Statistical comparison of Mason Mount and Jack Grealish

With Chelsea reaping the rewards of Frank Lampard’s youth policy, Mason Mount has been widely acclaimed as one of the best rising homegrown talents in the Premier League this season.

The 20-year-old, who excelled on loan at Derby County in the Championship under the guidance of Lampard last campaign, is currently enjoying an awe-inspiring breakthrough season at Stamford Bridge along with fellow academy graduates Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori. 

The  Portsmouth-born prodigy, who has started each of Chelsea’s first ten games in the Premier League, has been instrumental in the Blues’ early-season success, with the influential creative midfielder already scoring four and assisting once. 

Such has been Mount’s impact in his debut season in the top-flight that England boss Gareth Southgate has already honoured him with 4 senior international caps for the Three Lions. 

Surely, there is much more to come for the Chelsea academy prospect if he continues his rich vein of form in the coming months, and with Euro 2020 just around the corner, Mount might well go on to establish himself ahead of other players in the pecking order. 

Meanwhile, another homegrown star by the name of Jack Grealish has also enjoyed a solid start to the campaign. The 24-year-old, who has started each of Aston Villa’s first 10 league games, has racked up 2 goals and 3 assists so far and has been at the centre of all good things that the Midlands giants have enjoyed on their return to the top-flight.

Unlike Mount, the Aston Villa star came into the season with previous Premier League experience in his CV, having played for the Lions in the top-flight earlier in his career.

However, given that he was very young back then, it was going to be intriguing to see how the 24-year-old rises to the challenge of having to make the transition to the highest level after playing in the Championship for a number of seasons. 

And if his performances in the first quarter of the campaign are anything to go by, Grealish has passed the test with flying colours. He hasn’t enjoyed international recognition like Mount just yet but that shouldn’t be too far away if he continues to deliver the goods in the Premier League week in, week out.

As per whoscored, Mason Mount averages 1.9 key passes, 2.4 shots and 1.2 dribbles per game in the Premier League this term as compared to Jack Grealish, who averages 2.5 key passes, 1.8 shots and 1.9 dribbles. 

Grealish averages 42.3 passes per game at an accuracy rate of 85.3%, including 2.4 long balls and 4.1 fouls drawn, numbers which are an upgrade on Mount, who averages 33.2 passes at an accuracy rate of 82.2%, including 1 long ball and 0.5 fouls drawn per game.

Mount’s fewer number of passes compared to Grealish has a lot to do with Chelsea’s quick passing game and fast transitions in play but the Aston Villa star clearly edges ahead of the 20-year-old in terms of creativity and ball retention.

However, the fact that Grealish is Villa’s key creative outlet and shoulders a lot more attacking workload for the team contributes to the more number of fouls drawn by him. 

Furthermore, Grealish has attempted only 18 shots so far, only 6 of which have been on target as compared to Mount, who has managed to keep 10 out of his 24 attempts on goal.

Notwithstanding the fact that Chelsea and Aston Villa are poles apart in the standings and the latter have hardly played with the same kind of authority in the final third, Mount has been more clinical than Grealish when it comes to finding the net and it is not surprising that he has 4 goals to his name.

In terms of defensive contribution, which is certainly a parameter worth considering when comparing the performances of attacking midfielders in modern-day football, there is not a lot to choose between the two players, with Grealish averaging 1.4 tackles and 0.7 interceptions and Mount very close with 1.4 tackles and 0.5 interceptions. 

Grealish, though, edges ahead of Mount when it comes to the dribble success rate of the two players. The Aston Villa man has come out on top 19 times out of 26 attempts, racking up an impressive percentage of 73.07, while Mount has only managed 12 successful dribbles out of 21 (57.14).

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Hence, both the young creative midfielders have done exceedingly well in all aspects of the game so far and it will be interesting to see how the numbers shape up come the end of the season.