Ryan Mason responds to whether he believes Dele Alli is committed to the Spurs cause

Ryan Mason has insisted that he has been happy with the effort of Dele Alli since the 29-year-old was appointed as Tottenham’s interim head coach following the sacking of Jose Mourinho.

Dele found himself on the fringes of the first team under the Portuguese, having only made two Premier League starts this season while Mourinho was in charge (transfermarkt).

Mason named the midfielder in his starting eleven for Sunday’s 4-0 win against Sheffield United and admitted that he was pleased with the application of the England international during the Premier League clash.

The interim head coach highlighted that it is evident that Dele is committed to the cause and pointed out his work rate against the Blades where he believed that the former MK Dons man created plenty of space in the final third of the pitch for his team-mates and confirmed that he felt good during the match.

Dele will be hoping for back-to-back starts when Spurs take on Leeds United at Elland Road tomorrow lunchtime.

When asked if he was happy with Dele’s efforts in training and in general, Mason told Football.London: “I can only take Dele and the rest of the players from what I’ve seen in the last two weeks and I said last week that Dele trained himself into the team last weekend and he did do that. Whatever has happened in the past has to remain in the past with Dele. As footballers, as people involved in football, and I think in life as well, you have to live in the moment and live in the here and now. Dele along with the rest of the group have shown me that they want to work, they want to compete and it has been a good environment to work in, so Dele has been excellent.

“Absolutely. I think it was clear to see that he was 100 per cent committed. He helped us regain a lot of second balls, he ran a lot and opened a lot of space for the other attacking players.

“Most importantly he had a lot of energy and he felt good, which was pleasing. Like I said all along, there are so many players competing for these positions.

“There’s real competition and I think we’ve seen that this week in training. Everyone has had the right mentality and it’s difficult to select a starting XI because there’s so much quality.”

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