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Tottenham Hotspur Links: Jan Vertonghen Discusses Leicester City’s Style of Football

By Alexander Balano

Jul 29, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Tottenham Hotspur defender Jan Vertonghen (5) defends against MLS All Stars midfielder Graham Zusi (19) of Sporting Kansas City in the first half of the 2015 MLS All Star Game at Dick
Jul 29, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Tottenham Hotspur defender Jan Vertonghen (5) defends against MLS All Stars midfielder Graham Zusi (19) of Sporting Kansas City in the first half of the 2015 MLS All Star Game at Dick /
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The latest edition of Tottenham Hotspur Links is here.

Today on Tottenham Hotspur Links there are two stories to talk about. The first one is about Jan Vertonghen who was discussing Leicester City’s style of football which has surely frustrated Tottenham by this point. There’s nothing wrong with defending heavily throughout the entire game (parking the bus perhaps) and then playing a counterattacking style of football. It’s all fair and legal, just incredibly frustrating to watch when Spurs can’t unlock the defense to get an equalizer.

And the last story is about the latest injury news regarding Ryan Mason and Mousa Dembélé. Clinton N’Jie and Alex Pritchard are still recovering but they get a mention as well. But mostly though, Mason is still out so it’s unknown how long he’ll remain on the sidelines. Dembélé returned against Leicester so it means he’s healthy enough to get some more playing time against Sunderland, Tottenham’s upcoming game. These are the links below.

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It’s already been said that Leicester City’s defense was hard to unlock during the FA Cup. And with a late penalty in the second half giving Tottenham the equalizer it showed that the third game against Leicester just three days later would be tough as well.

And according to Spurs’ center-back Jan Vertonghen that was the case. But it’s not what it seemed where the Foxes have one of the best defenses in the Premier League, because they don’t. Any team can just sit back and defend as they wait to play the counterattack. It’s effective and Leicester has shown that countless times yesterday to force a set-piece and score off of a corner kick to ultimately win the game.

“They always approach the game in the same way — kick every ball they get long and run, and if they don’t have the ball they defend.”

“They drop deep and then they count on set-pieces or one of their strikers. They have won most of their games like this and they play their game very well. It works for them. Every player knows his qualities and that is a very important thing.”

Losing is never a good feeling but the good teams can take a loss, especially losing at home where they failed to score and it will fuel them to do much better in the next game which is against Sunderland at home on January 16.

“We’re playing very well and as I said after we lost to Newcastle [2-1 at home on December 13], whenever we don’t win it just feels like an ‘incident’.”

“So that’s a very good sign this time. We will be ready on Saturday [against Sunderland] and we will do everything to win.”

First, there’s some bad news. The bad news is that Ryan Mason will still be sidelined with an ankle injury that he suffered in the second half against Chelsea in a goalless draw on November 29.

For a brief moment of time, there was hope that Mason was healthy after he returned to the first-team and was able to train before being added to the 18-man matchday squad against Watford on December 28. But in the end though he was an unused substitute in an eventual 2-1 win at Vicarage Road.

“There’s no real change, Ryan Mason is still out,” Mauricio Pochettino said prior to his pre-match conference and was later published by the club’s official Twitter account.

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And now onto the good news. Mousa Dembélé looks close to returning to the first-team after making a second half substitution appearance against Leicester City in yesterday’s (January 13) 1-0 defeat at White Hart Lane.

“The good news is that Mousa Dembele is back and got some minutes last night,” said Pochettino.

So far this season, the Belgian central midfielder has suffered his fair share of knocks this season but for the most part a majority of them haven’t been serious. At most, Dembélé has missed a few weeks to a month or two.

And with Tom Carroll doing good enough to hold down the fort at central mid, Tottenham weren’t in a rush to bring back the 28-year-old midfielder as soon as possible.

Against Sunderland though, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Mousa Dembélé starting alongside Eric Dier once again and helping solidify a problem in the past couple of games. And that’s getting beat in the middle with no central midfielder who could help Dier out in the pressing game.

Next: Tottenham Player Ratings: Home vs Leicester

Regarding other injuries, obviously Clinton N’Jie still remains out following surgery to repair his MCL. At the earliest, the Cameroon winger could return next month in February. As for Alex Pritchard, he too is still recovering from his own surgery, but the 22-year-old attacking midfielder will no doubt return before N’Jie does.

How both players get re-introduced to the team will be interesting as Tottenham are slowly getting healthy at the perfect time with the FA Cup already underway and the Europa League returning shortly.