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2023-24 Performances


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4.8 Season Average Rating
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20
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1
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Mount is clearly not in the best form and still regaining fitness.

I think he’ll surprise people and win over the fans by October.
Some people on here are beyond help, they will find something to moan about even if he is banging hat tricks every other game.
 
Mount is clearly not in the best form and still regaining fitness.

I think he’ll surprise people and win over the fans by October.
I don't think the concerns are are regarding his form or fitness. On the contrary he seemed quite fit pacing all over the place, and his work ethic was commendable.

The issue is if this new look midfield works for us. Its not down to Mount himself, but rather whether he's the right player for the bodies we need in midfield.
 
I agree with all of that. I just find it funny how some fans think they know better by suggesting another player and thinking they're some kind of scout who discovered the player, and assuming that player would be much better than the ones we signed.
I take a lot of it with a pinch of salt. It's usually bandwagoning, the influence of FM or some YouTube highlights that make people throw out names of players they think would be better. But there are a few knowledable posters who understand the system and can back up their claims of a player being more suitable
 
You have a hard time reading. It's visible from your first sentence.
How so?

You have literally stated that you can see this midfield is a mistake and that it will take EtH months to figure out, if that's not stating that you know better than someone who spends his working life in football with these players, I'm not sure what is.

Buts it's fine, people have the right to criticise and offer opinions, that's what the forums for.
 
Based on yesterday, it's not easy to see how he's supposed to compliment Bruno and Casemiro in a functional, top class midfield.

Midfield. As in: playing in the middle of the park (to some degree, at least).

He looks more like an alternative to Bruno than an addition, if you know what I mean.
 
Eriksen should be Starting ahead of him, i don't care if Eriksen has had a stroke he's a far intelligent midfielder than Mount would ever be.

ETH has to drop him for that awful showing.
 
How so?

You have literally stated that you can see this midfield is a mistake and that it will take EtH months to figure out, if that's not stating that you know better than someone who spends his working life in football with these players, I'm not sure what is.

Buts it's fine, people have the right to criticise and offer opinions, that's what the forums for.
If that's your definition of me knowing better than EtH, yes I do! United should hire me.
 
I understand the support he is getting but even in seasons prior to last season, he looked a very average footballer who did nothing. Last night wasn't an anomaly for him.
 
In truth, Casemiro was the major issue last night for me. He looked 1000 years old. So slow, clumsy, took forever to do anything, passed it poorly. Hopefully he shakes off the cobwebs, but if he doesn't, we're in a world of trouble.
As expected, he looked the same in latter stages of last season. He should not only be given support in midfield, but also a backup to give him some rest. We've addressed neither of those issues.

I don’t think many players could successfully play that role that Casemiro is being expected to play now. Casemiro in his prime, ironically, probably could have. Maybe the likes of Caicedo now, but it’s a tough role.
Exactly. If that is the plan then we might have sold Casemiro and go all in for Caicedo or someone on similar level (especially physically). His positional sense is useless if he has to cover 20% of the pitch on his own.

When Bruno made his debut vs Wolves in a goaless draw there was so much optimism for him. Mount has a worse performance but we win and he is written off by so many already!

Not all transfers can hit the ground running, but I think MM will figure out how best to play alongside Bruno eventually. They need to interchange attacking and defensive dutoes according to opposition and game status.
Perhaps we had all underestimated Wolves and the formation was too attack minded. I expect against Spurs it will be corrected.
That would be a very sad conclusion.
 
He occupies the same area as Bruno. If you look at the average positions, they are on top of each other.

If he does, it's not by tactical design, that's for sure. There's two half-spaces. Bruno is meant to occupy one, and Mount is meant to occupy the other, like City do with De Bruyne in one half-space and Gundogan in the other half-space. In a new system it's understandable that his instincts might override his specific instructions.

Neither drops to receive the ball,

Tactically I don't blieve that they're supposed to. As per above, both Bruno and Mount are meant to occupy the half-spaces and stay high to help pin the opposition team back. For this reason, this is why Luke Shaw spent a large part of the game dropping inside and playing next to Casemiro; so that Mount and Bruno are free to stay high and maintain good positions in which to press from if the ball is lost.

Why couldn't we just sign a ball carrier

I think Mount has a record of 2.41 professive carries per game. That puts him in the 85th percentile of ball carriers in all top European leagues. In 2020/21 he was the 6th best progressive carrier in the league. All in all, Mount is a ball carrier insofar as statistics bear witness to that fact.

I'm not totally sold him on yet, but I'm patient enough to factor in that new players operating in new roles, plaing in new systems is going to have an expected period of adaptation.
 
We got the wrong Chelsea player. Would have been much better off with Kova. No one in our midfield can hold on to the ball, especially under pressure.
 
