Ryan Mason gave the nod to Japhet Tanganga this afternoon against Wolves in the Premier League with Serge Aurier missing the game through injury.
Aurier had started every game under Mason since the former Spurs academy graduate was handed the interim head coach role.
However, in absence of the Ivorian right-back, Mason turned to Japhet Tanganga rather than Matt Doherty, who took his place on the Tottenham bench.
Spurs signed Doherty from Wolves last summer but the wing-back has struggled for both form and game time in a Lilywhite shirt ever since.
While at Wolves, Doherty played mainly as a right-wing-back who liked to get in and around the box, scoring goals and creating chances.
Unfortunately for him, Spurs predominantly play a back four formation and Gareth Bale provides a lot of attacking talent on the right side these days.
Therefore, Mason claimed that he preferred a defence-minded right-back in Tanganga for the job this afternoon, with the youngster performing well.
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Mason said (Football London): “There are so many players in this squad.
“There are 21 players training that we are trying to pick from.
“We just feel the dynamic felt right with a more defence-minded player in that position with their threat.
“It paid off today. I am sure if we hadn’t won today it would have been a criticism of me not starting Matt.
“Japhet was excellent, the team was excellent, Matt’s been excellent all week, he is ready to play, he has trained very well.
“Mentally he is ready, we will see what happens on Wednesday because we are going to need everyone between now and the end of the season.”
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