Tottenham problem: What to do with Ryan Mason

Tottenham midfielder Ryan Mason faces a very uncertain future with Spurs

Ryan Mason is one of the most polarizing players on the current Tottenham roster. His future at Spurs is very much in the air heading into the upcoming season.

Proponents of the English midfielder tout his high effort level and non stop motor as a reason to keep him in the squad. Critics of Mason claim his lack of athleticism and skill make him better suited to be a Championship player. The truth, as usual, lies somewhere in between.

Frankly, I’m torn as to what we should think about Mason. I do believe that he really cares about the club and his effort on the pitch is beyond reproach. That fact, in and of itself, does not qualify him to be a regular contributor for Mauricio Pochettino’s squad.

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His lack of above average speed, size or athleticism does severely limit his ability to help the club. It also makes the choice of where to play Mason a particularly difficult question.

When you look at him, his slight build and frame immediately suggest that he needs to be an attacking midfielder. That’s not where Pochettino has used him during his two seasons in charge of Spurs though. He’s almost exclusively played Mason as a defensive midfielder. The undersized English international even held down a starting position in the double-pivot alongside Nabil Bentaleb two seasons ago.

Last year though, was an entirely different story. He was quickly relegated to a spot on the Tottenham bench as Eric Dier and Mousa Dembele seized the starting defensive midfield roles. He missed significant time due to injury and upon his return, struggled to find meaningful game time.

All of that makes it very difficult to discern what role Mason will play this year. The purchase of Victor Wanyama should push him even further down the defensive midfield depth chart, and the emergence of Harry Winks this preseason could drop him even further. There won’t be too much use to keep Mason as a fifth defensive midfielder.

Yet he still seems to be in Pochettino’s plans. There hasn’t been too chatter about him potentially leaving the club this summer, so you have to expect he’s been given some assurance about his future. Either that or Tottenham haven’t received a quality bid for him as of yet.

Those facts cause me to wonder whether or not Mason might be destined to play a little further up the pitch next season. His lack of size would certainly be less of an obstacle to him playing as an attacking midfielder. His high work rate and willingness to engage on marauding runs in the box could prove highly effective against certain opponents.

In truth, I think Mason would be better served to be deployed as Christian Eriksen’s backup in the attacking midfield trio. While that position switch would be in Mason’s best interests, it likely wouldn’t be a good development for the club.