Ryan's five-point preview - Sheffield United
Fri 30 April 2021, 17:10|
Tottenham Hotspur
After the final, we're in the final straight of the Premier League season. Here, Interim Head Coach Ryan Mason previews the first of our last five matches of 2020/21 as we play host to Sheffield United on Sunday (7.15pm).
1 - Final thoughts
Sunday’s Carabao Cup Final loss was a tough one to take - have Ryan and the players picked themselves up this week? What is the mood?
Ryan: “It’s been okay this week. The lads have been excellent in training, they’ve been bright, good intensity, which is good. Everyone is fit and raring to go. Obviously last weekend was disappointing. It still hurts, the pain was there, and still is. I don’t that ever leaves you, but we have a very important match this weekend, and we’re all professionals. We’re all here to work hard and work well, and prepare for Sheffield United. We’ve had a week to prepare, so we’ve been able to get some messages across, and we’ll be ready on Sunday.”
2 - Team news
No changes on the team news front…
Ryan: “In terms of injuries, it's the same as last week. Ben Davies is the only one out injured at the moment. Matt Doherty has been training since last week. He had a period of time out injured, but he's back with the group and has trained all week. Harry is fine in terms of the injury. He was disappointed (after the final), like all of us. It hurts us, players, coaches, everyone associated with the Club. Harry is a top professional, like the whole group. We've trained hard, trained well and we're prepared for the weekend.”
3 - Five to go
Looking at the table, did Ryan believe things might just fall for us in terms of European qualification if we managed to put a winning run together in our final five matches?
Ryan: “In football, it’s very easy to get ahead of yourselves. I’m never going to disrespect Sheffield United, so we can’t look far ahead, and the most important thing for us is the next game. Our focus has been on this weekend. For us, that’s the most important game of the season at this moment in time.”
4 - Sheffield United
Already relegated, Sheffield United nevertheless beat Brighton last time out, and have won five of their last 16 in the Premier League...
Ryan: “They are a good side, competitive, aggressive, so we have to match that. Last season, they had a really good season. They’ve kept the same style, the same philosophy, so the foundations are there. They know what they are doing. Listen, this weekend is about us. We’re at home, so we need to be full of confidence, we need to be brave, we need to show real energy and, hopefully, give a positive performance.”
5 - The boycott
Sport's governing bodies, teams and athletes began a social media boycott on Friday afternoon until 11.59pm on Monday...
Ryan: “I think it’s the right thing to do, and to bring attention to it (online abuse). As a footballer, you experience a lot of things and you kind of think, ‘I’ll learn to live with it’, but that shouldn’t be the case. Social media platforms need to put something in place that makes people accountable. If you want to subscribe to use these platforms, you need to have a name, you need to have an address, a profile that says this is who this person is, if you're tweeting or posting messages, whatever it is from that profile. Then, if there's something where they are breaking laws or doing things that are not acceptable, you know you can take action.”
