Manchester United are set to get a new midfielder in the shape of Mason Mount as Erik ten Hag continues to build a pretty menacing group of midfielders.

It is a somewhat bloated area of the squad now with Mount, Casemiro, Christian Eriksen, Bruno Fernandes, Scott McTominay and Fred all fighting to start games. The deal for Mount was struck after a drawn out saga and will see Man Utd pay £55m with a potential £5m in add-ons.

Where he fits into a Man Utd team that finished third in the Premier League last season, won the Carabao Cup and reached the FA Cup final is a task for Ten Hag to get stuck into.

Mount will likely be in direct competition with Fernandes and Eriksen, so let’s see who has had the best output in the Premier League out of the three creative midfielders.

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All of Mason Mount’s time in the Premier League has come with Chelsea and he has often been given a lot of freedom to operate in the spaces he sees fit. He is an attacking player by nature and it is only in the last season with Chelsea where doubts have crept in about his ability.

The England international can be forgiven for not producing his best form during the 2022/23 season given there was massive upheaval in the squad throughout the season and three different managers. He has had four full seasons in the Chelsea first team and his most productive was the 2021/22 campaign where he scored 11 goals and got ten assists.

The drop-off during the most recent campaign is very clear but what can be said is his effort levels never dropped. He has been on the books at Chelsea for his entire career and never stopped fighting to re-find his best form.

Total Mason Mount Premier League stats

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The way Bruno Fernandes took to life in the Premier League back in 2020 was simply incredible.

He got hold of a lacklustre Manchester United team and made them energetic again. Not only was he doing incredible things on the ball himself, Fernandes was getting more out of those around him than prior to his arrival.

Now, the Portugal international has much better players around him and has remained an incredibly important part of Man Utd’s plan. It’s very clear looking at the figures he had a huge amount of the goalscoring responsibility at United for a couple of seasons. The fact his output regressed in 2022/23 could be perceived as other people in the team starting to share the load, which is a recipe for future success.

He is useful to compare directly with Mount as they both became Premier League players in the same season, the only difference being Fernandes joined in January of the 2019/20 campaign. So far, Fernandes has had the better output in his Premier League career.

Total Bruno Fernandes Premier League stats

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Playing for three different clubs, Christian Eriksen has spent the most seasons in the Premier League out of these three players. The Danish midfielder is not necessarily renowned for his goalscoring, his major strength being his tidiness in possession and his ability to get his team out of tight spots.

That is shown by his deep role in midfield for Man Utd since he arrived last summer, effectively playing alongside Casemiro. That style should influence how his figures are viewed, but he got some very healthy returns during his early seasons with Tottenham after signing from Ajax.

Total Christian Eriksen Premier League stats

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Based on the recent figures of both Fernandes and Eriksen, neither are as heavily focused in goal output as they have been, which likely stems from more players in the Man Utd team taking up that responsibility. Their job is much more on the creative side.

Fernandes has certainly been the most prolific goalscorer given he is only nine goals short of Eriksen’s tally but has played over 100 games less.

Mount has the least impressive figures of the trio, but they are still good and it’s very clear why Man Utd wanted to sign him.

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On this edition of The Promised Land, part of the 90min podcast network, Scott Saunders and Rob Blanchette discuss Man Utd’s decision to remove a contract offer for David de Gea and replace it with inferior terms. If you can’t see this embed, click here to listen to the podcast!

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