Hoddle, Ardiles, Gascoigne, Modric mould ! Coys.

 

Think you mean - luckily unlucky. But yes, I agree.

 

Nice article and its been good to see a player like Mason come through and play so well especially against such good opposition, he definitely doesn't look out of place, and he along with Eriksen have provided the forward momentum that has been missing of late. Not bothered with comparisons to Luka, very different types, theres not many in the same mould as Modric, but Mason has given the CM area some much needed urgency and tempo, he's a bit raw but his enthusiasm seems to have lifted a few others so good news for Mason and the team but what does it mean for players like Dembele? its ironic that the club spends so much money on CMFs only to see an academy kid, well 23 not really a kid, come through and outshine all the others. Maybe its because he truly wants to play for Spurs and wear the shirt.

 

Thanks for the replies all.

I do understand that Modric is a completely different player to Mason in terms of passing, creativity and at present - class.

But, what I do feel, is that Mason has the capability (hopefully) of being the midfielder that gets our team ticking again, just as Modric did.

Of course, as the season goes on, we'll be expecting more and more from Mason and he will have to adapt and improve game by game.

Although, seeing as he's waited this long to get his chance in a Spurs shirt, I doubt that he'll take his foot off the gas anytime soon!

And finally, passion from a Spurs player - so simple, but so effective for us fans. It seems to be a dying art, but an art still alive in Ryan Mason!

 

Id be happy to see Dembele leave now with emergence of Mason. The boy is quality, by the way he plays he makes it look easy in the way Moddder's does so I can see the comparisons you've made. Pretty amazing rise considering he was completely off the radar for the last couple years and at the age off the of 23 wasn't released by the club.

 

No question General Modric was an impact player for us and agree his creativity and vision haven't been replaced...yet.

Which team do you think we'll see on Thursday???

 

Nobody can replace Modrić, he is unique, but the likes of Mason should watch him when he plays and learn from him. Modrić came to us as a talented player and left us, after 4 wonderful seasons, as a great, all-round player. Others should note, it is not just about getting into the starting 11, it is about improving all the time, every performance must be better than the last.

 

Poch i think will change the team again Harold in ohio. Maybe : Lloris, Davies Verts, Fazio, Dier, Dembele, Bentuleb, paulinho, Townsend, Lennon, Kane. We shouldn't underestimate Tripolis, the Arcadians beat Partizan well, something we didn't do. Not sure about our injured players but i expect a strong side. Coys.

 

No doubt we will see yet another ten or eleven changes, something I am totally against. The manager needs to start deciding on his strongest eleven because at the minute, he doesn't seem to know what it is and that is appalling.
I have great faith in Pochettino in the long term, but when you look at the instant impact his successor at Southampton has had, you do wonder why poch is taking so long to lay down his way of playing.
This season will be interesting as I can't remember the last time that from fourth to tenth, the teams were only separated by a few points. Chelsea will walk the league this season in my opinion and I genuinely think the quality in the premier league is dropping each year.
Spurs need to up the game in all aspects of the game but they are capable of finishing in the top six, but only because teams around us are not exactly going anywhere fast either.
The likes of Arsenal, Chelsea etc are miles ahead of us and that ain't going to change anytime soon I'm afraid.

 

Come on people are we really comparing Mason to Modric?
Not that i am going to bash Mason here because hes actually been a breath of fresh air, creating some pace/energy and desire in the engine room but the 2 of them are not on the same level technically. Although Mason does have time to improve id be more inclined to compare him to Ramsay at Scum by no means the most gifted player but has the right attitude and will get results through sheer determination.
It is worrying though how he has totally out shone a number of the senior players with just commitment alone, perhaps these over paid posing passengers will take note.

 

So good to see intelligent comments not based on media bias. Completely agree with the comments that Modric was the player that spurs have really missed and that bale's brilliance in 2012/13 papered over the cracks. Modric was able to use the pace of Bale and Lennon to make our attacks lethal - Bale's accuracy in terms of crossing for adebayor and was also vital. The one player people don't seem to mention as much is Van Der Vart, I think it was the combination of VDV in the final 3rd and Modric in centre which made our attacks devastating and I'm hoping that Erikssen can play that VDV role in the final 3rd. When we signed him I had hoped that we'd found the modric replacement but looking at the way he plays I think he's more of a VDV.

Finally, I'd like to say that, goals and that awful penalty aside, Soldado did show glimpses of what made us pay so much for him. Some of his vision and touches are truly outstanding, such a shame that he came with such a hefty pricetag which has meant pressure which I think has affected him. Hopefully MP's faith in starting him over Kane (assuming Ade was too tired to play) can inspire him going forwards, if nothing else then he needs to show potential suitors what he can do at least in the Europa league against European competition!

 

Not sure I agree with describing our 'not so magnificent 7' as overpaid passengers. I think people need to try and understand what AVB was trying to do which was win the Europa league. It showed in his purchases and also his team selections where he constantly played first team players on Thursday and also at the weekend.

I think it also showed in his purchases Chadli, Lamela and Paulinho all came with reputations as goal scorers rather than playmakers (and let's not forget that he really wanted to sign Hulk!) which for me suggests a more European style of play. Basically I think he signed players unsuited to the premiership (knowing that he stood buckley's of winning that) in the hope of winning the Europa league in order to enhance his reputation.

The lack of any cohesive strategy under AVB also made it hard for these players to adapt and whilst Erikssen certainly improved under Sherwood his constant criticism of them probably didn't help (ultimately he was an English manger trying to manage a European team). I think that a number of players are showing improvement under MP - certainly Capoue for me seems to be getting back to the player I saw on youtube , Lamela is showing enthusiasm but admit that the result are still patchy, Chadli is scoring goals and hopefully will be able to add more as the season goes on.

Overall, I think the level of our performances are improving and hopefully we'll learn from the Sunderland and West Brom games and ensure that we get 3 points from all the games against teams like to finish outside the top 5 and start picking up points against the top 5 with more intense performances like the one against City where had we been more clinical and the referee not quite so eager to award penalties and give red cards should have been a much closer result. Aguero was admittedly superb but I felt that as a team we certainly held our own against them!

Basically, for me, due to the lack of strategy under AVB and the instability under sherwood last season was already a write-off by Christmas but hopefully under MP the magnificent 7 can start to show that they are actually good players with the potential to be world class (Chiriches aside who I think needs to lay off the acid before games as the only explanation I can find for his play is that he's constantly hallucinating and seeing pink unicorns at the pitch which must be quite distracting!!!)

 

I have seen a few folk wittering on about Poch not knowing his best 11 players. I am pretty sure he will know better than everyone. it is crazy to expect him to play the same team regularly at his stage of the season as the players will wear down toward the end. We already have a few injuries and players filling in other positions. In my opinion all we need to fire up is a big forward that is reliable. On his day Ade is unplayable, often he just doesnt play.

 

coz the 'magnificent 7'are ripping up europe when theyre not being carried in the league aye?