Mason Mount has a crucial pre-season on his hands at Manchester United after a far-from-impressive debut campaign at Old Trafford.
Signed just over a year ago for £55 million, Mason Mount had the opening season of his nightmares at Old Trafford, playing just 756 minutes in the entire campaign.
Injuries plagued him and he missed at least 27 games through injury during the campaign, which included 110 days on the sideline from November through until March.
He managed to get his first goal and assist during the campaign, but he will have been concerned over the fact that there isn’t a clear role for him at Manchester United.
Bruno Fernandes has the number 10 spot locked down, Kobbie Mainoo is irreplaceable and he isn’t a defensive midfielder. This saw him end up on the wing toward the end of the season.
But we all know what a superb footballer he can be which means he needs to use this preseason to remind us all, and also prove Paul Scholes wrong for his comments in 2023.
What Paul Scholes said about Mason Mount
Speaking on the Webby and O’Neill YouTube channel back in November 2023, Scholes discussed his theory about why Mount was struggling at Old Trafford. In doing so he effectively declared that Mount wasn’t a tactical fit for Erik ten Hag’s team.
“It upsets the balance of the team. It upsets the legs he has in midfield. I really think he wanted to play him with Bruno Fernandes but the two of them playing in the team, it just doesn’t seem to be working now.
“It’s difficult to make a case for Mason because he’s not played enough games, so trying to come on here and say ‘he should be playing’, I don’t know because he hasn’t played. If he has a run of five, six, seven, eight games you can judge that a little bit more.
“You have to get the balance of the team right, that’s the big struggle. I think Ten Hag wants to play as many attackers as he can on the football pitch, which would mean one holding player and the rest attacking players, and Mason Mount would come into that. But it takes away the legs of the midfield, it really leaves them open.
“To bring someone like Mason Mount into the team you almost need two holding midfielders with him to get the balance of the team right.”
This comment at the time was spot on, with Mount not looking a natural fit into the XI at Manchester United.
Mount must use pre-season to prove Scholes wrong
For the aforementioned reasons, pre-season for Mount is absolutely huge and he has plenty of questions to answer regarding where he fits into this team.
Mount will be one of the key players for the first part of the tour with Bruno on holiday after crashing out of the Euros on Friday night and therefore he should get a real chance to impress in the number 10 position.
Alternatively, Mainoo remains at the Euros with England in the semi-final this summer and Mount could therefore get a chance in Mainoo’s number eight position which he began last season.
With a better number six, he could find himself thriving in that role, but even then there is no chance he’d manage to unseat Mainoo in midfield.
These are the two potential positions Mount could play, and at his best, the number 10 position is where we’d have expected to see him play.
Bruno has a somewhat uncertain future considering his age and his comments before the Euros on how he needed to see ambition and therefore Mount could theoretically push the club captain into that position and if he looks like a £55m player he could end up finding his position in the team.
Mount’s main issue was injuries last campaign and if he can avoid these injuries next season, chances are we’ll see a far better version anyway.
But if he is to save his career at Old Trafford, it all hinges on this pre-season and the start of the 2024/25 campaign. We will have to see how he does.
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