As harsh as it sounds, the problem in our defensive midfield pairing is Mason. While he will cover a lot of ground in a match, he doesn't have the positional awareness to cover ground efficiently so he can often be caught out of position, which can cause a lot of problems when coupled with his sometimes speculative passing. So if he's in the wrong place and misplaces a pass, the likely outcome is he either gets booked for a desperate tackle, or our back four is under pressure with less cover.
Of the seemingly first choice pair of Mason and Bentaleb, Mason is the one who I would upgrade on given the choice. He's an asset to the club though, lets not forget how good he was in the Arsenal game for example. He is far from perfect and needs a bit of polishing but I think he will improve with more coaching in his role.
Where we go from here in the transfer market is an interesting question. I think I'll start a thread on it.
