Mason Mount's Many Misfortunes (please don't make another waste of money post)

I liked Mount at Chelsea but was highly skeptical if he was what we needed to bring balace to our midfield. My thoughts haven't changed one bit so far.

All of the previous managers after Fergie were criticised to death for their signings but EtH made some shocking decisions in the transfer market since he came to the club as well. Some people try to act like he's different but he's not really.
He has had full control over transfers and been responsible for some really shocking decisions e.g. wout, Antony, chasing fdj all summer with no indication he would come
 
Hey Mark, maybe let him play more than 68 competitive minutes before sharing your blissful optimism as always?

Hes played plenty for England and Chelsea. And if any parrots 'he was Chelsea's player of the season' or he got a bunch of assists from corners again, well there's no hope for those people
 
I like Mount, but unless we end up dropping Bruno or one of them is playing out wide, he is only going to end up on the bench.
 
Honestly I thought he was fine? Do I think him and Bruno works though, not on that display, but its early days. I think he's so much more tidy, and measured than Bruno which we desperately need as Bruno just spams the ball recklessly, I can see why Ten Hag likes him and wanted him.
 
Honestly I thought he was fine? Do I think him and Bruno works though, not on that display, but its early days. I think he's so much more tidy, and measured than Bruno which we desperately need as Bruno just spams the ball recklessly, I can see why Ten Hag likes him and wanted him.

Yeah none of my issues with him stem from his performance today. It stems from the type of player he is compared to what we actually need.
 
I can‘t argue that he was good today but he sure wasn’t bad. Bruno had a mare but he came up with the key pass for the goal :rolleyes:
 
So… If you get Amrabat, which I think would be an excellent fit, is Mount an indication that ETH sees Bruno moving on? That seems strange. I don’t watch you guys all the time, but he seems like a primary creator for you.

My United fanatic friend says Bruno can play out on the right, and Mount and him can kind f switch spots back and forth. That seemed like a horrible idea. Mount at RW was one of our worst experiments.

Does ETH plan to start him on the right and have him tuck in to form part of a midfield square? It is the new fad and I saw it mentioned yesterday.

That could work: Bruno and Mount up high, Amrabat and Casemiro low, BUT you don’t really have the type of FB that makes that work.

Im curious to see what happens.
 
Things like buying him for £60m when we needed a completely different type of midfielder make me grow sceptical of ten Hag.
 
Things like buying him for £60m when we needed a completely different type of midfielder make me grow sceptical of ten Hag.
That‘s your opinion. Look at how Arsenal and City are set up, with two 8/10‘s in front of a 6. Ten Hag did it at Ajax.

Now he needs to make it work, we pressed poorly and lost the ball 80 times. No midfielder is going to solve that.
 
As always we are rushing to judge players on one game. I shall reserve judgement after at least half a dozen games.
 
Hes played plenty for England and Chelsea. And if any parrots 'he was Chelsea's player of the season' or he got a bunch of assists from corners again, well there's no hope for those people

Isn't that just because you want to ignore that he was considered Chelsea's best player for two seasons running? Doesn't fit the narrative, so let's do an ostrich.
 
That‘s your opinion. Look at how Arsenal and City are set up, with two 8/10‘s in front of a 6. Ten Hag did it at Ajax.

Now he needs to make it work, we pressed poorly and lost the ball 80 times. No midfielder is going to solve that.
When did Ten Hag do this at Ajax?
 
Hes played plenty for England and Chelsea. And if any parrots 'he was Chelsea's player of the season' or he got a bunch of assists from corners again, well there's no hope for those people
:lol:
Don't mention good points about mount! It pokes holes in my argument!
 
Isn't that just because you want to ignore that he was considered Chelsea's best player for two seasons running? Doesn't fit the narrative, so let's do an ostrich.
:lol:
Don't mention good points about mount! It pokes holes in my argument!

What does being player of the season even mean? It means he's liked by the fans or the players, which is well enough because he's home grown and by all accounts very likeable. It's not an indication to his football though, because he's never been impressive in the 10+ times I've watched him prior to us joining him.

The reason I say don't mention it because it's seriously clutching at straws to find something good about a player who is dinstinctly average
 
So… If you get Amrabat, which I think would be an excellent fit, is Mount an indication that ETH sees Bruno moving on? That seems strange. I don’t watch you guys all the time, but he seems like a primary creator for you.

My United fanatic friend says Bruno can play out on the right, and Mount and him can kind f switch spots back and forth. That seemed like a horrible idea. Mount at RW was one of our worst experiments.

Does ETH plan to start him on the right and have him tuck in to form part of a midfield square? It is the new fad and I saw it mentioned yesterday.

That could work: Bruno and Mount up high, Amrabat and Casemiro low, BUT you don’t really have the type of FB that makes that work.

