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2015-16 Performances

View full 2015-16 profile

5.7 Season Average Rating
Appearances
54
Goals
11
Assists
11
Yellow cards
7
Red cards
1
Status
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He was very good today, easily our best attacking player.
 
Genuinely have to wonder what people watch when they say Mata is man of the match?

Yet again he failed to move the ball quick enough, moved way too far apart from Both Darmien & Rooney... Leaving hardly any space for either to operate. For someone of his apparent quality you want a LOT more than his current performances.

Agree with Ogden, whilst I like him he's a luxury player that isn't someone who does well when a teams needs something extra.
 
Starkie_1 said:
Genuinely have to wonder what people watch when they say Mata is man of the match?

Yet again he failed to move the ball quick enough, moved way too far apart from Both Darmien & Rooney... Leaving hardly any space for either to operate. For someone of his apparent quality you want a LOT more than his current performances.

Agree with Ogden, whilst I like him he's a luxury player that isn't someone who does well when a teams needs something extra.
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That doesn't make sense - Mata's movement inside gave Darmian a shit load of room on several occasions today... moving away from your full back will generally give them loads more space to operate in.

He was also the only person moving with the ball with any real purpose in the second half - he was actually trying incisive passing, going for worthwhile 1-2's, and was doing a good job of creating space with clever movement.
 
Thought he did well from what I saw today. Mata is not the problem imho.

RE: Ogden and his silly quote - why is it that everyone must be sacrificed for Rooney? It's always what he needs. I know he's British but this is just crazy the way these so called journalists are so biased. If he was doing something worthwhile then yes we would set up to make things happen for him. But he's not doing that, so why should the rest of the team be sacrificed just to give him what he wants? Pisses me off.
 
Starkie_1 said:
Genuinely have to wonder what people watch when they say Mata is man of the match?

Yet again he failed to move the ball quick enough, moved way too far apart from Both Darmien & Rooney... Leaving hardly any space for either to operate. For someone of his apparent quality you want a LOT more than his current performances.

Agree with Ogden, whilst I like him he's a luxury player that isn't someone who does well when a teams needs something extra.
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He leave Darmian exposed defensively too often too. Cracking player but a luxury one nonetheless.
 
Insanity said:
Ran the show? Well, it was a flop show. Needs to do orchestrate better shows.
.
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Have to agree. Baffled at the widespread praise. All of Depay, Januzaj and Rooney looked more dangerous and all of them are are getting hell of a lot more stick on their threads. I can only assume it's his style of of play which is easy on the eye that masks how ineffective he can be.
 
Akash said:
Have to agree. Baffled at the widespread praise. All of Depay, Januzaj and Rooney looked more dangerous and all of them are are getting hell of a lot more stick on their threads. I can only assume it's his style of of play which is easy on the eye that masks how ineffective he can be.
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You assume wrong. It's so typical to downplay a player like Mata by saying it's his style being easy on the eye that makes posters rate a performance.
 
Was good today but I feel he has much more to offer, which is limiting his game by (mainly) staying that wide. He drifted in a few times to the middle, causing them problems.

If we moved him into the middle, with a Reus/Griezzman type pacey goalscorer to the wing, I believe we'd get the best out of him.
 
Ish84045 said:
Was good today but I feel he has much more to offer, which is limiting his game by (mainly) staying that wide. He drifted in a few times to the middle, causing them problems.

If we moved him into the middle, with a Reus/Griezzman type pacey goalscorer to the wing, I believe we'd get the best out of him.
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He doesn't really stay out wide at all, he has a lot of freedom to move. Was on the left at times in the game. I do agree with the premise of your post though. If we are going with 2 solid CMs, Mata should be the #10 with Memphis and a top attacker on the right. We don't have unfortunately but januzaj can work there.
 
I'm surprised to see people thought he was one of our best players against Newcastle, I think he's probably been the main reason we've been so poor offensively this season actually (and I love Mata as a player). He's incredibly slow, and I'm not talking about pace, I'm talking about ball retention and passing it. People complain about our slow tempo, but he's the main reason why. He doesn't misplace many passes, definitely, but I feel he's killing any kind of pace that could go into our attacks. It's no tragedy, either this is what VG wants and fair enough, and if it isn't, I'm sure Juan can be instructed to play with a bit more directness and speed.
 
