Toby Alderweireld has revealed that new Tottenham interim boss, Ryan Mason, has a very clear philosophy of how he wants football to be played and has already managed to get many of his ideas across to the team.
Daniel Levy’s decision to dispense with Jose Mourinho and put Mason in charge just days before the Carabao Cup final raised quite a few eye-brows.
The interim Spurs boss is younger than some of the senior players in the current Tottenham squad including Alderweireld, who he played alongside in the Belgian’s first season at the club.
However, the centre-back admitted that his former Spurs teammate has brought a level of clarity to the squad in terms of the way he wants them to play.
When asked about how it is to play under a coach who is three years his junior, Alderweireld told talkSPORT: “Surprisingly very good.
“Of course we played together. We know each other. But he has a very good maturity – how he brings stuff over to the team, his idea of how he wants to play football, his tactical views.
“The time has changed where it’s only one guy who decides everything. We all talk about football, everyone sees football in a different way and of course, they will talk about how we want to play, how we feel comfortable.
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“But he has one mindset in how he wants to play and he brings that to the team in an unbelievable way.”
Tottenham head into the Carabao Cup final on Sunday as massive underdogs against a Manchester City side who have been a cut above every other team in the Premier League this season.
However, Alderweireld insisted that there is belief in the Tottenham squad that they can overcome Pep Guardiola’s men at Wembley.
When asked how difficult it would be for Spurs to cope with the attacking talent City have at their disposal, the 32-year-old responded: “We know we are going to play a big opponent, a very good team, but we have to have confidence in ourselves.
“They are an unbelievable team. We don’t only have to stop them but beat them so we have to look to ourselves.
“They are such a good team. They don’t have one style of play. Their threat is from everywhere. We can’t only think about stopping them. We have to have confidence in our game.
“We have very good players ourselves. We have to have a way to beat them, not only stop them.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Guardiola will be hoping that Spurs play on the front foot and press City high up the pitch so that they would leave gaps at the back for his side to exploit if they play through Tottenham’s press.
While we have enough talent to beat City when they are not at their best, I just feat that we might be punished if Mason naively decides to go toe-to-toe with them on Sunday.
While we certainly need to show more attacking ambition than we have done under Mourinho in some big games this season, we also need to play with some pragmatism and allow City to dominate the ball for large parts of the game.
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