Im curious to see what happens.
Square or a diamond would be good if we get the DLP but we've clearly gone the winger route pretty hard. The wingers aren't pulling much weight often times though in my opinion
 
What does being player of the season even mean? It means he's liked by the fans or the players, which is well enough because he's home grown and by all accounts very likeable. It's not an indication to his football though, because he's never been impressive in the 10+ times I've watched him prior to us joining him.

The reason I say don't mention it because it's seriously clutching at straws to find something good about a player who is dinstinctly average
Being club player of the season is no indication of the players football? That's a first.
 
Isn't that just because you want to ignore that he was considered Chelsea's best player for two seasons running? Doesn't fit the narrative, so let's do an ostrich.
I’m not saying Mount is bad, but I wouldnt put too much stock in that award thing. We weren’t good for the majority of those two seasons, and, especially the first time he won it, the people I would have considered our best players missed too many games to qualify for the award

That and people were so confused by the love affair with Mason that there constant jokes about the nature of his relationship with Lampard.
 
What does being player of the season even mean? It means he's liked by the fans or the players, which is well enough because he's home grown and by all accounts very likeable. It's not an indication to his football though, because he's never been impressive in the 10+ times I've watched him prior to us joining him.

Is it not ? Sure those type of awards have their bias, but I would expect it has to do with his football at least in part.
Look at the other recipients of the CFC Player of the Year awards it does seem to line up with who their strongest/most praised player was in any given year.
 
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I can‘t argue that he was good today but he sure wasn’t bad. Bruno had a mare but he came up with the key pass for the goal :rolleyes:

the bruno experience. I don't think we will ever truly control a game in midfield with Bruno, even if we had a great partner for Casemiro. Lets see what ETH does against Tottenham, he's got to have one of Mount or Bruno play deeper/more conservative.
 
Too early for me to Judge this guy as a player. Our entire midfield and attack was bad yesterday, and the guys who've been here longer are far more to blame in that scenario than new members.

ETH has his work cut out on our midfield though, that's for sure. I think Mount and Bruno can work as two 8s side by side a 6, but not when they both play wannabe strikers camped in the final third majority of the time. I also don't think either one can be a lone 8 next to a 6 in double pivot, it has to be a proper midfield 3 as I doubt either has the skills to succeed in a 2.
 
Things like buying him for £60m when we needed a completely different type of midfielder make me grow sceptical of ten Hag.
ETH is not as smart as people make him out to be, that is my honest opinion.
The first decision was letting the club sign Anthony for that price, he insisted on him and he should know better the quality of a player for that price.
He wants to be in control of transfers, he should be ready to take the criticism that comes with it.

Most of our fans where surprised when we got linked to Mount, he was the last player any of our fans thought about when we got linked.
In my opinion, Chelsea have done a number on us.
He was his first signing this summer and we got linked as early as April, so it seems this signing was well thought of.

In my opinion, he is not the right player for that midfield. And either him or Bruno will have to be shoehorned to the wings for us to look half decent.
This transfer will be an albatross on his neck this season
 
I know it’s only 1 game, but I really doubt Mount in midfield gonna work at United. Mount is a # 10, can play on right or left wing or false #9.
 
Foreign players don’t get this much scrutiny

Debatable. Pogba, Martial etc. More recently Antony is dogged non stop, people couldn't wait to pile into Lisandro and Onana had his preseason halfway-liner clipped up by every big Twitter account and media outlet.

I do agree nobody's more scrutinised than United players, which is why you need to have the right mentality to be here. Having your brother cryposting publicly after game one of your £55m move - talking about what a nice guy you are and flashing your credentials - over Talksport doing some mild stat-trolling isn't an auspicious start. He's going to get a lot, lot worse than that as a United player.

I was mostly joking about the English players thing btw...mostly.
 
That‘s your opinion. Look at how Arsenal and City are set up, with two 8/10‘s in front of a 6. Ten Hag did it at Ajax.

Now he needs to make it work, we pressed poorly and lost the ball 80 times. No midfielder is going to solve that.
People are obsessed with 4231 vs 433 as if playing a 433 means you can justify having a completely imbalanced midfield.

It's possible to play an 8 that has qualities that complement our other midfielders, and a lot of fans are just not convinced Mount is that, and they said as much weeks before we even signed him.

We ideally wanted a player who makes a high volume of passes while progressing play with very good ball retention. One of Mount's problems has always been he's a periphery player, he isn't that involved in the game and doesn't make many passes compared to other players in his position.

Neither Bruno or Casemiro are strong ball carriers, so it would be useful to pair them with one. Mount isn't.

Bruno lacks physicality, and so we pair him with Mount who has the same issue. Casemiro has lack of recovery pace and aging legs, and we pair him with a player who's spent his whole career as an attacking player with little evidence he'd be effective at helping Casemiro with the defensive work to the level we need.

