- May 5, 2004
- 24,183
- 48,814
I'm sick to death with the bashing of Mason after a few poor games. "He's not good enough", "We'll never be a top 4 side with him in midfield", "He's a Championship player" are the usual junk spouted.
Yet on the left hand side we have Danny Rose, now getting universally praised as the best player on the pitch most weeks, and our 2nd most improved player after Kane. Wasn't this the same Danny Rose who 12 months ago was getting caned week in, week out as "not good enough", with constant calling to upgrade the LB position?
What's changed? i would argue that it's that he's been given time, and the confidence of his manager, he's had time to figure out his game, and learn from some mistakes. Like Mason, he came into the PL in a position that was relatively unfamiliar to him, having played a lot of his development football in midfield, of course it was going to take time to learn the art of playing fullback.
Similarly Mason spent much of his youth career as a number 10, relatively free of defensive responsibility. Playing in a midfield two with another novice in Bentelab he's having to make decisions all the time, in fact the biggest part of playing midfield is making decisions - where to stand, who to pick up, what runs to track, when to break forward? It's like a game of chess, and of course inexperienced players get it wrong. And when they do, their confidence gets knocked, and they start taking an extra touch and things go from bad to worse.
The point is, Mason hasn't suddenly become shit, and while he may eventually be replaced in our starting XI by Alli or someone else bought in, us as fans should be giving him more time and space to develop as a player. This is why so few managers play young players, because you need to invest on them long term, and accept that there will be dips in their development. It's far easier to go with a seasoned pro who knows his own game inside and out.
Yet on the left hand side we have Danny Rose, now getting universally praised as the best player on the pitch most weeks, and our 2nd most improved player after Kane. Wasn't this the same Danny Rose who 12 months ago was getting caned week in, week out as "not good enough", with constant calling to upgrade the LB position?
What's changed? i would argue that it's that he's been given time, and the confidence of his manager, he's had time to figure out his game, and learn from some mistakes. Like Mason, he came into the PL in a position that was relatively unfamiliar to him, having played a lot of his development football in midfield, of course it was going to take time to learn the art of playing fullback.
Similarly Mason spent much of his youth career as a number 10, relatively free of defensive responsibility. Playing in a midfield two with another novice in Bentelab he's having to make decisions all the time, in fact the biggest part of playing midfield is making decisions - where to stand, who to pick up, what runs to track, when to break forward? It's like a game of chess, and of course inexperienced players get it wrong. And when they do, their confidence gets knocked, and they start taking an extra touch and things go from bad to worse.
The point is, Mason hasn't suddenly become shit, and while he may eventually be replaced in our starting XI by Alli or someone else bought in, us as fans should be giving him more time and space to develop as a player. This is why so few managers play young players, because you need to invest on them long term, and accept that there will be dips in their development. It's far easier to go with a seasoned pro who knows his own game inside and out.
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