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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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Annihilate Now! said:
Pretty negative way to view football... but fair enough. What about own goals / errors leading to goals / missing open goals?
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Errors are errors, there's no escaping it. A missed penalty, an own goal, both could cost you at the end of a season (goal difference for example).

Problem with Mata is that he probably has as many bad games as good - meaning his overall contribution isn't enough.
 
sullydnl said:
So Aguero let City down yesterday then? Even though he also scored twice in the game?

In reality Mata's penalty miss would barely have been mentioned if, say, Martial had done it. Another example of people using a relatively minor and excusable mistake as a stick to beat Mata with because they don't rate him generally.
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A missed penalty is a let down yes, he had the opportunity to boost their goal difference but failed, which could be costly. The goals he did score, he should be credited for, but it doesn't mean that his penalty miss is excusable.
 
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Speak said:
The club should just put him out of his misery. Hopefully this summer.
Nice guy, pretty technique, occasional great performance... But ultimately not good enough for where the team needs to be. Today's red card isn't even a big issue. He's unlikely to ever receive another red in his career. But he's just not good enough anyway.
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Maybe this is even true, but we have much bigger issues. Surely the logical thing is to spend big on the best, fairly young, mobile, passing CM we can get to play in a trio with Herrera and Schneiderlin and then Mata will be the 10 option and get lots of starts when one is out or we play a diamond or need offense or whatever.

From where I sit we have bigger holes at RW and CM than at the 10. Mata ain't perfect, but he's a productive, technically solid player. Unless James wants to come here, I think replacing Mata with a better 10 is a luxury problem for us at the moment, and I think we missed our chance to do it this past summer when De Bruyne, who would have been perfect as the man here. After those guys, there's no 10 out there I think we could actually get that is dramatically better than Mata.
 
Mata is a great player with a good head. Today he fecked up and got his first ever red. Shit happens. I still love the guy.

What bothered me the most was not the red card, but the overall shit performance. We just dont play very well and the red card is just a stupid excuse.

It has been some good results lately, but our performance has not been great in all our wins. The only solution is LvG and his staff out. So this season is a write off.
 
NoPace said:
Maybe this is even true, but we have much bigger issues. Surely the logical thing is to spend big on the best, fairly young, mobile, passing CM we can get to play in a trio with Herrera and Schneiderlin and then Mata will be the 10 option and get lots of starts when one is out or we play a diamond or need offense or whatever.

From where I sit we have bigger holes at RW and CM than at the 10. Mata ain't perfect, but he's a productive, technically solid player. Unless James wants to come here, I think replacing Mata with a better 10 is a luxury problem for us at the moment, and I think we missed our chance to do it this past summer when De Bruyne, who would have been perfect as the man here. After those guys, there's no 10 out there I think we could actually get that is dramatically better than Mata.
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I agree Mata is not the biggest problem but, if the verdict is that he is not good enough to help us return to the top (and that is certainly my opinion), then it makes sense to get a high earner off the books who still has resale value. He can be replaced either with a genuine elite level number 10 or, if that is not feasible, a younger, cheaper player who has the potential to develop into an elite player. Basically, United shouldn't be carrying people in their mid to late twenties on big wages who are good, top 6 type players.
 
Mata's contribution to the team is like Blind's contibution to our defence, excelent performance in one game and poor in the next two or good first half and awful second half. So overall his contribution is below average.
 
I'd concur with most people on here...probably not at the level we need but not our biggest issue. Still has a role to play in the short term
 
The least of our problems right now ffs.

Those that say he's not "United quality" demanding for him to be sold when we have Jesse fecking Lingard as our starting RW, relying on Rooney for goals and having a CM as our ball-playing CB. Feck off.
 
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MyOnlySolskjaer said:
The least of our problems right now ffs.

Those that say he's not "United quality" demanding for him to be sold when we have Jesse fecking Lingard as our starting RW, relying on Rooney for goals and having a CM as our ball-playing CB. Feck off.
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Yeah, I do find that a bit strange. For all of his aforementioned faults, Mata remains one of our more technically gifted players and is often quite productive. He's arguably one of the last players we should be getting rid of in this current side.
 
really bright start to the game, really loved that dribble down the right but both yellow cards = absolutely stupid, let alone the second yellow which was dark orange for me, frustration all over the place..
 
What was he thinking?! It had to be a rush of blood to the head because he's not normally like that. His stupidity cost us the game today and potentially a late push on getting into the top four. Only gave him a 2 in his rating because of that excellent bit of play with Martial otherwise it would've been a 1.
 
I just don't get it. He was fully committed to follow through on that kick, even when it was obvious that it was only ever going to be a foul. I really wonder what the feck went through his mind.
 
Cheesy said:
Yeah, I do find that a bit strange. For all of his aforementioned faults, Mata remains one of our more technically gifted players and is often quite productive. He's arguably one of the last players we should be getting rid of in this current side.
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Yeah. Attempting to give youth a chance and minimize the amount of transfers, I'd have something like this as the 2016-17 squad:

Martial, RW, Memphis,
Rashford, Wilson, Januzaj, Lingard

CM, Herrera,
Mata, CM2, Pereira

Schneiderlin,
Schweinsteiger

Shaw, Varela,
CBJ, Darmian

CB, Smalling,
Blind, Fosu-Mensah

De Gea,
Romero

I really don't want any more mediocre players. But that team is real threadbare so a couple versatile pros probably should stick around. One of Rojo or Jones, one of Valencia or Young and either Rooney or we sign an attacker without breaking the bank, like with Chicharito or OGS if it goes well, or Diouf if not quite so much.
 
