the times | Wednesday November 10 2021 61
Sport
MICHAEL REGAN/GETTY IMAGEST
en years ago, we would have
been falling over ourselves
with excitement at the idea
of a 20-year-old English
footballer starting games in
the Bundesliga. It is a sign of how
quickly the landscape has changed —
accelerated by the success of Jadon
Sancho’s move to Borussia Dortmund
— that these days, such a scenario
barely causes a ripple.
When Lee Carsley named his
England Under-21 squad for the
European Championship qualifiers
with Czech Republic tomorrow and
Georgia next Tuesday, it included
several players who are at foreign
clubs: the goalkeeper Etienne Green
and forward Angel Gomes play in
Ligue 1 for Saint-Etienne and Lille
respectively, while Manchester City
loanees Taylor Harwood-Bellis and
Tommy Doyle are at Anderlecht and
Hamburg. Another new name in the
squad, perhaps even less familiar than
those, is Clinton Mola, a 20-year-old
defender who has played in Stuttgart’s
past two Bundesliga games.
Mola is another product of the
Chelsea academy, whose recent wave
of talent includes his under-21 team-
mates Marc Guéhi, Tino Livramento
and Conor Gallagher, and also the
likes of Mason Mount, Reece James,
Tariq Lamptey and Armando Broja.
Mola spent five years at Chelsea
before joining Stuttgart last year. His
signing was at the behest of Sven
Mislintat, Stuttgart’s sporting director
and the former Arsenal and Borussia
Dortmund recruitment chief.
Camden-born Mola was primarily
considered a defensive midfielder at
Chelsea but at Stuttgart he has played
more in the back line. In his first
season, he made ten appearances,
mostly as a left back, as they were
promoted to the Bundesliga. A hip
injury meant he did not appear for
Pellegrino Matarazzo’s first team last
season, but in this campaign he has
got his chance. After a cameo against
Hoffenheim, an injury to Stuttgart’s
best defender, Marc-Oliver Kempf,
gave Mola a path into the team.
Drafted in on the left side of
Stuttgart’s back three, Mola played 50
minutes against Augsburg, then
started against Arminia Bielefeld on
Saturday. Although Stuttgart lost
both games, Mola acquitted himself
impressively, according to Philipp
Maisel, a football writer at theStuttgarter Zeitung. “He was quite
nervous, because it was the first time
in the Bundesliga, but it was a solid
performance,” Maisel says. “The team
is not in a very good phase of the
season, so when you put it all
together he did well.”
Maisel believes Mola has developed
since he played in the second tier two
seasons ago as a raw teenager, but he
also has the faith and patience of the
club. “He has improved, and that’s
what the club officials say when we
ask about his progress,” he says. “Sven
is always saying Clinton is doing well.
They trust in his progress for the next
two to three years. All the young
talents get space and time to grow.”
Maisel describes Mola as a modern,
technical defender. “He is a ball-
playing type, very good with both
feet, good passing accuracy. On the
ground he’s a solid defender with a
focus on good, clean passes. He’s not
the type to search for challenges, he
relies more on anticipation to be in a
good position to clear the situation.”
Mola, who is also eligible to
represent the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, has looked a little nervy in
his first Bundesliga appearances, but
that is nothing out of the ordinary for
a player making their way at the
highest level for the first time.
In the short term, his prospects of
more Bundesliga minutes are slim as
Kempf returns from injury. But the
future looks promising for Mola: he is
considered a long-term prospect with
the ability to play multiple positions.
His story embodies two of the key
forces shaping English football’s next
generation: the extraordinary success
of the Chelsea academy and the
expansive embrace of young English
talent by European clubs. Mola looks
to be yet another young talent whose
path will be worth tracking.Mola latest to benefit
from a move abroad
Chelsea academy player
in England U-21 squad
after spending a year in
the Bundesliga, writes
James Gheerbrant
Mola, 20, has played in Stuttgart’s past
two Bundesliga games in defenceit was impossible not to think of
Trent Alexander-Arnold and Kyle
Walker, two of his competitors for
the right-back slot with England.
Alexander-Arnold finished on the
losing side for Liverpool away to
West Ham United on Sunday, but he
curled a free kick into the top
corner, helped set up a goal for
Divock Origi and, more often than
not, was instructed to take up
positions in central midfield.
The previous day, Walker had
been crucial to Manchester City’s
death-by-football approach in their
crushing derby victory over
Manchester United.
