Tottenham’s Ryan Mason Praises Eric Dier
Days after England manager, Roy Hodgson, praised Tottenham Hotspur defensive midfielder, Eric Dier, the 22-year-old’s teammate, Ryan Mason, has done the same.
The amount of praise and recognition that Eric Dier has received from this past season has come down to the fact that he turned a position of need into arguably one of Tottenham’s strengths. It’s been talked about before, and how Mauricio Pochettino took a gamble by converting Dier from a center-back to a holding midfielder, but Ryan Mason goes into more depth as to why it has worked.
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“In our style of playing football we get our wing-backs high up and that holding role is massively important,” Mason explained (via Tottenham’s official site).
“It’s ideal with Eric – he’s been fantastic this last season. Playing that role, he can drop in at centre-half as well so then the full-backs can really bomb on and the centre-halves split.”
“I think it’s important that the player in that position has a defensive mindset because that helps the team stay high up the pitch, get our passing game going and dominate teams.”
It’s worth noting that because of Eric Dier’s natural position as a center-back, this gives Pochettin’s side the option to — as Mason put it, have the full-backs play higher up the pitch — which in turn means Tottenham could play with just a three-man backline of Jan Vertonghen, Eric Dier and Toby Alderweireld from left to right.
Something that they did against Watford in their first meeting this past term.
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As for Eric Dier’s partner in central midfield, Mousa Dembélé, these two have effectively made last season’s pairing of Nabil Bentaleb and Ryan Mason obsolete.
In Bentaleb’s case, injuries and poor form prevented the 21-year-old from playing much this term. It’s also the same with Ryan Mason, although his form wasn’t as bad — the injuries, however, were.
“It’s part of football,” Mason said. “Me and Nabil were the starters the season before and then this last year it’s been Mousa and Eric.”
“You don’t know what’s going to happen next season, whether there’s a signing or whether it’s going to rotate again – the gaffer makes the right decisions, there’s no arguing about that.”
“The important thing is, everyone has been pulling in the right direction and improving as players.”
Ryan Mason was only able to make eight starts and 14 substitution appearances due to nagging injuries that kept him on the sidelines on two separate occasions.
But even with minor knocks wiping out a majority of Mason’s 2015-16 season, his teammates and coaches can see that he continues to work hard and is actually one of the few names that Mauricio Pochettino subs in if he’s on the bench.
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It’s unknown if Bournemouth will attempt to sign Ryan Mason for £6 million, or any other team for that matter, as he has one full season under his belt and this past year struggled because of injuries.
But Mason is a hard worker who can get the job done, when called upon. But in terms of becoming a starting central midfielder again — like say, over Mousa Dembélé — that will take some time, and an injury to the Belgian international.