Jorginho is going to be the main man for Italy during the EURO 2020 final and according to Martin Keown, Mason Mount could be the one who stops his Chelsea teammate on Sunday thereby helping England lift the trophy.
Some experts have suggested that Gareth Southgate might surprise everyone by naming Jack Grealish in his starting line-up ahead of Mount but we don’t think the England boss will be ready to take this gamble.
Mason Mount is a much more tactical and industrious player as compared to Grealish and Martin Keown believes the Chelsea midfielder will need to stop Jorginho from dictating the pace of the match.
‘When England are out of possession, they must place a particular focus on Jorginho and make him unsettled,’ Keown told MailSport. ‘Stop him from orchestrating play for Italy.
‘Jorginho is a particularly valuable player. Not only does he protect his centre backs when they are out of possession, in possession he is Italy’s top passer and cannot be allowed to control the tempo of this game.
‘He sets the standard in midfield. If he is doing well, the rest do well. If Italy lose their rhythm, the ball finds its way back to him so that he can reset the tempo.
‘England can get more out of Mount and I’d like to see him up against his Chelsea colleague.
‘He can disrupt Jorginho so that Italy do not benefit from his metronomic ways. Mount winning that battle is key to England winning this final.’
Can Mason Mount nullify Jorginho?
There’s no doubt the England manager will have a special plan for stopping Jorginho on Sunday and it will not be a total surprise if Mason Mount is asked to shadow the midfielder all throughout the match.
Naturally, Mount is a more attack-minded midfielder but Italy will be looking to play on the break and to stop that, Jorginho needs to be hounded down and crowded out each time he gets the ball.
On this day 2 years ago, Mason Mount had never played a game in a Top 5 European league.
Now, he's potentially 6 days away from winning the Champions League and Euro 2020 in a 6-week span.
One of the quickest, most underrated rises to the top of this era ☄️ pic.twitter.com/tKRO70ATWT
— Matchday365 (@Matchday365) July 5, 2021
Mason Mount knows very well how his clubmate plays so he is likely to be the one who will be shouldering the responsibility of stopping Jorginho.
The Chelsea man has been the link between Italy’s defence and attack all throughout this tournament so if Mount can prevent him from pulling the strings then England have enough attacking quality to be able to breach the Azzurri rearguard.