It's becoming annoying how woeful he is on his weaker side
 
I thought he was pretty ordinary today, I don't think him and darmian are a great partnership, although he is brilliant defensively darmian is not as good going forward. It works defensively because mata isn't much help and leaves him exposed but mata has to have players running past him otherwise he isn't very effective and even when he does play darmian into good areas it doesn't lead to anything.

He doesn't offer enough out wide we either need to give him a chance in the centre or bench him for young. We now have good enough holding players to have the luxury of playing him as the number ten so I have no idea why he isn't being given the opportunity.
 
Varun said:
He doesn't really stay out wide at all, he has a lot of freedom to move. Was on the left at times in the game. I do agree with the premise of your post though. If we are going with 2 solid CMs, Mata should be the #10 with Memphis and a top attacker on the right. We don't have unfortunately but januzaj can work there.
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Sorry man, let me qualify that - I agree with you, I meant, being out wide whenever he receives the ball hinders our attack a bit because he doesn't have the pace to cause defences trouble in behind. So 99% of the time he'll check back and stop a bit of momentum. It's not a criticism of mata. I just think if we add an additional threat on the right, we'd open much more spaces for our other players.
 
Ish84045 said:
Sorry man, let me qualify that - I agree with you, I meant, being out wide whenever he receives the ball hinders our attack a bit because he doesn't have the pace to cause defences trouble in behind. So 99% of the time he'll check back and stop a bit of momentum. It's not a criticism of mata. I just think if we add an additional threat on the right, we'd open much more spaces for our other players.
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Yup. That's why I wanted pedro even though I don't rate him as the Caf seemed to do.
 
Ixion said:
So we should build a team around Rooney? He isn't good enough anymore to warrant that.
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Yeah, I'm a bit tired of all Rooney's problems constantly being deferred to other players, or those around him.
 
Ish84045 said:
Sorry man, let me qualify that - I agree with you, I meant, being out wide whenever he receives the ball hinders our attack a bit because he doesn't have the pace to cause defences trouble in behind. So 99% of the time he'll check back and stop a bit of momentum. It's not a criticism of mata. I just think if we add an additional threat on the right, we'd open much more spaces for our other players.
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Varun said:
Yup. That's why I wanted pedro even though I don't rate him as the Caf seemed to do.
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Agree with both. Adding a right winger with pace would give Mata an even better platform with pacey options left (Depay) and right (NEWGUY), and the whole team would have a far better balance for it. Then you'd have Januzaj as second choice number 10 or sometime right winger, and Herrera who can in the midfield two or as the most advanced of the three should we play that way.

Plus he's actually one of the best finishers at the club, so in addition to bringing him in field and someone with pace out wide, he'd find himself in goalscoring positions more often.
 
Anyone who is criticising him today is basically talking out of their arse and should rewatch the match or stop having an predetermined thought on him just because he is on the right. His role isn't to stay wide, but to come inside and add creativity and yes done that superbly this season and especially today. Took complete control of the game and anything positive we did came through him or Memphis. We just couldn't score and it didn't help that schneiderlin behind him offered nothing on the ball and our fullbacks had no final ball. He was class though, without a doubt.
 
bosnian_red said:
Anyone who is criticising him today is basically talking out of their arse and should rewatch the match or stop having an predetermined thought on him just because he is on the right. His role isn't to stay wide, but to come inside and add creativity and yes done that superbly this season and especially today. Took complete control of the game and anything positive we did came through him or Memphis. We just couldn't score and it didn't help that schneiderlin behind him offered nothing on the ball and our fullbacks had no final ball. He was class though, without a doubt.
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Aye, complaining that he comes inside a lot is a bit stupid given that's presumably exactly what a false winger is supposed to do. If LVG wanted the RW to stay out wide then he wouldn't be playing Mata there in the first place.

