Yes, you're quite right. My mistake.
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I was good at basketball at school. Used to love it.no worries i recently turned 20. yet to touch a football, but i can proudly say i tottally suck as a basketball player.
no worries i recently turned 20. yet to touch a football, but i can proudly say i tottally suck as a basketball player.
What?
How is that even possible?
Oh really?
I wouldn't mind watching one of them.
because the ones I have watched - he definitely hasn't.
Dembele played well, and Bentaleb had a steady if unspectacular game, but he was a long way from the best performing midfielder in the game.
"Bossing" a game means no other player of either side outperformed you, surely?
Fantastic season would be an exaggeration . A good breakthrough season .
He has done well and deserves his place . He has played occasionally better
than say Arse , Chav midfield but other times been ripped apart . As we have little
chance of signing any quality , except cheap punts , he has become the future.
Never a top 4 player but then the holy grail is way beyond us , so Benty and Mason
could be around a long time if nobody twists Levy arm . I think we are Ok on that
front as other players will always be more attractive.
Not enough creatitivity to be our new Modric more a good Jack of all trades .
He has done well and deserves his place . He has played occasionally better
than say Arse , Chav midfield but other times been ripped apart . As we have little
chance of signing any quality , except cheap punts , he has become the future.
Never a top 4 player but then the holy grail is way beyond us , so Benty and Mason
could be around a long time if nobody twists Levy arm . I think we are Ok on that
front as other players will always be more attractive.
Not enough creatitivity to be our new Modric more a good Jack of all trades .
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all that have been televised and all the rest on line.
He looks competent and I would agree with solid
I haven't seen him do anything fantastic, but I have seen him have some fairly ordinary and lifeless games.
I don't really understand all of the gushing adulation, because I would drop him in a heartbeat for the Parker or Sandro of old, which means that as a team we haven't moved forward.
I'm not knocking him, I just don't see him in quite such glowing terms as some do.
As for the first goal Mason was told by Bentaleb to close him. What, to me, is wrong with us is the back line. Vertonghen is too deep and he and Dier are too close. If they all would have been in line with Rose then both Mancs would have been offside. it's obvious that's what the defence was trying to do as Dier would have been on Fellani otherwise. I keep hearing 'if you play he high line' this and that but nobody has stated the most important part of playing the high line : an organised, marshalled back line' a back line that comes out together. Too many times we have been all over the place.All season I have said that, for all the good things Mason does, as much as we love passion and a home-grown player, he is too inconsistent, too careless indeed too dangerous to be a regular starter in a team at the level we aspire to.
The first 2 goals yesterday were perfect examples of how he costs us.
Pic 1:
As ball is passed to Carrick, Spurs have a reasonable shape. Mason is slightly out of position in that he should be closer to, and perhaps goal side of, Fellani, but there is no real danger. Carrick can be left to collect the ball, Dier is the spare man. What can Carrick do? Shoot and beat Lloris from 40 yards? Pass to Young or Rooney who are marked? Carry it forward and into Dier? Probably just square it to Herrera..........
Pic 2
Mason rushes forward, leaving Fellani, and so Dier has too much ground to make up to cover across. A defence-splitting ball to Fellani woud be easy for Sandra Redknapp, let alone Michael Carrick. 1-0 down, Entirely due to Mason not having the intelligence to read the situation and make the right decision, in a relatively simple attack which you are coached on as a 10 year old.
Pic 3
2nd goal. As the corner is in the air, Mason has a good position marking Carrick at the near post..........
Pic 4
After Fellani fouls Dier to win header and then Chadli knocks it across the area, Mason has switched off, watches the ball and has let Carrick get 7 yards away from him to have a free header. (And, yes, I have no idea what Walker was doing either).
I know we were bad, but these mistakes set us off and there was no coming back. And the third, well, Bentaleb's error really doesn't need pictures.
Also, I think that Chadli has been a shadow of how he was before his loss. He was well out of position and should have been where the ref is. He has been awful the last few games.
As for the 2nd, you're splitting hairs. Dier could have beaten fellani, Chadli could have put it anywhere else and Walker was ball watching.
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I'd agree that he's had fairly ordinary games... but again, think that's down to the nature of the sport and his age. His age is also precisely why I don't think he should be dropped (especially since he could easily play next to Parker or old Sandro), as he's gaining the kind of experience necessary to vault him into the upper echelon of CMs. No, he'll never be Xavi or Scholes but he can (and I think, occasionally is,) be really, really good.
If I am making a comparison, then I need something to compare the subject against. So I used two players in recent memory - as not everyone on here has been a follower for the length of time I have.
Don't put words in my mouth, or imagine thoughts in my head that never existed.
I am trying not to slate a player that I think does a reasonable job, not as poor as Livermore, not as good as Sandro. Not a creative player, but can provide the occasional telling pass.
The point of my posts has been simple all along, I don't think he's fabulous, I haven't seen him "boss" games and I would like to see an upgrade, to take the team forward.
Sorry if you're struggling with what I am trying to say, I don't want to offend the people who eulogise the guy by being negative about him, as I think he's OK.
But thats it, just OK.
Rest assured of one thing, I hope you turn out to be right. I have nothing bad to say about him - I'm just not as convinced as you are, but I don't want to knock you for your support of the guy, just because I don't have the same level of expectation.
Mason is a good squad player, but for the XI in top games eh. Imagine Moutinho playing alongside Bentaleb 
Sandro was nothing but a joke in his last season for us. Whether that was due to being unfit or his injury playing on his mind. He was constantly out of position, committing a stupid amount of fouls and seemed to get a yellow card everytime he played. It saddens me he would never be able to reach those heights again because before his injury he was class. Agreed with you ILSpurs. Right now, Bentaleb is a class above, especially in the system we play. Recycles the ball well, can run with the ball, not afraid to put a foot in. Quite clearly a future captain and I'm proud.
Yep - should have qualified that with Sandro before the injury that turned him into a cartoon of himself.
Sandro before his injury (as in Sandro of old) was a far better player than Bentaleb is now
Just my opinion, I'm not interested in stats on passing and miles run, but on match impact, play, team presence and from experience of watching footballers over a few years.
If you think Bentaleb is better - then I am happy for you, its not an opinion we share.
Like I said though - I dont want to keep shaking this, as I'm not trying to say he's a poor player, its just my belief that he isn't the messiah and he isn't good enough to take the team to where it needs to be. I'm not sure where this unshakeable belief that he is going to improve dramatically has come from, he's played around 40 games for the club and I am sure if there was something extraordinary going to come from him, we would have seen signs of it by now.
He was something special before the injury and on course to captain Brazil at the World Cup - we all know Sandro was good defensively, but how would he have done in Pochettino's Tottenham?
In Poch's system? Probably doing what Stambouli is doing right now.
Sandro was strong defensively but so is Bentaleb, and I would argue that he shows signs of being a more complete midfielder than Sandro did even pre-injury. This is the Mason thread though, so I'll save anything else for Nabil's thread.
Reports that Adam Lallana is to withdraw from the England squad through injury...Could Mason make it 5 Spurs players..? 