[MO_Football92]

The diamond is an interesting idea. Not sure if that plays to our strengths though as we'd end up being narrower and our 'wider players' are meant to be our flair players. (Antony, Garnacho, Sancho, Pellistri...Rashford when Rasmus is ready).

Saying that, Antony and Garnacho gave us nothing today.

In a Diamond Garnacho, Rashford and Sancho would be strikers. Antony would be backup or rotation for Bruno in the 10 position.

 

[El-Manos]

Our best midfielder first half (that’s not saying much). I would not have subbed him though. Eriksen didn’t do much better. Will improve throughout the season Im sure. Wolves caught us by surprise.

 

[Irwin99]

I didn't think he was great to be honest. Not terrible but just a bit lacking in creativity and purpose.

Will be interesting to see how he fits in as the season progresses and we get fitter and better. Still think Bruno on the right is an option- which i know people hate- but Mason, Casemiro and another less attack-minded midfielder might be a better fit.

 

[aeh1991]

Good of you to give him all of one competitive game before passing your final judgement. Almost as if you went into the season ready to write him off.

I haven't entirely written him off. But based from every performance I had seen from him over the past years, for me it was very clear from the beginning that he is not the no.8 we need which makes him not a good signing at all, since we paid the majority of our summer transfer budget. He is a 10 and we cannot expose Casemiro by playing two of them.

 

[AjaxCunian]

Pretty sure we would be a better team with either Kovacic or MacAllister instead of Mount

100%, you are likely delusional if you think otherwise.

 

[E-mal]

Guys it’s been one game

But a significant percentage of us already said he wasn't the right fit from the first time we were linked

 

[Robindinho]

Yes, it's only one game... However, thought it when we signed him, still think it... Poor signing - how does that midfield work? Odd call from Ten Hag. He's not an 8, which we needed.

Every time I've watched him, he drifts through games and can't afford that, with Bruno in there too - far too open/unbalanced... If we'd have got him on the cheap, as a squad player, fine. Not for £55m, marquee signing.

 

[thegregster]

Just dont think he will ever be an 8. Square peg in a round hole. Can't fault his effort to be fair.

 

[RedStarUnited]

Id say this, whatever this guy does doesn’t improve us. So that doesnt mean he is shite, it just might be a total mismatch in skillset.

 

[IrishRedDevil]

He played like Mason Mount.
This one is on ETH.

 

[redIndianDevil]

In 67 minutes he had 30 touches and 17 passes

(Casemiro had 64 touches and 44 passes in 67 minutes)

If Scott McTominay got those numbers he would be accused of "hiding from the ball" and being "scared of the ball".

How many miles did he run though?

 

[Matt851]

Just dont think he will ever be an 8. Square peg in a round hole. Can't fault his effort to be fair.

Agreed on the effort but he cost 55m you would hope for more at that price. Our squad will never improve if we keep buying such obviously poor signings. It feels like we have just watched city play free 8s and thought mount is a bit like silva so that could work

 

[redIndianDevil]

Everytime we buy a player who Chelsea have little interest in keeping it seems to go pretty poorly.

I feel Gallagher has the potential to be twice the place Mount is.

 

[arthurka]

Not writing him off yet but didn't notice he was on the pitch until 40 min played. Since no player showed up today apart from Varane, AWB and Onana her gets a out of jail free card.

 

[kopviolator]

Premature to write him off. Everyone played like shit.
Still have big doubt about him though

 

[acnumber9]

Threat is a bit generous. They cut us apart multiple times when Mount came off. We were incredibly lucky not be 1-0 down after a minute or so of Eriksen being on.

Don't equate the goal to an improvement in performance; it was merely a one-off moment in a terrible performance.

They had plenty of chances after we scored also.

They cut us apart before he went off. We scored after he left the pitch so clearly it was the most threatening we were. Taking Mount off wasn’t the issue. Bringing McTominay on and surrendering any initiative was. As always happens every time we make that exact sub.

 

[saivet]

Pretty sure we would be a better team with either Kovacic or MacAllister instead of Mount

Two players that are actual no.8s rather than a theoretical one. I think Mount as a player is a decent to good one but I think he's the wrong profile of midfielder more than anything. If we didn't have Bruno, I wouldn't be excited about signing Mount but I'd understand it.

 

[acnumber9]

McTominay came on in 88 for Rashford. We changed our formation when he came on. Eriksen changed for Mount, and Wolves almost scored two in that time.

Mount wasnt the only one this game and gets to much stick when everyone bar a very few played decent. Its childish

That was a problem too. As was Mount’s performance. I know people like to pretend you can’t form opinions on players until they played 75 games for the club despite the fact we’ve all watched Mount for years.

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Pretty sure we would be a better team with either Kovacic or MacAllister instead of Mount

The same MacAllister who was absolutely awful for Liverpool yesterday?

People love overrating other players.

 

[InspiRED]

Maybe you wouldn’t get sane press intensity and winning ball back high up the pitch, but offensively Maddison is a much better player and was also a fair bit cheaper.

 

[Pace Abuser]

He is a nothing player. Another Maguire signing. The whole signing has baffled me. He's just not very good.

 

[Andersonson]

That was a problem too. As was Mount’s performance. I know people like to pretend you can’t form opinions on players until they played 75 games for the club despite the fact we’ve all watched Mount for years.

Have the opinion you want, no problem.
Just silly just bashing him when 9 out of 11 was terrible. He is the last one who should be targeted as it was his debut

 

[Isotope]

His positive doesn't overcome the negative that our midfield becomes porous.

But it's early days.