Playing two 8s isn't a function of the player themselves, rather the instructions the players are given and the positions they take up on the field under the guide of the manager. Fred, Eriksen and Mctominay can all be our second 8 alongside Bruno if that's how we want to set up, but clearly they all have different strengths and weaknesses. Some are going to give you more physically, some are giving more technically, some are giving more defensively, some are giving more creatively. It's about finding the right mix of qualities in your midfield 3 and I suspect we don't have it.
 
Honestly I thought he was fine? Do I think him and Bruno works though, not on that display, but its early days. I think he's so much more tidy, and measured than Bruno which we desperately need as Bruno just spams the ball recklessly, I can see why Ten Hag likes him and wanted him.
I find it weird that over the last 3 years we've had a terribly inconsistent midfield. We have games where we're good even with McFred, games where we're good even with Fred/Pogba or Mctominay/Pogba now we've had games where we're good with Casemiro/Eriksen and it will be the same with Mount/Casemiro.

The only constant in all those midfields is the reason we're so inconsistent. When Bruno decides to choose ball retention over hero ball we're half decent. Whenever he chooses bloody hero ball we get the piss taken out of us.

I also find it weird how every other midfielder has been blamed and will continue to be blamed while the one constant seems to just get away with it....

I saw people blame Casemiro for yesterday's midfield performance, he's a world class player not a superhero, people think Rodri could've stopped the onslaught of 4-5 on the break when Bruno gets bullied off the ball outside the opponents box.
 
People are obsessed with 4231 vs 433 as if playing a 433 means you can justify having a completely imbalanced midfield.

It's possible to play an 8 that has qualities that complement our other midfielders, and a lot of fans are just not convinced Mount is that, and they said as much weeks before we even signed him.

We ideally wanted a player who makes a high volume of passes while progressing play with very good ball retention. One of Mount's problems has always been he's a periphery player, he isn't that involved in the game and doesn't make many passes compared to other players in his position.

Neither Bruno or Casemiro are strong ball carriers, so it would be useful to pair them with one. Mount isn't.

Bruno lacks physicality, and so we pair him with Mount who has the same issue. Casemiro has lack of recovery pace and aging legs, and we pair him with a player who's spent his whole career as an attacking player with little evidence he'd be effective at helping Casemiro with the defensive work to the level we need.

Playing two 8s isn't a function of the player themselves, rather the instructions the players are given and the positions they take up on the field under the guide of the manager. Fred, Eriksen and Mctominay can all be our second 8 alongside Bruno if that's how we want to set up, but clearly they all have different strengths and weaknesses. Some are going to give you more physically, some are giving more technically, some are giving more defensively, some are giving more creatively. It's about finding the right mix of qualities in your midfield 3 and I suspect we don't have it.
I agree with most of your post, except this.

Mount is a good ball carrier for a midfielder, he hasn't shown it yet but he is. In terms of stats he's in the 84th percentile for progressive carries compared to midfielders. This is over the last 365 days when he hasn't even really been on form compared to his UCL winning season when he was in the 96th percentile for progressive carries.

He's not a possession passer or player though I agree. He's more like Bruno in the sense of his progressive passing with less volume, he does have higher percentage of progressive passes completed but chooses the safer option if it's a tough pass unlike Bruno. I agree with you that I don't think the system will work with both of them but Mount is a good ball carrier, which only added to my confusion when he never dropped deep to receive the ball from Case or any of the full backs and was pretty much on line with Garnacho and Rashford. I thought the only reason for signing Mount was to use his progressive ball carrying ability but then we practically negated that because of the position ETH played him which was far too high up. Was really confusing and if this continues will become a really bad signing.
 
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So… If you get Amrabat, which I think would be an excellent fit, is Mount an indication that ETH sees Bruno moving on? That seems strange. I don’t watch you guys all the time, but he seems like a primary creator for you.

My United fanatic friend says Bruno can play out on the right, and Mount and him can kind f switch spots back and forth. That seemed like a horrible idea. Mount at RW was one of our worst experiments.

Does ETH plan to start him on the right and have him tuck in to form part of a midfield square? It is the new fad and I saw it mentioned yesterday.

That could work: Bruno and Mount up high, Amrabat and Casemiro low, BUT you don’t really have the type of FB that makes that work.

Im curious to see what happens.
That's not encouraging to hear at all, I did think he might be put on the right sometimes and his flexibility would give us options, especially as our RW is still a bit of a problem area. A lot of people don't like it but Bruno did have some decent games on the right, so there's that option too
 
I don't think the ball carrying Mount does is what people mean. Mount is good at carrying the ball in counters/transition. He showed that vs Wolves, he is quite fast, and very strong and tenacious. When he has space to run into, he'll get far.

Frenkie de Jong, can pick up the ball from deep and progress play by either passing or dribbling the ball high up the pitch, beating the press/opponents. I think people are saying we need similar.

They both count for ball carries.