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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
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Kostur said:
That's Herrera.

Mata was poor today though, no doubt.
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I agree that Herrera is overrated to and much for the same reason as Mata, they are really nice guys but I do think Herrera is good enough to start for us while Mata on the other hand isn't
 
I use to get frustrated and claim he would flourish in the middle but I'm not even sure about that now.

Has he always been so painfully slow and weak?
 
SkeppyRed said:
Very dissapointing in recent weeks at a time when we needed him to step up.

Not sure what to expect of him any more. Is he capable of match winning quality?
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Yes. My favourite moment from last season was his two goals away to Liverpool. But it's too infrequent to be worthy of a first team place imo.
 
Mata just isn't suited out wide in a setup like ours where the RB is gobshite at attacking. He needs fast movers around him who can make runs that he can find with his passes. With most of our opponents playing deep within their own halves, our wide players need to take people on and create a bit of time and space which he is completely unable to do.

To make matters worse, he had the body strength of a grasshopper. He is so easily bullied off the ball that it it criminal at this level. I don't think it is working for him here at all.
 
He was telegraphing his passes something awful today. I could tell what he wanted to do about 2 or 3 touches before he did it. It made it really easy for West Ham to get into position.
 
Dante said:
He was telegraphing his passes something awful today. I could tell what he wanted to do about 2 or 3 touches before he did it. It made it really easy for West Ham to get into position.
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When you saw that lovely early ball in from Herrera against Watford. The god help us he does his hammy. That is what is needed get the ball in early, Memphis anticipated it.
 
the hea said:
Actually it looks like the tide has turned and more and more people are realising that he is part of the problem and not the solution.
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There's still quite a few "It's the players around him letting him down" and "it's the position/tactics/systems fault" posts floating around.
 
Fergus' son said:
They fluked the CL but the team that was built around him finished 6th.

He's not a great player.
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Seems like you're applying selective criteria. Suarez had a team built around him at Liverpool (for what it's worth, that always strikes me as a dodgy expression, but whatever...) So was he not great? I do agree that Mata has been very underwhelming this year; less so last year and during his half season with Moyes. But then he's hardly alone in that regard.
 
the hea said:
Actually it looks like the tide has turned and more and more people are realising that he is part of the problem and not the solution.
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About time folk are waking up he's a passenger and has been since he came here. Stats tell a different story of course but I watch him week in week out and for 80-85 mins he does nothing but slow us down.
 
There's no excuse for his current form, he's been extremely poor in recent weeks and that's totally on him.

Saying he's been like this since he arrived is simply untrue though. He has his faults but he isn't usually this anonymous. Even during previous indifferent spells he at least kept producing a high level of end product but goals and assists have totally dried up. He's unusually poor right now.
 
Lawman said:
About time folk are waking up he's a passenger and has been since he came here. Stats tell a different story of course but I watch him week in week out and for 80-85 mins he does nothing but slow us down.
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I totally agree now and then he turns up with a moment of brilliance but for 95% of the time he has absolutely no influence on the game.
 
Lawman said:
About time folk are waking up he's a passenger and has been since he came here. Stats tell a different story of course but I watch him week in week out and for 80-85 mins he does nothing but slow us down.
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And rest of us are doing what exactly, closing eyes when he's on the ball?
 
the hea said:
I totally agree now and then he turns up with a moment of brilliance but for 95% of the time he has absolutely no influence on the game.
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He's a penalty taker and that is all at the moment. He looks unhappy, maybe he knows he shouldn't be out wide and knows his place could be in danger if we bring another RW in.
 
jem said:
Seems like you're applying selective criteria. Suarez had a team built around him at Liverpool (for what it's worth, that always strikes me as a dodgy expression, but whatever...) So was he not great? I do agree that Mata has been very underwhelming this year; less so last year and during his half season with Moyes. But then he's hardly alone in that regard.
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My point was that a team that Mata was the fulcrum of, actually were quite poor in the league, though they did fluke the CL.

He has never proven that he's good enough to be the main man in a title winning or even challenging team.
 
Thing is, we're shit and slow when he's in the team, and we're shit and slow when he's out of the team.

So thus, the conclusion is, we're shit and slow... full stop.
 
like other players he would benefit from better more fluid movement from other players, he need runners, to give and go, he needs someone better then mcnair as fullback.. thats not an excuse for him though, he should do much better, he deserves to start on the bench next game, with depay coming on for him... people try to slate lingard how low potential he has but forget that we live not in the past just now and recently Lingard looked better and much more influential player than Mata, who should still be at his peak..
 