Pretty sure we would be a better team with either Kovacic or MacAllister instead of Mount
Kovacic was the one if you look at what we lack as a team. A midfielder good in tight spaces and can receive the ball on the turn.

100% to both Kova and MacAllister. We need people that are tidy on the ball and currently Mount nor Bruno possess that trait.
 
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If he does, it's not by tactical design, that's for sure. There's two half-spaces. Bruno is meant to occupy one, and Mount is meant to occupy the other, like City do with De Bruyne in one half-space and Gundogan in the other half-space. In a new system it's understandable that his instincts might override his specific instructions.



Tactically I don't blieve that they're supposed to. As per above, both Bruno and Mount are meant to occupy the half-spaces and stay high to help pin the opposition team back. For this reason, this is why Luke Shaw spent a large part of the game dropping inside and playing next to Casemiro; so that Mount and Bruno are free to stay high and maintain good positions in which to press from if the ball is lost.



I think Mount has a record of 2.41 professive carries per game. That puts him in the 85th percentile of ball carriers in all top European leagues. In 2020/21 he was the 6th best progressive carrier in the league. All in all, Mount is a ball carrier insofar as statistics bear witness to that fact.

I'm not totally sold him on yet, but I'm patient enough to factor in that new players operating in new roles, plaing in new systems is going to have an expected period of adaptation.
There was a picture of average positions, it's exactly how you describe it - Bruno occupying half space on the right, Mount on the left (slightly higher). And a wall of Wolves between Casemiro and them.

That's the scary part. It seems like they are following the instructions perfectly.
 
I don't get this signing at £60m plus. To me he is not a top player. He is the archetypal modern player. All endeavour and little in terms of delivery. Eriksen has a better football brain. Just runs out of steam more now.
 
I don't get this signing at £60m plus. To me he is not a top player. He is the archetypal modern player. All endeavour and little in terms of delivery. Eriksen has a better football brain. Just runs out of steam more now.
Not the biggest fan either. Likes of Amrabat and Rabiot should be signed before him.
 
I am still struggling to understand the logic behind his purchase,he is not the Profile of midfielder we need.

(1) His primary position is 10,he is not even the best we have in that position.
(2) He was average for both England and Chelsea.
(3) You know that something is wrong if only the manager can 'see' what a player does on the pitch (apparently, the fans cannot).

I predict to likely scenarios, ETH becomes stubborn and conitnue to play him and pay for it with his job.Replace him with Eriksen and substitute him after one hour.
 
I think Mount has a record of 2.41 professive carries per game. That puts him in the 85th percentile of ball carriers in all top European leagues. In 2020/21 he was the 6th best progressive carrier in the league. All in all, Mount is a ball carrier insofar as statistics bear witness to that fact.

I'm not totally sold him on yet, but I'm patient enough to factor in that new players operating in new roles, plaing in new systems is going to have an expected period of adaptation.
These are stats when he was playing as an attacker, so it's yet to be seen how he translates that into his new position here.
 
I actually like him more than when we signed him. Very tidy player, good balance, doesn't lose the ball easily. His individual quality isn't a problem, but I think Erik got it completely wrong assigning him the van de beek role of second striker.
He's the kind of player that will look better if put in role that requires him to be more involved, for example by pushing him deeper.
 
Give him 10 games in the league to show his talent.

1st game was crap, but all 10 outfield players were crap!

9 games to go Mason!
 
Clearly talented, but I think he needs to play a deeper role and cover the rooms Bruno leave behind him when roaming higher up the pitch. We left that midfield wide open on monday and Wolves knew to exploit it over and over again.
 
It's not a case of worship, it's more a case of the managers knowing a lot more than people on here.

Managers can make mistakes for sure, but there's a reason they are managers of elite football clubs and not just posting inane bollox on a forum.
The fact that fans still believe this crap even after the debacles of Moyes, LvG, Ole is one of the prime reasons we are still crap. There is absolutely no accountability in our hierarchy after a manager gets sacked.
 
I'm trying to think of a player who caused this much division right out of the gate.

Lukaku and Maguire had many critics before signing but they had superb debuts, in fact they had a pretty awesome first month or so which bought them some credit.

Moral of the story is Mount will need to perform to get people off his back. His preseason performances and official debut gives his critics a lot of ammo so its on him to change that.
 
How is it rubbish? Is it wrong? Do you genuinely believe fans know more than the manager? Look, everyone can say "why didn't we just buy Caicedo, Kvaratskhelia, Osimhen and Frenkie de Jong, and we'd be so much better!". It doesn't mean the fans have any idea what they're talking about.

