He lost his man when Watford scored on Tuesday. The cross reached Fletcher at the far post and he was struggling to keep up.

The right place at the right time

That's it in a nutshell.

Like the majority of young players, he's hit a dip in form. Whether or not it's partly down to the different playing style, I'm not sure yet.

Old, Ungifted and White

I like him and want him to be given the time to progress.

The issue we have is both full back positions are vulnerable.

Ward/Clyne I'm ok with as cover but neither should really be a full starter. Plus they're unlikely to improve through the season

Mitchell clearly has room for progression and hopefully will given time.

Unfortunately when paired together it does leave us exposed and you could probably point to them both being responsible for the late Watford goal (in addition to Schlupp for his woeful wayward pass).

Do you mean in a lower league or at an earlier age? IMO Mitchell is sound as a defender but has quite a lot to learn about playing out from the back. He is young enough to learn and progress.

I would agree that Fletcher went past Mitchell to score but it was Schlupps pass to a Watford player that setup the cross, Mitchell and Wilf were moving upfield to support the attack. After the pass Schlupp was nowhere to be seen when the cross came in unlike Andersen, Geuhi and Kouyate who were all marking each other around the penalty spot. Singling out Mitchell for the goal is a trifle unfair, he made many good interventions in the Brentford game but that doesn't fit the "Mitchell isn't good enough" mantra doing the rounds.

Not only did Schlupp, set the situation up, but Ward, really should have got closer and prevented their player from getting to comfortable on his right foot and easily pick a perfect ball to the back post.
Blaming Mitchell, for taking a bit part in that goal is not justified, on the basis that he didn’t get his more experienced team mates out of the s—t. He is learning all the time, in this case the biggest part of the lesson is never trust the ability of team mates as a given.