SPURS HAV GOT LOTS O SPECIAL ONES E F
Rookie boss Mason talks up the squad that the new manager will inherit from Mourinho.. (They will have to be good... at playing in the Europa League and probably without HIM) 84 42, 1
LEEDS
Dallas 13, Bamford Rodrigo
TOTTENHAM Son 25
3
PREVIOUS experience of managing in the Europa League had better be included in the job description for the next Tottenham boss.
Spurs’ faint Champions League hopes have been all but extinguished by this damaging loss and they are seven points off the top four with just three games remaining. The Europa League may even prove beyond them, if so a season in the third tier of European football, the newly-created Europa Conference League, may await.
Yet a defiant Ryan Mason (above right) refuses to be pessimistic about the club’s future and insists Jose Mourinho’s permanent successor will inherit a squad full of quality. The caretaker Spurs boss is adamant the next manager has the players to be successful.
“Absolutely,” he said. “There are some great characters. It’s a big squad, it’s a very good squad as well.
“There are definite tools to work with for next season.
“I’m sure, the chairman, the board and the football club will have a long, hard think about the direction the club want to go.
“I think looking at the bigger picture, discussions like that need to happen over the summer. My focus has to be on the next game and the training week to prepare us.
“Our focus has to be on the next week, the next game, and then I’m sure those conversations will happen in the summer.” One of the players the new man will inherit is Dele Alli and Mason was not exactly gushing in his praise for the playmaker’s performance.
Alli laid on Heung-Min
Son’s goal and set up Harry Kane’s toenail offside effort, which was disallowed by VAR by a margin so narrow no one could see it.
It was a commendable display in the eyes of most of those watching, but Mason was measured in his praise.
He said it was Alli’s job to make assists and challenged him to keep working hard because of the competition for places.
“He created a moment, which created a goal for us in the first half,” he said. “As a No. 10 that’s part of your job, that’s what you need to do in the attacking third of the pitch.
“I’ve said all along we’ve got many attacking players competing for places so it’s a good training week coming up.”
Son’s 17th Premier League goal of the season cancelled out Stuart Dallas’ opener before Patrick Bamford restored Leeds’ lead before half-time with his 15th of the season.
Spurs’ defending was dire in the face of intense Leeds pressing and they could not even do the basics like track runners.
They lacked desire and Eric Dier, Serge Aurier and Sergio Reguilon were off the pace.
Instilling some character into the defence will be high on the new manager’s to-do list behind hanging on to Kane.
Leeds caught Spurs on the break to seal a deserved victory when Rodrigo scored only his fourth goal since his club record £26million switch from Valencia.
Marcelo Bielsa, who rightly hailed the performance as one of Leeds’ best of the season, was delighted for Rodrigo after a difficult first season because of coronavirus and injury.
“Rodrigo is a vital player,” said the Leeds boss. “It’s down to all of us to help him perform to the levels he is capable of after the time he has spent without playing.
“He played half an hour against Brighton, 45 minutes with the Under-23s and came on today. After each appearance, he has played better than in the previous game. It’s important we see the richness he has. He’s a player, who can find solutions in games.”