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Three big questions: Chelsea’s Mason Mount and being crucial

By Travis Tyler

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 19: Mason Mount of Chelsea looks on during the FA Cup Semi Final match between Manchester United and Chelsea at Wembley Stadium on July 19, 2020 in London, England. Football Stadiums around Europe remain empty due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in all fixtures being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Alastair Grant/Pool via Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 19: Mason Mount of Chelsea looks on during the FA Cup Semi Final match between Manchester United and Chelsea at Wembley Stadium on July 19, 2020 in London, England. Football Stadiums around Europe remain empty due to the Coronavirus Pandemic as Government social distancing laws prohibit fans inside venues resulting in all fixtures being played behind closed doors. (Photo by Alastair Grant/Pool via Getty Images) /
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LONDON, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 25: (BILD ZEITUNG OUT) goalkeeper Manuel Neuer of FC Bayern Muenchen and Mason Mount of Chelsea FC battle for the ball during the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg match between Chelsea FC and FC Bayern Muenchen at Stamford Bridge on February 25, 2020 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Roland Krivec/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND – FEBRUARY 25: (BILD ZEITUNG OUT) goalkeeper Manuel Neuer of FC Bayern Muenchen and Mason Mount of Chelsea FC battle for the ball during the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg match between Chelsea FC and FC Bayern Muenchen at Stamford Bridge on February 25, 2020 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Roland Krivec/DeFodi Images via Getty Images) /

Chelsea’s Mason Mount had a fantastic debut season in the Premier League with room to improve. What questions should be asked before the new season?

Mason Mount played a whopping 53 matches in his debut Premier League season. Considering he played in the Championship the season before and managed to slot right in to the Chelsea team, it is an impressive feat. The boo boys are probably already raising their usual “but…” points so what questions need to be asked of Mount ahead of the new season?

1. Will his detractors ever learn to appreciate him?

Mount detractors can mostly be grouped into one of two categories. The first are the members of the Maurizio Sarri cult who are upset their messiah quit the club (because he wasn’t sacked) and was replaced by, hold on let’s check the notes, “Fat” Frank Lampard.

Just as Jorginho was made an avatar of Sarri, Mount was made an avatar of Lampard. Everything he did was put under a microscope and ultimately deemed terrible. This group is probably spending their time in the off season tweeting out red x’s on Mount’s face and posting predicted XI’s with Mount nowhere to be seen.

The other group is somehow even stranger. When Christian Pulisic was not an immediate starter this season (despite playing nearly nonstop for nine months with a long injury lay off just before that), this group was upset that Mount was starting over the American hero. They refused to acknowledge that the two were really not in direct competition with one another, then or now, and it eventually morphed into the Lampard has an English bias narrative that is pretty much baseless upon simple observation.

Break through these two groups and one could begin to see what Mount actually offered. This is not to say he spent his 53 matches being perfect. But for a 21 year old who played in the Championship the previous season? He was absolutely fantastic. Anyone saying otherwise is trying to sell you something completely unrelated to Mount himself.

There is hope for the Pulisic versus Mount group as they mostly came to understand the two are not in each other’s way. The Jorginho/Sarri group will take longer if they come around at all. With Jorginho set to be sold sooner rather than later, that situation may solve itself and Mount might finally be viewed for what he actually is: a good young player that has plenty of room to grow.

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