It may not have been the Santiago Bernabeu, but Mason Mount proved he is comfortable on any stage during Chelsea’s meeting with Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final on Tuesday night.
The first leg at the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano was the 22-year-old’s 100th Chelsea appearance – that despite the fact he is only now close to completing his second full campaign.
To have reached his century so quickly underlines his importance at Chelsea. The academy graduate supposedly made the team initially as Frank Lampard’s pet project, but that reputation is diminishing with every game under Thomas Tuchel.
Lampard saw something in Mount, so too Gareth Southgate with England, and Tuchel evidently thinks the same.
The German’s opening match in charge of Chelsea, where Mount was named on the bench against Wolves – prompting the all-too-quick “What about his future now Lampard has gone?” questions – suddenly feels like a long, long time ago.
In Madrid, Mount was not daunted by the opposition, nor the weight of the task. From the get-go he looked bright, with a lung-busting run leading to a chance which Timo Werner really should have put away.
Come the end of the match, Mount finished with the best pass completion rate of any starting player – 96%. That’s better than Toni Kroos (92.4%) and Luka Modric (86.9%), and higher than Jorginho (90.1%) too.
Pass completion is not the defining statistic of any match, but Mount more than played his part in a valuable away draw which makes Chelsea favourites to reach the final.
And so long as he stays fit, he has even grander occasions on the horizon. Chelsea could yet book a date in Istanbul next month, while a second straight FA Cup final is already in the diary.
He qualifies for the PFA Young Player of the Year award – handed to a player aged 23 or under at the start of the season – and though Manchester City’s Phil Foden will likely collect that accolade, Mount is likely to sweep up when Chelsea’s own awards are handed out.
And then, on the international stage, Mount already has 16 caps for England. He has started the last eight matches under Southgate, and is set for a starring role at the European Championships this summer.
To suggest he could eventually reach 100 appearances for England may seem far-fetched given he is not even one-sixth of the way there, but he is heading in the right direction. The nature of modern-day internationals – their seeming relentlessness – means Raheem Sterling already has 61 caps at 26 and Harry Kane 53 aged 27. If you’re in the manager’s thinking, and more importantly the starting XI, then those caps can quickly increase.
England have booked two warm-ups before the Euros, while after the competition there are World Cup qualifiers in the autumn as well as potential friendlies if more triple-headers are desired.
It means Mount could easily end 2021 with closer to 30 England appearances, and while Southgate has a wealth of wide attacking options, the Chelsea midfielder really is the standout candidate in his position – particularly since Dele Alli fell out of favour at Tottenham.
James Maddison appears the most likely to challenge Mount going forward, but the latter really has set the bar high.
And if any player were able to match him in the coming years then it is only going to be to England’s benefit.
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3tYUPTH
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