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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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Lawman said:
Hard to argue with as post is correct
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Agree, except for Fellaini and maybe Herrera. I wouldn't call Fellaini quality and Herrera has mostly been very good whenever he played. You could add Memphis, Morgan and Martial in a few months' time if van Gaal was still here, though..
 
He really needed to step-up and be the main man in attack but he was really poor. Just a nothing game from him and even his usual tidy passing was a bit wayward. Should be out of the team at the moment.

Also, it doesn't matter if he is out wide, floating around or in the middle - he has been poor.
 
sullydnl said:
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.
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Not anymore than if Mata is the answer though.He has been the poorest even though he's the only senior player out of them,stop making excuses.
 
Gotta love the caf, it wasn't only 2 months ago people were singing him praises and now he's shite. He's out of form and so is the whole team.
 
Wilson Litchmore said:
Quality player that wouldn't look out of place in Bayern, real or Barca....
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He probably wouldn't look out of place at Real, because they're a bit of a mess and a mish-mash.

He'd look out of place at Barcelona, because he can't dribble past anyone, can't turn with the ball under pressure, can't keep hold of the ball, doesn't have quick feet. So he'd struggle to play the football that Barcelona play in tight areas, under serious pressure.
He'd immediately weaken the team, because he'd need extra touches, would run backwards/sideways whenever closed down, and would play too safe to occupy one of the forward positions.

Same for Bayern. He's not that good a player. Tidy, can take a set piece and can finish a move off when near the goal, but every thing in between is below 'quality'. He's ridiculously limited as soon as opposition players close him down.

He's suited to a team who don't dominate possession, because there's more space. He needs that space because he's poor at dribbling, turning and holding the ball. Countering allows him to be effective without being closed down heavily.

Think about the 'quality' players over the years - they don't need space. Mata's not quality.
 
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Trizy said:
Gotta love the caf, it wasn't only 2 months ago people were singing him praises and now he's shite. He's out of form and so is the whole team.
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Some have been saying this stuff for ages. I guess other people are just catching on.
 
khoazany said:
Not anymore than if Mata is the answer though.He has been the poorest even though he's the only senior player out of them,stop making excuses.
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I'm not making excuses, he's been poor and that's on him. That doesn't automatically mean benching him is going to make things better though, especially when the last game he was benched in was probably the worst I've seen us play all season. There's a reason he plays so much for us, the alternatives we have aren't good enough.
 
I felt he played a hell of a lot better when moved to #10 and so did we as a team. Keep him there and put Morgan and Herrera behind him. It's got to be the way forward.

DM: Morgan, Goss
CM: Herrera, Pereira
AM: Mata, Januzaj

+ Bastian to add experience.
Get rid of Fellaini and add Carrick to coaching staff.
 
The whole video pretty much shows how slow Mata makes every move he gets involved in, and how much he lacks the ability to turn or keep the ball under pressure.

But 2:58 sums up why Mata's not a top player, why he wouldn't get into Barcelona/Bayern's team (which some bizarrely claim) and why it's not 'lack of runners' that are the issue, but his own deficiencies.

The second he allowed himself to get closed down, there was never ANY chance of him going forward with the ball or even keeping hold of it. You don't say that about top number 10s or players in that mould - whether it's Coutinho, Iniesta, Silva, Isco...

And it happens all the time with Mata. Which is why many feel he adds absolutely nothing unless he's scoring.


The fact that Mata is basically restricted to giving the ball up before he gets closed down - that's what makes him not a top player, or worthy of building around. He can be hurried off the ball, and made to play safe.
He basically stations himself in completely non-threatening positions (in order to escape being closed down) then takes a few touches, either passes it simple, or gets closed down and passes it sideways or backwards. He rarely ever adds any zip or creativity to a move.

Rinse and repeat until he scores a goal or assists, and he escapes criticism.
 
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Better today, need to get him on the ball more as he looks the most likely to create anything.
 
Played well. Nice little pass for the goal, and looking quite dangerous in general. Him and Martial have been our best players.
 
Great pass for the goal but still most of the half he has been a passenger, in his defense though he is getting absolutely no help from our incompetent midfield.
 
Yeah, he's been a lot better than usual. Still nothing great, but he's far from the worst performer tonight.
 
the hea said:
Great pass for the goal but still most of the half he has been a passenger, in his defense though he is getting absolutely no help from our incompetent midfield.
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Seriously, what have you been watching. A few of my hairs turned gray reading that.
 
When we improve our squad further, he shouldn't be first choice.
 
Was one of our two best players while he was on the pitch, taking him off for Powell of all people was very, very strange.
 
Baffled me that we took him off, especially with Fellaini being left on. He looked good in the first half, and his assist for the goal was decent. A positive improvement though, so hopefully he can start to make more of an impact on games and return to his early season form.
 
Standards/expectations are pretty low for Mata, it seems.
 
Very good first half but became sloppy in the second and drifted out if it. Possibly tired.
 
Not sure the 'faded in the second half' commentators were watching the same game as me. Thought the 10-15 minutes before he went off are some of his best in a United shirt and everything good we were doing was going through him.

One of the weirdest subs I can remember.
 
Why the feck was he take off ?

Bewildering by LVG. He was miles better than either Depay or Lingard.
 
I've been quite critical of Mata all season and am dubious about the 'needs to play #10' talk but he was key to most of our good moves today and showed some nice flashes when under pressure. Had to come deep a little too often but we seemed to have left the midfield pretty vacant most of the time so it is understandable. Nothing miraculous but he did have a positive and reasonably constant impact on our forward play.
 
Was good in the first-half. I thought he wasn't as good in the second but should have stayed on. Why it was Powell who came on for him I will never know.
 
Absolutely stupid of us to sub him off today, especially for Nick Powell of all people. We were controlling the game in the second half while Mata was on the pitch, but after Powell came on, we lost a bit of that control in Wolfsburg's half.
 
I thought he was great but he looked completely knackered when he came off.
 
He looked up for it like the rest of our players. Not our day.
 
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