Liverpool will be counting their lucky stars that they failed to sign Mason Mount before he left Chelsea and instead landed Dominik Szboszlai. In 2023, the Reds were searching tirelessly for fresh blood in their midfield.
They’d had a disappointing campaign the previous year and the general consensus was that one of their biggest weaknesses was in the middle of the park.
As a result, James Milner, Jordan Henderson, Fabinho, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita were all shown the door and they brought in the likes of Alexis Mac Allister, Ryan Gravenberch and Wataru Endo to spruce things up. They had also been keen on luring Mount away from Chelsea as far back as 2022, with the Englishman looking for a way out of Stamford Bridge.
They were put off by his excessive wage demands and how much it would cost to land his signature. In the end, Manchester United spent £60m on Mount last summer, while the Reds ultimately turned to Szoboszlai and spent a similar fee on the Hungarian. The key difference, though, is in their salaries.
Mount is currently taking home £250,000-a-week at Old Trafford, while Szoboszlai is earning £120,000 every week at Liverpool. While they missed out on their initial target, the Reds dodged a bullet with how things played out instead.
Mount vs SzoboszlaiThe two had very different campaigns last seasonWhile Liverpool initially wanted Mount at Anfield, it became apparent pretty quickly that they had come out with a much better deal in their purchase of Szoboszlai.
After a couple of lacklustre performances to kick off his time at Old Trafford, Mount’s season was destroyed by injuries and overall, he played just 14 times for the Red Devils over the course of the 2023/24 campaign. He managed to record just two goal contributions throughout the season as well.Szoboszlai, on the other hand, had a fantastic debut season at Anfield last time out.
The Hungarian arrived and hit the ground running. He played a key role as Liverpool bounced back emphatically. Availability is one of the best abilities and, unlike Mount, the midfielder played regularly for the Reds.
He made 45 appearances in total throughout the campaign and finished it with 11 goal contributions. Even looking at the early days of the current season, Szoboszlai has significantly outperformed Mount.
While the former currently has an average WhoScored rating of 6.85 for his two performances in the Premier League, Mount has picked up a rating of just 6.20 throughout his pair of appearances. That’s hardly surprising, though. The Chelsea man is far from the only recent player to move to Old Trafford and struggle.
Liverpool dodged a bullet over £55m star; he’s now stuck in Man Utd ‘graveyard’ [view]Mount is Stuck in United’s ‘Graveyard’Gary Neville describe his move to Old Trafford as such Mount has struggled to really make much of a positive impact at all at Old Trafford, but he’s far from the only recent addition to Erik ten Hag’s squad to suffer that fate.
In fact, as Gary Neville described it, the player has joined a ‘graveyard’ with his move to the 13x Premier League champions and he isn’t the only one.“Harry Maguire was going to go to Manchester City and Mason Mount was going to go to Liverpool, but they come here and it is a graveyard for them.
Harry Maguire was once one of the best centre-backs in the Premier League, but his move to United saw his form take a nosedive and these days, his reputation has taken a massive hit.
Similarly, Antony was sublime at Ajax, but just over two years after his switch to England, he’s a shell of the exciting Brazilian forward that he was in the Netherlands.Mount is just the latest player to suffer that fate.
The Englishman has barely been able to stay healthy and get onto the pitch, but even when he has, his performances have been less than impressive. He’s not justified his massive wages or the fee that the Red Devils paid Chelsea for him yet.
Not even close. Liverpool will be very happy that they happened to miss out on him and bag Szoboszlai instead.All statistics courtesy of Capology and WhoScored and accurate as of 27/08/2024Liverpool Manchester United Mason Mount.
