Derby County journalist Ryan Conway has been sharing his thoughts on Rams defender Teden Mengi, his performance during the club’s recent 3-1 defeat against Reading and his overall role in Wayne Rooney’s squad.
This comes after Conway recently uploaded a video onto his YouTube channel where he spoke about a range of subjects concerning the Midlands club, including their defeat against Reading.
On the subject of Mengi, who played throughout the entire game at The Madejski Stadium, Conway had this to say about the player and his performance against Reading.
He said: “Mengi was not great – which is a shame.
“I think he’s more comfortable in a back three, he was playing left-sided centre-back today which I think he prefers being on the right side of that, but he struggled at times, got twisted inside-out a little bit, but I think the notion that Mengi is no better than what Derby have in the academy is so far off the mark.
“Yeah, he struggled [against Reading], was culpable for the goal against Millwall where he loses his man and I’ve discussed that in the Millwall video where yes, it’s a bad mistake, actually across the 90 minutes he was the best defender by a mile, ditto the Barnsley game he was the best defender by a mile as well.
“He’s a young man, he’s going to make some mistakes but to say he’s no better than what’s in the academy for me is way off the mark because I think he’s a very, very good young defender, but yes, he’s made some mistakes, he didn’t have a great game – but he wasn’t the only one that didn’t have a great game.”
Derby signed Mengi from Manchester United’s U23 squad back on a loan deal until the end of the season back in the January transfer window.
Since his arrival at Pride Park, the 18-year-old, who is currently valued at £1.35 million, has made eight appearances for Derby in the Championship (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Ryan Conway’s comments on Mengi…
Given how Mengi managed to earn himself a disappointing match rating of 5.86/10 for his performance against Reading, making the lowest-rated outfield player that completed the full 90 minutes for Derby, it’s understandable why Conway wasn’t too impressed with his efforts on the pitch in this game.
Have you been satisfied with Mengi so far this season?
Yes
No
However, taking into account his young age and the fact that he is still probably getting used to the pace of the Championship, it’s easier to put this performance down to just being a bad day for the teenager.
Moving forward, hopefully, Mengi can use this performance as a learning curve and focus on improving his game for the remainder of the season and his spell with Rooney’s side.
In other news: ‘He does need to start’ – Rooney urged to unleash £900k-rated man at Derby