Hasn't really justified, or lived up to that £37m price tag. Between him, AdM, Fellaini, we've pissed massive money down the drain for various reasons. You might even add in Herrera.

We bought all these players, quality in their own right, without any real plan on how to use them or get the best out of them. Then what happens? They're either in/out of the team, shifted across positions etc. (AdM shitty attitude aside).
 
m1y2 said:
like other players he would benefit from better more fluid movement from other players, he need runners, to give and go, he needs someone better then mcnair as fullback.. thats not an excuse for him though, he should do much better, he deserves to start on the bench next game, with depay coming on for him... people try to slate lingard how low potential he has but forget that we live not in the past just now and recently Lingard looked better and much more influential player than Mata, who should still be at his peak..
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At the same time, we tried benching him for our last CL game and ended up putting in one of our worst performances all season. If Depay and Lingard are the answer then the question kinda sucks.
 
Fergus' son said:
And so is he?
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Obviously not, he's a good footballer when he can be arsed... which, like everyone else in our side, was only about 20/30 minutes today.

It's just hilarious that people blame any one particular individual in our team for the slow, shit football we play (yes, I'm even defending Rooney here) despite the fact that, whoever the personnel, whatever the lineup... it doesn't feckin' matter! We still play exactly the same slow, tumescent football. I mean, Mata didn't start against PSV and that was probably our slowest and worst performance in this boring run.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Obviously not, he's a good footballer when he can be arsed... which, like everyone else in our side, was only about 20/30 minutes today.

It's just hilarious that people blame any one particular individual in our team for the slow, shit football we play (yes, I'm even defending Rooney here) despite the fact that, whoever the personnel, whatever the lineup... it doesn't feckin' matter! We still play exactly the same slow, tumescent football. I mean, Mata didn't start against PSV and that was probably our slowest and worst performance in this boring run.
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Mata and Herrera didn't start in the cup, two of his penalty takers and they didn't play. A trophy chance gone.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Obviously not, he's a good footballer when he can be arsed... which, like everyone else in our side, was only about 20/30 minutes today.

It's just hilarious that people blame any one particular individual in our team for the slow, shit football we play (yes, I'm even defending Rooney here) despite the fact that, whoever the personnel, whatever the lineup... it doesn't feckin' matter! We still play exactly the same slow, tumescent football. I mean, Mata didn't start against PSV and that was probably our slowest and worst performance in this boring run.
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It's not just him that slow and shit, I agree, but he certainly is slow and appears shit too judging by the majority of his utd career.

Amazing how people try to absolve the players of responsibility for their performances. It's not either tactics or players to blame, it can be both, and more than likely is. In the Mata thread you'll find criticisms against Mata - show me where people are trying to put sole responsibility for our performances on him?
 
Fergus' son said:
It's not just him that slow and shit, I agree, but he certainly is slow and appears shit too judging by the majority of his utd career.

Amazing how people try to absolve the players of responsibility for their performances. It's not either tactics or players to blame, it can be both, and more than likely is. In the Mata thread you'll find criticisms against Mata - show me where people are trying to put sole responsibility for our performances on him?
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No one's putting sole responsibility on him - but on this page alone you have people saying "he slows down our attack"... which is ridiculous, because our attack is slow, with or without him.

I'm not absolving the players either... they're playing shit... but they're doing so within a shit strategy.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
No one's putting sole responsibility on him - but on this page alone you have people saying "he slows down our attack"... which is ridiculous, because our attack is slow, with or without him.

I'm not absolving the players either... they're playing shit... but they're doing so within a shit strategy.
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That is the manager then. He says he wants the ball moving quicker, these are not idiots, so is he actually saying that to them or drumming into them not to give the ball away. They are all playing with fear and look completely devoid of confidence and downright fed up. This is a fabulous job to be in, but it has stopped being fun.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
No one's putting sole responsibility on him - but on this page alone you have people saying "he slows down our attack"... which is ridiculous, because our attack is slow, with or without him.

I'm not absolving the players either... they're playing shit... but they're doing so within a shit strategy.
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The criticism is more applicable to him than others though, you certainly can't say that Martial, Lingard or Herrera slow down our attacks as much as he does.

What makes it worse is that he's supposed to be one if iur main players, apparently 'world class' when we bought him and at his peak.
 
Fergus' son said:
The criticism is more applicable to him than others though, you certainly can't say that Martial, Lingard or Herrera slow down our attacks as much as he does.