He played well today and was our best attacking player. In fact he has pretty much been our best attacking player since he arrived at the club, though you wouldn't think it from some of the criticism he gets.
 
sullydnl said:
Aye, complaining that he comes inside a lot is a bit stupid given that's presumably exactly what a false winger is supposed to do. If LVG wanted the RW to stay out wide then he wouldn't be playing Mata there in the first place.

He played well today and was our best attacking player. In fact he has pretty much been our best attacking player since he arrived at the club, though you wouldn't think it from some of the criticism he gets.
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Yep. Complain about the tactics all you want, but Mata has been performing his role perfectly this season, has created chances constantly, has kept the ball really well, played some lovely passes and ran games for us. His role isn't to stay on the wing and go past players. So people criticising him for not doing that is basically just lacking any type of knowledge of how we ever play.
 
I wasn't that impressed with Mata today. I thought he was overpowering his through balls and passes. I think he's wasted on the wing, would rather he played the AM role behind Rooney or another striker.
 
Akash said:
Have to agree. Baffled at the widespread praise. All of Depay, Januzaj and Rooney looked more dangerous and all of them are are getting hell of a lot more stick on their threads. I can only assume it's his style of of play which is easy on the eye that masks how ineffective he can be.
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Sorry but that's bullshit, sure he misplaced a few passes and missed the volley but when he moved to the centre he was our best attacking player in the last quarter of the game. We are limiting him by playing him on the right because it's quite clear that we do not have a top attacking right back who can play the dual role that playing a false winger demands, if we had a Dani Alves or Cafu on that wing we would be ripping teams to shreds. Now that we have a double pivot that is capable of controlling games and blocking counters there is absolutely no reason we shouldn't be playing Mata in the hole. Playing him on the right, with Rooney in such woeful form is putting a lot of pressure on Memphis cause if we had a top class attacker on the right opponents wouldn't be able to double up on our left winger.
 
One of our best players and the least of our problems... with the exception that we need someone playing to his right if he is going to drift as much as he did today.
 
My feeling is that in this system he is deeper than I would like and there is not enough balance on the right. But Mata himself is excellent. Herrera in the team would probably fix it anyway.
 
He is simply not a winger and not really a threat when he cuts inside since he rarely shoots. We need a more direct player from the right/middle , someone who will actually take on a player and shoot rather than always look for a pass.

It will sound stupid, but what we need is Reus or somone with similar playstyle and qualities.
 
Obsession with Mata on the wing or the problem with that is strange. First of all he played there last season and looked good.
Second, despite the fact he starts as a RW he runs all around the pitch and isn't glued to that right wing. Last year he was more just on one side, this year he's roaming everywhere.
 
itso 7 said:
Sorry but that's bullshit, sure he misplaced a few passes and missed the volley but when he moved to the centre he was our best attacking player in the last quarter of the game. We are limiting him by playing him on the right because it's quite clear that we do not have a top attacking right back who can play the dual role that playing a false winger demands, if we had a Dani Alves or Cafu on that wing we would be ripping teams to shreds. Now that we have a double pivot that is capable of controlling games and blocking counters there is absolutely no reason we shouldn't be playing Mata in the hole. Playing him on the right, with Rooney in such woeful form is putting a lot of pressure on Memphis cause if we had a top class attacker on the right opponents wouldn't be able to double up on our left winger.
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And what exactly did we create in the last quarter of the game? Our best chances in the 2nd half were Hernandez getting lucky with a deflected effort, a corner and the chance Rooney set up for Mata. He moves central and creates barely and he's supposed to be the Mom and best attacking player? Give over. I didn't say he was bad nor did I ever mention his passing. He had a 90% pass success ratio so clearly passing wasn't an issue. I said he was ineffective and he was throughout.

The bit in bold is hilarious. First, it was that he needs Herrera next to him to play well. Then, he needed an 2 DM's behind and play centrally to be able to perform well even though his best form for United has come out wide and he's spent almost all of his career out wide. And now he needs Daniel Alves or Cafu to be able to rip teams to shreds. If we had Dani Alves we wouldn't need Mata. What next? Does he need Messi and Ronaldo up top to play through balls?
 
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