Mason Mount scored the winner for England against Belgium but there is always a but. The Chelsea player doesn’t have to be better to be the better choice.
Mason Mount started for England. Many will say he started instead of Jack Grealish or Jadon Sancho but that is more of an assumption than anything else. Fans are rarely privy to the tactically ideas of managers because they are generally more complicated than “press start to play”.
Mount even scored the winner for England. Yes, it was massively deflected but fans, true actually full blown fans, don’t care how they go in. That is why it is curious that Mount, man of the match against one of the best national teams in the world, is still not seen positively.
This is a conversation for both England and Chelsea “fans” who get picky over how a match is won. Mount does not have to be the better player to play for his teams. Mount just has to be the better option for the moment and often times, he is.
At Chelsea, the argument has been about Callum Hudson-Odoi and playing a “natural winger” in a shape that barely uses wingers at all. Beyond that, Hudson-Odoi has only recently justified his starts but the noise of him versus Mount was present when Hudson-Odoi was still struggling.
That is how this conversation generally goes. It is always Mount is starting over some other player. Last season it was Christian Pulisic who had a rough start to the season followed by injuries throughout. Some would rather see Pulisic start, get injured again, than see Mount play.
That ridiculous criticism has spread into the national team as well. Should Grealish have started over Mount? Given how little Mount saw the ball, what would the benefit of Grealish have been? A more attacking player with less defense (which is all Mount was able to offer for the majority of the match)? What about Sancho? Notice how Tammy Abraham also has not played since his breaking of protocol. Is it so strange to assume that Sancho is still in the dog house?
Mount is not the player Sancho, Grealish, or Pulisic are. He doesn’t have to be. Being the better player does not mean the player is better for the team. Real life is not as clear cut as FIFA 21 ratings make it out to be.
It can’t even be said that it is a Frank Lampard “bias” thing either since Gareth Southgate seems to agree. Mount isn’t the most attacking player or the most creative, but he is rarely outworked in a match. Many “fans” probably don’t remember or weren’t around, but the same was often true of Frank Lampard. He didn’t just appear as some goal scoring machine; he worked harder than everyone else and eventually it made him into something special.
This is where it is worth mentioning that Mount is 21. Not every 21 year old is Kylian Mbappe, nor should they be held to that standard. Mount is in his fourth professional season but only his second in one of the big five leagues. It is okay for him not to be perfect yet so long as he puts in the work otherwise. By all accounts he has and continues to do so.
Mount’s goal against Belgium was surely unplanned but guess what? Who cares. Players have to roll the dice to make something like that happen and Mount did. Maybe Grealish or Sancho could have done better but that isn’t the reality that happened. Mount did it. It is his match winner no matter how much the boo boys want to take it from him.
The same story that plays out for England plays out for Chelsea. But the better player isn’t always the better player. Mount’s earned his chances and as much as “fans” want to take his achievements from him, they can’t. Mount has earned his place for club and country.