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Mason Mount is ready to signal for Manchester United.
As reported right here by Matthew Cohen, a medical will likely be performed at present with a contract to be agreed after, confirming the relocation of the 24 yr previous England worldwide from London to Manchester. An preliminary price, value £55 million, with the potential of £5 million in add-ons represents a good worth for each golf equipment concerned within the deal. The Athletic have defined why Manchester United positioned such emphasis on securing Mason Mount’s providers, with Erik ten Hag a long-term admirer of the energetic midfielder.
Having first come throughout Mount within the Englishman’s season-long mortgage at Vitesse Arnhem within the Eredivisie, ten Hag was impressed by the participant’s efficiency in a 3-2 win for Vitesse towards Ajax in March 2018. The Dutch supervisor has been monitoring the participant ever since, with good purpose.
Mount represents a participant as succesful with the ball, as with out. He ranks within the 87th percentile for tackles, in addition to the 93rd percentile for progressive passes amongst attacking midfielders. Being a succesful passer and a succesful presser are stipulations inside trendy midfielders and it’s this union of technical proficiency and bodily skill which makes Mount ideally suited to 10 Hag’s wants at Previous Trafford.
Ten Hag was pressured to compromise within the centre of the pitch final season. Christian Eriksen, signed astutely on a free, provided the method on the ball his supervisor needs, whereas Fred provided the physicality and vitality off the ball.
Ten Hag would swap between the 2 relying on the opposition, with Fred buttressing the midfield towards within the FA Cup last as Eriksen was pushed additional ahead. Evidently, ten Hag didn’t belief Eriksen’s physicality and counter-pressing towards a midfield reminiscent of Manchester Metropolis’s. He won’t have that drawback with Mason Mount.
The Athletic’s article recounts the phrases of Eric Steele, the previous Manchester United coach, who additionally coached Mount on the U-19 European Championship with England. Steele defined how essential the well-rounded nature of Mount’s sport was to that English facet:
“…he’s a really clever participant. He can rating targets. He’s one of the good 10s I’ve seen…he may see a go, which is essential, and he would transcend the entrance man…..He’s nice at nicking the ball, which is able to go well with Ten Hag. He isn’t a tackler, he nicks the ball off folks, he’s intelligent.”
Mount additionally was integral to how that facet counter-pressed. When England misplaced the ball, it was Mount who would ‘set the set off’ for the group to start urgent.
Conversely, Steele elaborates, if the group have been to ‘drop mid-block’ Mount would recognise this and say ‘No drawback, we’re simply dropping.’ This tactical consciousness is prime to the midfielder’s sport, and a big a part of why he so typically falls into the class of ‘supervisor’s favorite’.
The Athletic astutely noticed how Mount constantly ranked amongst ‘the highest 5 gamers for league minutes’ below three completely different managers in three distinct techniques at Chelsea. Thomas Tuchel, Frank Lampard and Graham Potter all valued Mount as a participant, though they typically deployed him in several methods.
At worldwide stage, Mount is lauded by his supervisor for comparable causes. This positional flexibility and tactical pliability are belongings ten Hag will undoubtedly utilise.
The Peoples Individual has supplied additional explanations on how Mason Mount will likely be integrated into the Manchester United squad right here, whereas providing a prediction for what the English midfielder’s switch might imply for the way in which wherein ten Hag units his group up subsequent yr. Mount represents a participant who will assist United play proactively, relatively than reactively.
The Athletic ends their evaluation on Mount by reinforcing how an lively midfielder is just one element of a three-part record of priorities this summer season – an ‘elite goalscorer and a cushty distributor between the stick’ stay necessities to be secured. However ten Hag has been supplied along with his primary choice in midfield, who will assist the group in quite a lot of other ways subsequent season and past.
