Chelsea midfielder Mason Mount has spoken honestly about his performance for England against Italy in the UEFA Nations League.
The 23-year-old was named in Gareth Southgate’s starting XI and feels like he should have scored in the 0-0 draw, which saw the Three Lions go over four hours without scoring a goal, a concern ahead of the World Cup in Qatar later this year.
Reflecting on his individual performance after the match, Mount was critical at the standard of his own performance, including his chance to get on the scoresheet for his country.
He said: "It is frustrating. Obviously we want to win, we want to create chances, we want to score goals.
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"I probably should have done better with my chance, we had a few other chances so it’s something that we need to look at. We have created chances but we should have done better with them, we’re keeping clean sheets so that’s a positive but we need to keep working at it."
The Chelsea star went into the game off the back of another impressive season in Thomas Tuchel’s side, being named as Player of the Year by the Blues fans. Over the course of the season, Mount appeared in 53 matches in all competitions, scoring 13 times and registering 16 assists.
The midfielder played a variety of positions, from out wide to in behind two strikers at Stamford Bridge.
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He has switched his attention from club football to national team duties, and he drew on his role for England in Gareth Southgate's side.
"I was in a number 10 role so it gave me more freedom to roam, find spaces, try to link the midfield to the attacking boys. I found myself in some space to shoot a couple times but I didn’t do well enough with my shots. It was too easy for the keeper,” added Mount.
“I need to look for the corners. It’s a difficult one to take because I feel we could come away with more from the game and we’re frustrated with the performance."
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England face Hungary on Tuesday at Molineux before the midfielder will head on a deserved break for a couple of weeks, before returning to Cobham for pre-season at the start of July to begin preparations for the 2022/23 campaign.
He is keen to keep focused until then, admitting that he is looking at where he and his England team can improve ahead of the World Cup in a bid to go one step better than their Euro 2020 final defeat to Italy on penalties last year.
Mount concluded: "Sometimes you go through those little periods where it is difficult. The only thing we can do is keep working hard in training, keep staying focused, look at the chances, look where we can improve. We’ve got the players to do that, we have the talent and quality so it’s just keeping working at it."
Topics: Chelsea, England, Gareth Southgate, Mason Mount, Football
Nick Emms