Ryan Mason and Harry Kane discuss Spurs’ move to a back four vs Crystal Palace

Speaking to the press after the win over Crystal Palace this afternoon, Ryan Mason and Harry Kane have been discussing the merits of the tactical changes made ahead of the game. Mason earned his first victory as Acting Head Coach at Tottenham Hotspur with a 1-0 win over a resurgent Palace team. The result keeps […]

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Speaking to the press after the win over Crystal Palace this afternoon, Ryan Mason and Harry Kane have been discussing the merits of the tactical changes made ahead of the game.

Mason earned his first victory as Acting Head Coach at Tottenham Hotspur with a 1-0 win over a resurgent Palace team.

The result keeps Spurs in contention for European qualification with three games to go this season.

A tight affair at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium was decided by the finest of margins. Harry Kane scored the only goal of the game in first-half stoppage time, taking his tally for the season to 27 goals in all competitions (Transfermarkt).

Spurs kept their first clean sheet since March 8, in the 0-0 draw with AC Milan in the Champions League.

It is the first time the Lilywhites have kept a clean sheet in the league since the 2-0 win over Chelsea at the end of February.

The fixture also saw Mason revert to a back four, and the interim coach had the following to say to the BBC on the changes: “I thought we carried the game to the opposition. Kane scoring, Sonny had a good moment too so overall we deserved it. It was tough and gritty at times.

“Palace are in a good moment and made it difficult but we are very happy with the three points and a clean sheet. We just wanted to try and keep them a bit further up the pitch. We know they have individual brilliance so we did not want them on the edge of our box.”

On the clean sheet, Mason added: “It is not easy to keep clean sheets in this league so after the week we had it is a positive. I’m happy with the squad as everyone has worked hard this week and without being together we don’t win. So a good day.”

Kane was also happy with the work the team did in the week to prepare, saying (BBC): “It was a really tough game off the back of the week we had so to get the three points and clean sheet is pleasing.

“We changed the system without the ball and it worked. We caused them a few problems with the ball as we. We can be proud of the result.

“It was Ryan’s first full week to work and train. We changed to 4-4-2 without the ball to get the extra man and then with the ball it was similar to our normal formation.”

Speaking to Football.London, Mason also had this to say: “We wanted to engage Palace higher up the pitch because we know they have some individual brilliance, and we wanted to avoid them getting the ball in our final third and the box running at us.

“So we added a sixth man into the press and tried to be a bit more aggressive and I have to compliment the players because when you’ve been working in a certain way for so long to make that change at this stage of the season it’s very positive for me.”

Spurs Web Opinion

The impact of those tactical changes was clear to see and we looked a lot more solid at the back. Palace had their chances, but we kept them out and that’s the main thing.

Hopefully, we can build on this result and clean sheet going into the final three games of the season.

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