Ryan Mason has admitted that he is more focused on the way his side can hurt Leeds rather than worrying about stopping Marcelo Bielsa’s side.
While it is still early days for Mason, the 29-year-old seems to have already put his fingerprint on the Spurs side.
Tottenham have pressed much higher up the pitch and been more willing to commit bodies forward in their last three games than they were under Jose Mourinho.
In many ways, the approach employed by Mason seems like a throwback to the Mauricio Pochettino days when Spurs were one of the fittest and most aggressive teams in the Premier League.
Mason admitted that Pochettino has not only influenced him tactically but has also done so beyond the pitch.
The Argentine talked quite often about ‘universal energy’ and that is a concept the interim Spurs boss seems to abide by.
Mason told Football.London: “I think energy is important and it’s important that it’s a good energy.
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“Mauricio opened my eyes to a lot of things, him and his coaching team opened my eyes to a lot as a player and as a person as well. It’s important.
“If you’re doing something, you need to feel good, you need to be mentally in the right place to work and to compete. Yeah, it’s so important that we try and transmit this kind of feeling to each other, to our players, to the groundsmen, to the cleaners, everyone.
“When you get that feel good energy, the running doesn’t seem as hard, the competition doesn’t seem as hard, it’s a key to any environment to work well, not just in football but in life as well. Whether it’s at home with your kids, with your family – you need to be happy, you need to feel good, for sure.”
It was reported that some of the Tottenham stars felt that there was too much focus on the opposition under Mourinho and not enough emphasis on playing to their own strengths.
Mason admitted that while it is important to analyse the opposition’s strengths and weaknesses, his primary focus is on ensuring that his side are able to play their best football.
He said: “I respect any team we come up against. I respect managers, I respect players, I respect football clubs. It wouldn’t be right of me if I didn’t spend and invest a lot of energy and a lot of my time trying to figure out how they want to play and go about certain things in certain moments.
“I focus a lot on Leeds. I focused a lot on Sheffield United. Every game that we play, there will be a lot of focus on the opposition but also there has to be more focus on us because we have some very good players.
“I am sure they will be thinking about us as well. We respect them massively, we respect everyone we come up against but we have to focus on us.
“It is about how we are going to try and implement our style, how are we going to win this game of football, because if we don’t have that, then it is going to be very difficult to win a game of football. Massive respect to any team we come up against but also a lot of energy invested in us, that is for sure.”
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