Like Tuchel, Jürgen Klopp and Pep
Guardiola see their defenders as
extra attackers, players whose
responsibility it is to create overloads
in the final third and a welter of
chances. All of which serves as a neat
contrast with Gareth Southgate’s
comments last week when he
revealed his England squad for the
World Cup qualifiers with Albania
and San Marino.
In leaving Kieran Trippier out,
albeit with the expectation that theAtletico Madrid right back will
return to the fold in the future, the
England manager said that he
wanted to give opportunities to
James, 21, and Alexander-Arnold,- He then proceeded to spell out
what qualities a full back in his set-
up required. “They have to defend
well first and foremost,” Southgate
said. “We’ve conceded five goals in
18 matches, so, defensively, we’ve
not been doing a lot wrong.
“In my opinion, that is the first
job of the defender. If then
we’ve got good quality
with the ball and we can
create chances, that’s an
added bonus.”
The cut-off of 18 matches
was interesting, falling before a 2-0
Nations League defeat by Belgium a
year ago. It is worth remembering
that England’s poor form in games
against Roberto Martínez’s side and
Denmark is the reason why they
are in a six-strong World Cup
qualifying group. The Nations
League finalists — France, Spain,
Italy and Belgium — are all in
groups of five and so avoid having
to face an additional minnow.
Of more importance, however, was
Southgate’s assertion that creativity
from the full backs is an added extra
and not a prerequisite. It appears to
be functionality or flair, rather than
both. That shines a light on how
quickly England may, or may not,
evolve from the team that lost the
European Championship final to
Italy on penalties having first been
unable to maintain their momentum
in the showpiece.
James agreed with Southgate’s
assessment on the importance of
being able to defend, but it was
clear that focusing solely on that
would be inhibiting for him.
“I think that is right at the end of
the day, you are a defender not a
striker,” James said. “But if you can
add attacking play into your game
then I definitely think it helps and
benefits the team as well.”
If James and Alexander-Arnold
are competing to impress, then
there is little in the stats to split
them. Outwardly, the impression
might be that the Chelsea player is
better defensively but that is not
borne out by the figures.
James has been dribbled past on
fewer occasions than his rival, but
they make roughly the same
number of tackles per 90 minutes.
The Liverpool man makes more
interceptions and wins possession
more often.
Here, there is sympathy for
Southgate. In an attempt to get both
into the same team, Alexander-
Arnold played in midfield in the
first half of September’s 5-0 win
over Andorra and James at right
back. However, the experiment did
not work. After the break,
Alexander-Arnold reverted to full
back with James in midfield.
Overall, Walker has remained
Southgate’s go-to pick. The fact that
it is City-Chelsea-Liverpool jostling
for one position, just as in the title
race, could further inflame rivalries.
James, though, painted a different
picture of life at St George’s Park.
“Kyle Walker has put his arm
around me a few times,” he said.
“When you come away, you have to
put club rivalry aside. We are one
team and our aim is to win.”
The plethora of right backs
available to England remains an
oddity. Southgate name-checked
Brighton’s Tariq Lamptey and
Southampton’s Tino Livramento as
two more players he is following.
It seems the headaches are
only going to intensify, with
scrutiny falling not only on who
England select, but how they ask
them to play.
England's right backs comparedPremier League stats, 2021-2022
Trent Alexander-Arnold(Liverpool)
Kyle Walker(Ma nche ste r City)
Reece James(Chelsea)
Goals
1
0
4
Assists
4
0
3
Chances Created
30
3
15
Tackles per 90
1.4
0.6
1.6
Interceptions per 90
2
0.6
0.4Mason Mount looks certain to miss
England’s World Cup qualifier against
Albania after undergoing an operation
to remove his wisdom teeth.
The Chelsea midfielder has still not
joined up with the rest of Gareth South-
gate’s squad after undergoing the pro-
cedure to extract four teeth on Sunday,
leaving the England manager to weigh
up his options for Friday’s game.
England have said they will continue
to monitor Mount, 22, but he will not be
fit enough to feature at Wembley. Kal-
vin Phillips is likely to come back intoMount out after tooth surgery
Paul Joyce the starting XI alongside Declan Rice,
after recovering from a knee injury.
Southgate can choose between Phil
Foden, Jordan Henderson and Jude
Bellingham for the third midfield slot,
with James Ward-Prowse having
withdrawn due to illness.
England used Foden, 21, in midfield
against Andorra and Hungary last
month, although a 1-1 draw against the
latter left Southgate bemoaning his
side’s susceptibility on the counterat-
tack. Henderson, 31, the England vice-
captain, has played only 108 minutes in
his country’s past five matches — 90 of
those in the home win over Andorra.