Chelsea star Mason Mount “didn’t seem recognisable” on his full England debut, claims former QPR midfielder Shaun Derry.
Mount started for England in the 2-1 Euro 2020 qualifier defeat to Czech Republic in Prague on Friday.
The attacking midfielder has been in fine form for Chelsea this season, starting all eight Premier League matches, scoring four goals.
However, Derry was not impressed with Mount’s showing against Czech Republic and has criticised England manager Gareth Southgate for the position he played the 20-year-old and whether it was right to start him in the first place.
But it was not just Mount who disappointed Derry on the night.
“We got our lines completely wrong, from the defensive lines into the midfielders,” he told talkSPORT.
“It’s just where people, especially the midfielders, sit in front of the back four, where they reset, I never felt we got that right last night.
“I felt we were very flat as a midfield pairing.
“I didn’t really feel that we quite saw what the Mason Mount player is for England.
“He didn’t seem recognisable to what we’ve been witnessing for Chelsea this year.
“I don’t know if [Southgate] put him in the wrong position or it was the wrong game to play him, but I just think we got our balance completely wrong last night.
“I just thought our first pass was flat, I thought we played too square when the midfielders got the ball.
“We never really kind of broke the lines, we didn’t really combine particularly well, we didn’t take control of the midfield.
“We never really had eight, nine, 10 passes where you’re patient and then you can go and burst through the lines with the wide players that we had.
“Everything was really flat and kind of lethargic. It was just one of them performances that sometimes you get, you get them sometimes, you can’t just continually go on the rise all the time.”
