Mason Mount and Andrey Santos: A New Midfield Partnership for Manchester United
Mason Mount has wasted no time throwing his weight behind Manchester United’s latest midfield gamble.
In a chilly Norwegian evening that turned into a training exercise for Michael Carrick’s side, United dismantled Rosenborg 5-0, and at the heart of it was a new partnership that looked anything but experimental: Mount and Andrey Santos, side by side in a deeper pivot, dictating everything.
Santos steps into the void
United have paid serious money for the 22-year-old Brazilian. An initial £48m fee, with another £2m in add-ons, is a bold move for a player who never quite nailed down a starting spot at Chelsea. Yet in Trondheim, he played like a man who has no intention of being a squad option.
Thrown straight into the No.6 role with Casemiro gone and Manuel Ugarte injured, Santos anchored midfield with a calm authority, allowing Mount to roam and probe. The balance looked natural, almost rehearsed.
Mount has been watching this version of Santos for a while.
“Andrey is a really good player. He reads the game brilliantly,” Mount said afterwards. “I know he’s young, but he’s very experienced in going out on loan and playing in the Premier League as well... I’ve known Andrey for a while. I’ve watched him from afar, since he’s broken into the first team at Chelsea.”
On this evidence, the admiration is mutual in the way they complement each other’s games. Santos sat, screened, recycled. Mount surged, pressed, stitched moves together. Rosenborg never worked them out.
Mount, reimagined
This is not the Mount of his early Chelsea days, buzzing between the lines as a pure No.10. Carrick has nudged him into a more fluid No.8 role, starting deeper, seeing more of the ball, and influencing both sides of play.
He looks at home there.
“Defensively we’re both players that want to get around it, want to put tackles in and win the ball back and be aggressive,” he said of the partnership with Santos. “I’ve really enjoyed it. It’s a position that I love and that I see myself in.”
Mount snapped into duels, then glided into space. When United built from the back, he dropped alongside Santos to help progress play. When they broke, he was suddenly the extra runner arriving on the edge of the box. The role asks him to do a bit of everything. He seems delighted to oblige.
The pressure on Santos is obvious: big fee, big club, big vacancy in front of the defence. Mount’s evolving brief is different but no less important. He’s becoming one of the reference points in a young, shifting dressing room.
Armband and authority
If the tactical tweak was one storyline, the armband was another. Mount emerged for the second half wearing the captain’s band, and his behaviour changed subtly but clearly. More pointing. More talking. More responsibility.
United’s kids responded. Shea Lacey, one of the brightest of them, opened the scoring with a brilliant solo effort, and Mount was immediately on him – encouragement, instructions, a word in his ear. It looked natural, not forced.
“You have different types of leaders. You have ones that are very vocal. I want to always see myself as one that leads by example and never stops working on the pitch,” Mount explained.
“I’ve been captain previously so I love the role. Especially with a lot of younger players on the pitch, being able to speak to them and make them feel comfortable in the game and even off the pitch as well.
“It’s a role that I really like and I loved having it (the armband) in the second half.”
This is the version of Mount United thought they were signing: not just a runner and creator, but a standard-setter. Injuries have delayed that picture. Pre-season is offering a second chance to draw it properly.
Body right, timing right
The last three years at Old Trafford have been messy for him. Stop-start, niggles, rhythm constantly broken. Twenty-five Premier League starts in that time is not what anyone had in mind when he arrived.
Yet his voice now carries the conviction of someone who feels the worst is behind him.
“I feel brilliant. I feel really, really good. I finished the season well. At the end of last season, playing a few games and being involved,” he said. “Building on that momentum at the end of last season. It’s been a good break, but I was ready and raring to get back and get training again... I know we’ve got a few more games left and a few more weeks to really work at stuff.”
Those “few more weeks” matter. Carrick is reshaping his midfield on the fly: Casemiro gone, Ugarte recovering, Santos bedding in, Mount repositioned. Pre-season friendlies can often feel like little more than fitness drills. This one felt like something else – a first glimpse of a new core.
Santos, the expensive arrival from Stamford Bridge. Mount, the reborn No.8, part creator, part enforcer, part captain.
If this is the axis United build around, the question is no longer whether Mount fits the project. It’s how far this partnership can carry it when the real games start.