 

[redIndianDevil]

Why couldn’t he run around like a headless chicken next to Casemiro? He was taking about Bruno’s and Rashfords positions. If that is the plan then I worry about this season. Chelsea looked so slick against Liverpool. It’s going to be a tough season.

 

[Yagami]

You think Arthur is great and Case is shite, so I'm not sure I trust your judgement on midfielders.

I do. Keep looking out for my posts, though, son. Seems my judgement on footballers is important to you.

 

[redIndianDevil]

Have the opinion you want, no problem.
Just silly just bashing him when 9 out of 11 was terrible. He is the last one who should be targeted as it was his debut

The thing is we all knew about the rest. We have seen crap performances from all of them. A midfielder was our missing link, everyone is hoping for a midfielder to turn us around. Mount was supposed to be that guy. So of course people are mad.

 

[Infra-red]

He played like Mason Mount.
This one is on ETH.

Yep. His standard performance and exactly as expected. Tidy on the ball, worked quite hard. That's what he does. He'd have been able to get forward more if he had two midfielders behind him, which is the same setup needed to get the best out of Bruno.

 

[Solius]

You’d think for someone we went in for first as the priority signing it would be pretty obvious why we bought him but I’m still confused. I actually forgot we’d signed him the other day.

 

[acnumber9]

Have the opinion you want, no problem.
Just silly just bashing him when 9 out of 11 was terrible. He is the last one who should be targeted as it was his debut

The problem is that it goes beyond a poor performance. Mount just isn’t that good and playing him gives us a tactical nightmare because Casemiro cannot be expected to play midfield on his own all season. Mount isn’t a midfielder.

 

[Blood Mage]

Pointless signing and a waste of money. He's a decent backup for Bruno but that's it, should absolutely not be starting games alongside him.

 

[P-Ro]

I knew this thread was going to be fantastic.

 

[Big Ben Foster]

It's insane for me to see a top-level manager making those kind of mistakes.

How can he look at the profiles of Bruno and Casemiro and think adding Mount would make a good balanced midfield?

Managers aren't scouts. I reckon PL managers don't have much time to even watch other teams play. We're the only club that expects them to practically function as scouts.

 

[Andersonson]

The thing is we all knew about the rest. We have seen crap performances from all of them. A midfielder was our missing link, everyone is hoping for a midfielder to turn us around. Mount was supposed to be that guy. So of course people are mad.

Then they dont know football. We're playing with two box to box midfielders with zero help from the attacking 4. Look at the heat maps on whoscored.com and you will see that they were completely alone. Also 7 times alone in the first half Garancho lost the ball, you cant expect players to be two spots at the same time.

Tactics were off

 

[RedDevilQuebecois]

With today being a direct continuation of what we saw during preseason and even at Chelsea, I say we got fleeced hard.

 

[Beachryan]

Then they dont know football. We're playing with two box to box midfielders with zero help from the attacking 4. Look at the heat maps on whoscored.com and you will see that they were completely alone. Also 7 times alone in the first half Garancho lost the ball, you cant expect players to be two spots at the same time.

Tactics were off

Agree with this, and it's a good summay of how hard it was made for Mount. I couldn't tell if he was instructed to drop deep and help Casemiro/CBs advance the ball, or be close to Garnacho looking to help him exploit the RB. Felt like the latter, but a lot of pre-seaon was the former.

More worried about EtH than Mount tonight. Obviously both are good and will sort it out.

 

[justboy68]

Well so far he’s playing like the player we all thought he was. Maybe he can become someone different over time. The whole signing was a bit bizarre really.

 

[hobbers]

Pretty sure we would be a better team with either Kovacic or MacAllister instead of Mount

Or Tonali or Lavia etc etc....

The same MacAllister who was absolutely awful for Liverpool yesterday?

People love overrating other players.

Did you even watch the game? He solo'd a holding midfield role against a 3 man Chelsea midfield including Enzo. How can you call his performance awful after seeing Casemiro and Mount tonight?

Macallister would have been a far better player to complement Casemiro than Mount. Everyone and their nan called it as the deals were happening. He's obviously not a top player, but does everything a midfielder needs to do better than Mount does, while costing less.

 

[Howl]

Then they dont know football. We're playing with two box to box midfielders with zero help from the attacking 4. Look at the heat maps on whoscored.com and you will see that they were completely alone. Also 7 times alone in the first half Garancho lost the ball, you cant expect players to be two spots at the same time.

Tactics were off

It wasn't even the tactics. You can't have two of your front three give it away as much as Garnacho and Rashford did. They both had 5 unsuccessful first touches according to whoscored. We were very clearly trying to overload the left hand side with Garnacho, Rashford, and Mount but everytime Garnacho got the ball he lost it. This meant that Mount wasn't getting the ball as he was very often high up the pitch relying on progression being made through Garnacho. You just can't account for that when you are making your tactical preparations. Ten Hag should have hauled Garnacho off earlier for Sancho.

 

[fallengt]

Caf found new scapegoat

 

[Eddy_JukeZ]

Or Tonali or Lavia etc etc....




Did you even watch the game? He solo'd a holding midfield role against a 3 man Chelsea midfield including Enzo. How can you call his performance awful after seeing Casemiro and Mount tonight?

Macallister would have been a far better player to complement Casemiro than Mount. Everyone and their nan called it as the deals were happening. He's obviously not a top player, but does everything a midfielder needs to do better than Mount does, while costing less.

I watched the game and he was still awful.

What does MacAllister do better than Mount? Go on.

Not claiming Mount is a world beater, but MacAllister isn't a world beater either.