It actually makes me laugh when I see posts like "see, I told you he wasn't going to cut it!" as if that poster had any idea at all. It's Mount's first game, and while it wasn't a particularly good game by him, everyone struggled. Does that make Bruno a shit player? Or Shaw? Rashford? Apparently this is all on Mount. We were playing against Wolverhampton who had 3 absolute tanks in the midfield. They're not technically excellent, except maybe Matheus Nunes, but they're fecking strong, powerful and very difficult to play against, especially Casemiro struggled and looked like he was playing a veteran game, and when your most physical player is in that shape as a midfielder, it was always going to be tough.
I can't cook like a pro chef, but I 100% know if he served me a crap dish. What was served in the Wolves game was worse than crap.
 
I'm trying to think of a player who caused this much division right out of the gate.

Lukaku and Maguire had many critics before signing but they had superb debuts, in fact they had a pretty awesome first month or so which bought them some credit.

Moral of the story is Mount will need to perform to get people off his back. His preseason performances and official debut gives his critics a lot of ammo so its on him to change that.

Michael Carrick was similar IIRC and the caf was spot on as usual.
 
I don't think the concerns are are regarding his form or fitness. On the contrary he seemed quite fit pacing all over the place, and his work ethic was commendable.

The issue is if this new look midfield works for us. Its not down to Mount himself, but rather whether he's the right player for the bodies we need in midfield.
We have to stop glorifying mediocrity. Work ethic alone is not commendable, I want our midfielders to create chances, make intelligent passes. Running alone like a mad man after a hopeless ball should never be commended. It's silly and waste of energy.
 
I'm trying to think of a player who caused this much division right out of the gate.

Lukaku and Maguire had many critics before signing but they had superb debuts, in fact they had a pretty awesome first month or so which bought them some credit.

Moral of the story is Mount will need to perform to get people off his back. His preseason performances and official debut gives his critics a lot of ammo so its on him to change that.

I agree. Only he can change the narrative on the pitch, but I also believe Ten Hag needs to help a lot here. Mount can have a very long career if someone with brains tasks him to play the deeper Pirlo/Modric-type playmaker role while supporting the CDM. What matters first and foremost is to have 2 midfielders at all times in a position to support the CBs.
 
I can't cook like a pro chef, but I 100% know if he served me a crap dish. What was served in the Wolves game was worse than crap.

If a pro chef suggested to put on some particular spices to enhance the flavours of the dish, would you say it would taste like shit before you've even tasted it?
 
If a pro chef suggested to put on some particular spices to enhance the flavours of the dish, would you say it would taste like shit before you've even tasted it?
Yes if the chef said he is serving biriyani and suggested adding cheese to enhance the flavor.
 
I'm trying to think of a player who caused this much division right out of the gate.

Lukaku and Maguire had many critics before signing but they had superb debuts, in fact they had a pretty awesome first month or so which bought them some credit.

Moral of the story is Mount will need to perform to get people off his back. His preseason performances and official debut gives his critics a lot of ammo so its on him to change that.
Really? Where is the division between fans? Seems to me like this place is pretty much on the same page with Mount. Decent player that we really didn't need as he's neither Eriksen nor Fred upgrade - especially in the role he's playing.
 
Give him 10 games in the league to show his talent.

1st game was crap, but all 10 outfield players were crap!

9 games to go Mason!
This is why you shouldn’t sign out of form players with a year left on their contract, setting fire to piles of money.
 
Awful debut for a 70 m player that was given our iconic number 7 shirt, that's for sure. Substituted on the 65th minute.
Wouldn't read too much into it. One of him / Bruno had to make way for Eriksen as we needed to switch to more pragmatic shape. It was always going to be Mount. He was no worse than Bruno until 65th minute.
 
Quality Premier proven young footballer, only a matter of time before he comes good.
 
If mondays performance was an indication of how our season will go, Mount wouldn't be our biggest problem.

If that was the Garnacho we will see this year, he should be loaned to a Championship team. If that was all that Antony and Rashford bring to our team, we'd better release them for free.
If that is Casemiros speed and agility, he better retire tomorrow.

A first game for a new team, at home, #7 etc. is just not your usual standard evening. Give him a dozen games first, who knows what he's capable of.
Most of you act like he's an AM and should be playing DM, everyone sees it but ETH is just not intelligent enough. Do you really think he'd have bought him for 60m if he doesn't see the ability to play the preferred role?
Let's see if he cannot compliment Casemiro in a #8 role. He's got the work rate to cover that position very well and I rather trust the manager and staff who analysed that issue for weeks / months.
In the end, it would've been a sensation if we saw the perfect end-product of that formation already in game number one. Give it a bit time...
 
Not the biggest fan either. Likes of Amrabat and Rabiot should be signed before him.
I've tried very hard. I thought it would be an expensive mistake but my heart wants me to be wrong. There is only one English player that is more overrated than Mount and that is Declan Rice. If you pay over £100m for a player you expect goals, assists and chance creation. He offers none of that.
 
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