parklane1
Tony Galvin
I thought I would move the discussion on Mason to his thread to keep ITK for what little ITK there actually is.
I think young players will always make mistakes, but I actually think Mason is quite tactically disciplined. Yes there are better midfielders out there, but there are better players in all of our positions and the criticism that Mason gets over and above say the criticism that Ericksen gets is unwarranted imho.
I think you misconstrue my point about being "one of our own". What I think that this should do is that we give the player some time before writing him off which some people are already doing. He's had one season. We give foreign signings much more time e.g. Lamela and Modric. Hell we even gave Acimovic more time before writing him off!
My comment about "one of our own". was not directed at you more generally as I hear/see it used a lot. Of course young players make mistakes ( I spent decades working with them) but to be honest he is not that young anymore (24) as I said Mason is being asked to do a job he is not really suited too. A CM should have a player who can read the defensive side of a game and neither Bentaleb or Mason are good at that ( I have already said Bentaleb may become better at this) but Mason ( imo) is unlikely to do that.
He may offer us more as a forward looking player but ( imo) the likes of Eriksen, Dembele are better then him at this time.