What makes it worse is that he's supposed to be one if iur main players, apparently 'world class' when we bought him and at his peak.
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They're all guilty of it though (Martial to a lesser extent in fairness) ... the dreaded check back and sideways/backwards pass. I mean there was a point today where Lingard raced away from one defender, then slowed down so another one could catch and face him up - and our entire attack just stalled. The criticism is applicable to our entire side... more so Mata then others? Yeah, you can argue that ... but then it doesn't explain how our slowest, most insipid attacking performance of the season came against PSV, and he wasn't even on the pitch! It's a problem that extends further then just a few players... it's how we currently play football.

I repeat though, I'm not absolving Mata at all, he has been shit of late and needs to step up. You can tell too, because he normally always tries to get on the ball as much as possible, and he hasn't been doing that of late (he did in that last 20/30, where the team as a whole stepped-up ... but it wasn't enough)
 
Quality player that wouldn't look out of place in Bayern, real or Barca....
 
Annihilate Now! said:
They're all guilty of it though (Martial to a lesser extent in fairness) ... the dreaded check back and sideways/backwards pass. I mean there was a point today where Lingard raced away from one defender, then slowed down so another one could catch and face him up - and our entire attack just stalled. The criticism is applicable to our entire side... more so Mata then others? Yeah, you can argue that ... but then it doesn't explain how our slowest, most insipid attacking performance of the season came against PSV, and he wasn't even on the pitch!

I repeat though, I'm not absolving Mata at all, he has been shit of late and needs to step up. You can tell too, because he normally always tries to get on the ball as much as possible, and he hasn't been doing that of late (he did in that last 20/30, where the team as a whole stepped-up ... but it wasn't enough)
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I do understand, and agree with your point. I think these issues are mentioned in relation to Mata more than others because we expect more from him than some of the others, with them being either young or new to the squad. Only people that deserves more criticism than him are Rooney and the manager IMO, and they certainly get enough on here (Rooney not so much off here).
 
I think he is only effective at 10 where you can put quick players ahead and wide of him

When you have no great passing options you can look dithering - today was a poor game

I can't understand why we have him on the right at the expense of Fellaini at 10
 
Annihilate Now! said:
They're all guilty of it though (Martial to a lesser extent in fairness) ... the dreaded check back and sideways/backwards pass. I mean there was a point today where Lingard raced away from one defender, then slowed down so another one could catch and face him up - and our entire attack just stalled. The criticism is applicable to our entire side... more so Mata then others? Yeah, you can argue that ... but then it doesn't explain how our slowest, most insipid attacking performance of the season came against PSV, and he wasn't even on the pitch! It's a problem that extends further then just a few players... it's how we currently play football.

I repeat though, I'm not absolving Mata at all, he has been shit of late and needs to step up. You can tell too, because he normally always tries to get on the ball as much as possible, and he hasn't been doing that of late (he did in that last 20/30, where the team as a whole stepped-up ... but it wasn't enough)
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I think the manager is responsible for that. They are all capable of moving the ball quickly. We know Herrera like to pass and move to create a pass. Yet I think the manager is boring them to death and has put the fear of god into them. Mata looks like he is losing faith in the manager. You have to fill your players with confidence before a game, I am not sure he does that. Funny enough listening now to Terry Gibson on Talksport and they move say Herrera is woefully underused. Gibson has seen him in Spain for both Bilbao and Zaragoza and says there is a very good player there.
 
Fergus' son said:
I do understand, and agree with your point. I think these issues are mentioned in relation to Mata more than others because we expect more from him than some of the others, with them being either young or new to the squad. Only people that deserves more criticism than him are Rooney and the manager IMO, and they certainly get enough on here (Rooney not so much off here).
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Yeah I think that's fair, and completely justified.
 
Just another one of van Gaal's achievements. We're a machine when it comes to ruining attackers. Just add him to the ever growing list.
 
Kostur said:
And rest of us are doing what exactly, closing eyes when he's on the ball?
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Just look back at the forum the previous posts over the last few months and you'd see the vast majority were defending him. So as you speak for everyone I guess so...
 
Ish said:
Hasn't really justified, or lived up to that £37m price tag. Between him, AdM, Fellaini, we've pissed massive money down the drain for various reasons. You might even add in Herrera.

We bought all these players, quality in their own right, without any real plan on how to use them or get the best out of them. Then what happens? They're either in/out of the team, shifted across positions etc. (AdM shitty attitude aside).
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Hard to argue with as post is correct
 
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