Juan Mata image 8

Juan Mata Spain flag

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
Not open for further replies.
Annihilate Now! said:
Not that I'm aware, and even if we have, it still doesn't make sense. If defenders know what Mata's going to do, why don't they stop the passes he makes to create chances/goals? Or track his runs? And how does he constantly find space in the box if he's so predictable?

Also, as per the bold... what a weird, weird criticism. You basically want him to score the goal by doing all the work himself? Or not score goals but make chances for other people, who might not be as good as finishing as him so might not score?
Click to expand...

"Yeah he scores and assists more consistently than virtually any other player since he's joined..but he doesn't do it in the way I find most aesthetically pleasing. What we really need is a player who'll create the same amount of goals or less for other people in a way I prefer."

Repeat for 20 pages
 
Last edited:
sullydnl said:
Obviously I'm delighted that Darmian has settled in well and he was certainly a bargain compared to all the other RBs we were linked with but even still I can't help but wonder how much better we'd look with a serious attacking threat from RB.
Click to expand...

Darmian is perfectly capable of being a serious attacking threat. You saw how he can turn it on at will when he waltzed straight past two defenders to cross against Sunderland with appearing to break a sweat. He's very two-footed, unusually for a fullback, and it makes the attacking that much easier. For Italy, it's really his attacking football that has won him the plaudits.

In our initial run of games, it looked pretty undeniable to me that both he and Shaw had been instructed to play conservatively. They noticeably chose not to go forward a number of times, both with the ball or looking for it. Shaw's game got more attacking more recently, perhaps as a result of it becoming clear that this season he's an unstoppable beast, and Van Gaal responding to that. But anyone who watched Darmian much before he came to us will be able to see that he's consciously focussing on his defending.

Which isn't a strategy you can really criticise - if he gets caught forward on the right, he's got one of the most defensively negligible 'wingers' in the league as his insurance. Basically, the opposition would be left with an unguarded flank to attack. Compare with, say, Shaw-Young on the left; Shaw could be reasonably confident that if he lost the ball in an advanced position, Young would bust a gut to get back and cover, and have the defensive ability to fill the gap.

This is why I'm always split on Mata. Even after good performances like against Sunderland, you can't deny that however good he is at the things he's good at, he will always be really bad at the things he's bad at, and other players have to take the slack. If you play someone else there, Darmian probably has a lot more licence to attack, and he's capable of being a team's most effective outlet (he often is for Italy these days, especially when he plays with Candreva). So you have to balance whether the loss of Mata is worth that gain.

For the record, I'm not saying we should drop him. You should never drop someone who's hitting hot form, even if in the long run you don't think they're the answer. But I'd want us to be willing to drop him quickly if he stops making such a big statistical contribution in attack.
 
Maagge said:
Well, we would also be better if we had Ronaldo playing on the other side, but you can't just pick whoever. It would be more constructive choosing someone in his place from our current group of players.
Click to expand...

There is no one, notice my line-up suggestions, I hardly ever don't select Mata as we did nothing in the summer to even provide competition for him on that flank, all our wide options like to play from the left.

shabadu84 said:
You mention players like Reus and Robben but are they really attainable? How many traditional wingers are there in world football that contribute with goaos and assits like he has? We had di Maria and he did keep Mata out of the side for some time but Mata earned his way back in on merit. Think you're underappreciating his commitment and contribution. LVG has come up with a creative albeit imperfect solution but it's paying off.
Click to expand...

I mentioned them as in the type of player we need out there IMO as opposed to thinking we could actually buy them, for instance someone like Costa that Bayern picked up would have been able to provide closer to what I was talking about, not a traditional winger.

Mockney said:
Well fair play, at least you acknowledged that a player who scored both goals and a scissor kick wonder winner away at Anfield had a decent game. If that's not objective, I don't know what is.
Click to expand...

I know you are being sarcastic but you took two separate sentences and applied them to one game.

I praised Mata for the Liverpool game;

Devil may care said:
Excellent performance, not just the two world class finishes but his composure and awareness on the ball was superb, easily the best game he's ever had in a United shirt.
Click to expand...

Then I said I acknowledge when he has a decent game, which was pertaining to games like the performance on Saturday or the one against Newcastle.

sullydnl said:
When we were talking about potential RB signings in the summer I did wonder if a less defensively sound but more attack minded RB like Coleman might suit the side better with Mata playing as a false RW.

Obviously I'm delighted that Darmian has settled in well and he was certainly a bargain compared to all the other RBs we were linked with but even still I can't help but wonder how much better we'd look with a serious attacking threat from RB.

Of course if we had gone down that route we may well be complaining about a lack of defensive solidity on our right flank instead....
Click to expand...

It's a Catch 22, like Brightonian said you can see Darmian feeling free to attack on the left this weekend, but with Mata in front of him I think he felt he needed to hang back more, plus Mata often passed in field so I think as the games went on Darmian made less overlaps and just held his defensive position, where Memphis almost always looks for the LB link-up.
 
Shimo said:
The one problem I see with him though is when he sticks to that RW and we are so focused on trying to create down the left, he goes "missing". He isn't out hugging the side to open up the the space but, he is not close enough to the play on the left to contribute. I think he needs to come looking for the game a bit more when this happens.
Click to expand...
I think in those situations Mata is hanging out centre-right because he's waiting to make a run into the box if a pass comes in from the left. That's how he scores/assists a lot after all, by 'disappearing' and becoming forgotten and then making runs in that inside-right channel. If someone is going to push wide out right and stretch the defence in that scenario, it's going to have to be our right-back.
 
Shimo said:
For what he is doing though, he is very effective, so we need to figure out how do we create from out wide right when Mata is on the pitch. For that to start happening perhaps once in a while Rooney / Mata need to switch even though Rooney is not a winger he can still do the job of one at times or even let players like Depay/Young come overload the right much like we've tended to do with Mata helping do the same on the left. That would help change things up and provide a different angle of attack for defenses to worry about.
Click to expand...

We could play like we did last year, with Herrera on the right midfield, Schweinsteiger on the left with Schneiderlin as pure DM. But in that case we can only play one of Rooney/Martial up top. I would like to see the latter on the left though, see if it works. Memphis so far hasn't won me over and the Cafe seems very reluctant to give Young some playing time there so it might be worth a try.

Mata best position is definitely on the right, but far away from midfield.
 
Playing Mata the way we are clearly is a valid strategy for a top team even if it doesn't suit everybody's tastes. The problem I think is our lack of attacking threat from the overlapping RB. Valencia gets into good positions but is atrocious with creating anything and Darmian is not even getting into good positions at the moment (though could be because he is adjusting to the new league). Nice debate above on Mata though - love caf for this.
 
So much better than Wayne Rooney it's not even funny. He's creating, moving, dancing, scoring and baby sitting Valencia. He's probably going to visit a museum in Manchester at half time too.

God bless Juan.
 
Absolutely outstanding half. He's running the show tonight.
 
He's really stepped up these past few weeks. Showing his true talent, as he has it all.
 
Brilliant little baller, if we can get a RM and play him at 10, that would be awesome
 
Where are all the folks I was arguing with last season who were saying that Mata isn't a creative player?
 
And people ask silly questions about his ability. Feck me! Best buy we've made in years.
 
I don't think I've ever seen him put in a better performance then he has today. Not even for Chelsea/Spain/Valencia. Unplayable on this form.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.