I don't think his price should have anything to do with it. He didn't set the price you can blame Woodward/Moyes for signing a player who takes a good team up a level when we didn't have that base to start with fine, but don't think it should be used against him. He is what he is, he's not going to suit every team but tbh I can't think of many players who would shine in that team if you did a direct swap. There's so many aspects of it that just don't work and together combine to make an even greater problem.
His job for me is to find the passes to make things happen but to do that he needs players willing to run past him and to link up just like if you're a poacher you're job is to score goals but you need other people to create the chances. If players do make themselves available then he's one of the best in our league at finding them. That's what makes him an expensive player. I agree his game is limited in the same way you could say RVNs game was limited but he did what he did well.
Again I agree he could do more but he's limited by whats around him. Who's he gonna play a give and go with when no one gets ahead of him from midfield? Rooney/RVP were just a poor and they were doing the exact same thing of having the ball played to them and promtly playing it backwards because for one reason for another be it lack of sharpness in RVPs case and who know's what in Rooney's case neither could turn away from their man.
In terms of driving forward yeah he could do that more but in the context of the game there was a lot that made that very hard. Sunderland just weren't stretched at all by us, they didn't have to press us high cause they knew our defence weren't going to cause problems with their passing on the ball and so they could flood the middle and their final third this makes it a lot harder to drive through the middle, you need a good initial pass to set you off which wasn't coming.
I think actually the one give and go you mentioned came from Fletcher actually playing a good pass to RVP to set the move off. The rest of the time Mata had to keep coming so deep for the ball that there wasn't really anywhere to go. Personally as well I think due to the lack of pace/choice of players the formation only serves to put more reliance on the wingbacks putting in a good ball which we know is a massive risk.
I think there is an argument to be had that Mata isn't a leader and that when the chips are down he's probably not the man to turn to but that doesn't mean he can't bring a lot to the team. But the set up has to be right for him but I can't think of many star players who that isn't true for. Should we bring Di Maria in and play a more ambitious line up, particularly if it's based on the best team then I think Mata will be an important part of that.
