I wish @Commando had a signature post for this thread too. 
1 Like
I’ll try and think of one. 
These Mason Mount rumours seem to be being frequently repeated. I can’t honestly see him leaving Chelsea, but if he did, he would be a nice addition here. Mount on a free for less wages than Ox and Naby combined, on the face of it seems looks like great business. Would be bad news for Curtis Jones tho.
Yeah I’d have Mount here. He’s also home grown, which will help. He works hard, and can do bits - maybe Klopp could make something special out of him - but if not, he’s certainly be better than Naby, Ox and maybe Jones.
Jones is contracted to 2027, so can’t see him being moved on anytime soon - he’s been pretty unlucky with injuries, so think there’s still more to come from him. I’m not convinced he becomes a top player mind.
So Firmino is leaving but his replacement has hit the ground running already…we are good for forwards…
1 Like
I wonder is there any truth in the story about his agent wanting his current wages trebled which would be 240k per week
Who? Bobby?
Not as down on Mount as some here. He has some quality, and though he’s played a more attacking role at Chelsea, so had Gini when came from Newcastle.
Possibly Klopp can hone Mount’s talent to more of an engine room guy, like Gini, who can chip in with the timely assist or goal. If he’d be on reasonable wages, I’d be down with it.
If Mount was to play in our midfield you’d have to think it would be on the right. He’s not good enough at retaining the ball to play on the left, or good enough defensively.
Hopefully we’ll be signing a better player for that right sided 8 position. If Mount is anything he is probably an alternative to Bellingham, which would be disappointing.
1 Like
This idea that Mount is a midfielder who gets double figures for goals and assists is really misleading. In 2021/22 he was playing almost exclusively as an attacking midfielder/second striker. He was not a midfielder in a 3 like he would presumably be expected to be here.
The criticism of him from Chelsea fans is that if he doesn’t score or assist then he really doesn’t add anything. He disappears from games for extended periods and he isn’t a good passer - often giving away possession really easily.
For me he also lacks the size and build I want us to add in midfield.
The links to the likes of Mount, Matheus Nunes etc - diminutive attacking midfielders that “might” be able to play CM given enough time really feels like an agenda Ward brings to the table given his fascination with Portugal. I hate it honestly. We need size, strength and pace. Not a backup AM from a team below us in the league.
6 Likes
Not sure if he has ever played on the right hand side since he came through at Chelsea. Was always on the left or more central.
So?
How we use our left sided is midfielder is very different to how he has been used at Chelsea.
Mount’s played as the right sided #10 in Chelsea’s 3-4-3 quite a bit. He was often one of the two between the lines who could also drop a bit to help the midfield (and the other one would be a runner like a Werner, Sterling or whoever of the thousands at Chelsea). Look at his average positions in the first half of this season, he could go wide towards the right a lot.
Leicester did that with Maddison in the first half of the season also before moving for Tete (which enables them now to play two proper wingers and Maddison central). It’s like Chelsea and Leicester were trying to put them in Bruyne’s (but when Bruyne is positioned more offensively) zone, with their deliveries. Sometimes it works, the stronger foot doesn’t always need to be “aimed” towards the goal (like righties playing more in left side/channels).
So yeah, like Sweeting says, it’s far from this lazy narrative that can come from the media that Mount would come to Liverpool with bags of experience of providing numbers from midfield. That simply isn’t true, you wonder if those people even watch the PL, which they probably brand as the best league in the world, best brand in the world, blah blah.
Are goals and assists even our priority what we need to get from our next CM signing or two? It’s good to have, you always want 2-3 more goals from different areas, but I wouldn’t say that’s our priority. We’ve gone successful years and seasons without this CM who gets at least 10+10. And it’s not like Jude Bellingham is providing much less than Mason Mount, playing from a deeper zone more often than him.
1 Like
I think the club would look differently at Mount and Nunes. Different players, positions, styles.
Mount would raise much more questions if: a) be able to become a proper CM (even the most offensive one in a midfield 3) or b) we would change our main structure because of him (with a “next” attack in midfield could be Nunez up top also post-Salah).
I think Nunes positionally and stylistically less questions, but maybe only questions about his overall quality and ceiling if he could do it at a really top level. I don’t want to go into wild comparisons just for the sake of it, but Klopp used to say they saw in Jota potential to do much better if he would play in a much more positive side than Wolves were at the time (of course, they’ve changed as well).
Maybe Nunes playing narrow from the left in Wolves’ midfield flat 4 at the moment is a bit like trying to regain balance and improve performances/results, but maybe already knowing in the back of their minds that they might lose him this summer, so are slowly building in CM with other players. Not to say that they’ll be able to keep Neves though.
My slight surprise was that we want both Bellingham and Nunes. I’m not saying they’re the same player, but I would’ve thought that Nunes is perhaps one of the numerous alternatives if we can’t pull off Bellingham.
But it could still change, we could have a situation where we fail to get Bellingham but end up with, I don’t know, Nunes (more for RCM) and Mac Allister (more for LCM). Or other, new names and combinations.
Utter bullshit. Tripling his wage would take that above 300K. Evidently they are just throwing random numbers as clickbaits.
Could he be a contender for the false 9 role?
For Everton maybe.
Bellingham, Kone. Job’s a good un.
If we are priced out of Bellingham, or he chooses somewhere else, Khephren Thuram would be the one I would go for. Bajcetic, Kone, Thuram would be a very good midfield. We would use the best of what the remaining old guard has left in the tank to help bring it through.
If funds allow, then go for Gvardiol. If that is a bridge too far for now, then wait a year as I think he has a release clause in 2024, and he can be our main target then. In the meantime, Evan N’Dicka on a Bosman to replace Matip brings the age of the central defence down, and adds some pace and athleticism.
I don’t really want to see Mason Mount here. Whatever he has got in his locker, I think Harvey Elliott has it too, only Harvey is much younger in his development. Grow Elliott as a player. But spend good money on a couple of athletes, Bellingham and Kone (Caicedo, Thuram) that type. Obviously they have to be able to play too. We are Liverpool, and nobody is saying we don’t need footballers. We do need footballers! We just don’t need them getting overrun each week.
1 Like
Phwoar you’re doubling down here haha! I reckon he’s signing, let’s hope he proves you wrong!
I’m honestly not convinced there’s any truth in the Mount talk, other than it’s coming from his people to help in contract negotiations or to help ignite interest for a move elsewhere.
Having said that, if we are in for him, I would consider how very much a different player the Gini who was at Newcastle (and to an extent the Netherlands) and the one who played for us was.
When the analytics people are looking at players, it isn’t necessarily that they want a player to do exactly the same thing as they were doing, but have seen something in their game which could make them a useful player in the system we want to play.
We probably don’t want him to score 20 goals a season as he’s not that player, but maybe he could be a less injury prone Lallana? I don’t know, but I’m sure the guys with the laptops do.
2 Likes