Former England manager Glenn Hoddle prefers Tottenham’s James Maddison over Mason Mount, with the Manchester United midfielder facing a race against time to make a proper statement before his first season as a Red comes to an end.
Mount, after months on the sidelines, is finally back in training but he has not yet been able to really make an impression with his new fans. Many joke across social media about not knowing who this Champions League-winning midfielder is we’ve signed from Chelsea in a £55 million move.
The jokes will be on them should Mount turn things around at Old Trafford, and we should have every faith in him as a player achieving that. It has been a difficult introduction for Mount to a depleted side – by injuries – with many players struggling to find form.
That is why our results have been so poor this season. The best we can hope for now is that the return of Mount helps lift the pressure off the manager, even if it comes to team selections or needing to bring an extra midfielder into the game from the substitutes bench.
However, there is a possibility that the lack of football this season could cost Mount if it means he losses his place in Gareth Southgate’s England squad with the likes of Maddison and Phil Foden performing at a higher level this term.
“I said about Maddison three years ago,” Hoddle tells the Football’s Greatest podcast. “I wish he’d have gone to Tottenham then and played with Harry Kane, to be honest.
“But for me, I’d have had him in there (the England squad) a lot earlier. Ahead of Mount. He’s a better player than a lot of the players who have been given more chances.”
Hoddle still has reservations about whether Southgate will put his faith in Maddison in a make-or-break clash, with the Tottenham playmaking lacking Mount’s defensive resilience and off-the-ball tenacity.
“(Maddison) is a real (number) 10 that can open teams up,” Hoddle adds. “He’s got the ability to score goals, he’s got the ability to create goals. He understands the game, he’s going into his peak, so defensively he knows what the team needs from him.
“At the moment, I think he’s ripe and he’s got that little bit of difference. That ability to change a game. What he hasn’t got in an England shirt yet, I don’t think he’s got quite the approval (from Southgate).”
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