Mata is arguably the most technically gifted player at United. But his overall play is too inconsistent to be the catalyst for a top team...unless he's surrounded with the top quality that is needed for him to truly flourish over an entire season. United currently don't have these players or their quality isn't there yet.

Mata let himself down and his team down today. It was always going to be difficult breaking down West Brom going into today's match, not even considering their form of the past two weeks has been good. He's too frustrating and too inconsistent to fully rely on. No excuses for him today.
 
What pisses me off so much about him is that the bookings were so damn unnecessary and out of nowhere. The game was just getting started. A real let down today.

Hopefully he pulls a Smalling and comes back from this in beast mode :devil:
 
Sunny Jim said:
Thats a stupid pracitise though. We quite often hear "oh if it wasnt the last minute of extra time the ref would surely give a penalty for that tackle". Timming shouldl not.affect refs decisions.
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Leaving the timing aside, the 2 yellows as a combo to get a red is just not justified. Individually they are yellow, although the 2nd one IMO wasnt, but no ref gives a player his 2nd yellow for a tackle with no harmful intent
 
I feel for him, it was a silly challenge but the stupidity was the first one. Completely pointless in that case, the second was him just trying to win one and getting it wrong. What I really want to see from this is Pereira come into the team or the team switch back to a 4-3-3 that we threw in the bin to accommodate Mata in the middle and not on the right.

Blessing in disguise, chin up Juan. Hugs.
 
Šjor Bepo said:
:lol: can it be less physical then it is now?
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Why don't you ask Luke Shaw.

"Oh but freak accidents happen!"

Yeah they happen precisely because of high risk tackles that suddenly go from harmless to dangerous when mistimed. That's why high risk tackles should be punished accordingly.
 
Sunny Jim said:
Thats a stupid pracitise though. We quite often hear "oh if it wasnt the last minute of extra time the ref would surely give a penalty for that tackle". Timming shouldl not.affect refs decisions.
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Thing is, by Deans own refereeing of that game, he wouldn't have booked Juan if he hadn't already been on a booking.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Thing is, by Deans own refereeing of that game, he wouldn't have booked Juan if he hadn't already been on a booking.
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But what if Mata didn't pull back in time? Then what happens? Someone's leg gets broke or a player goes flying through the air? That was a very reckless challenege at full speed when both players are sprinting for the ball, and we were fortunate that Mata just barely managed to pull back enough in time. But he almost didn't, he was almost too late, since the guy did go flying anyways. And we all know these guys are wearing lighter and thinner shin guards than what us normal people can buy at the store for our local pub games.

Wacking each others shin's when standing still is one thing, but doing that at full speed is something we should never see in football so I think Dean made the right call, if based only on the "what if?" factor.
 
Ji_Maria said:
But what if Mata didn't pull back in time? Then what happens? Someone's leg gets broke or a player goes flying through the air? That was a very reckless challenege at full speed when both players are sprinting for the ball, and we were fortunate that Mata just barely managed to pull back enough in time. But he almost didn't, he was almost too late, since the guy did go flying anyways. Wacking each others shins when standing still is one thing, but doing that at full speed is something we should never see in football so I think Dean made the right call, if based only on the "what if?" factor.
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Eh? You can't book someone for something they didn't do.

What if Blind had followed through and kicked Berainho with full force in the head? What if Gardener had launched in with two feet on Lingard? These are both "what ifs" ... yet neither happened. Mata DID pull back out of his challenge, so he didn't follow through, meaning it wasn't reckless... If Mata had followed through and kicked Fletcher with full force, you'd be right... but he didn't, and he didn't because Juan Mata made sure that he didn't.
 
Respect for his apology. Something was troubling him yesterday and out of character with his normal behaviour on the pitch.
 
Ji_Maria said:
But what if Mata didn't pull back in time? Then what happens? Someone's leg gets broke or a player goes flying through the air? That was a very reckless challenege at full speed when both players are sprinting for the ball, and we were fortunate that Mata just barely managed to pull back enough in time. But he almost didn't, he was almost too late, since the guy did go flying anyways. And we all know these guys are wearing lighter and thinner shin guards than what us normal people can buy at the store for our local pub games.

Wacking each others shin's when standing still is one thing, but doing that at full speed is something we should never see in football so I think Dean made the right call, if based only on the "what if?" factor.
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Like @Annihilate Now! said, the tackle even had it been a full swing would have been at most a slight knock and the game would have resumed with the players on the pitch. There were tackles in that game itself that were more dangerous in intent: Blind's high boot, and that wasnt even carded! Look at the tackle on Shaw that broke his leg. That was a hard but clean tackle, but there wasnt even a yellow card shown, hell wasnt even given a foul, why just because it was clean.
Thats what the refs need to differentiate. A clean tackle that may be reckless should be given a foul and a bad tackle with no intent should be given a foul but not carded at the very least.
 
Fergus' son said:
:wenger:
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Why didn't Dean book Daley Blind then? Or Craig Gardner?

Remember, the question isn't that Mata's challenge warranted a booking... it's that Mike Dean had decided - in the same game of football - that other challenges that were similar in certain ways, didn't warrant a yellow card.
 
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Ji_Maria said:
Why don't you ask Luke Shaw.

"Oh but freak accidents happen!"

Yeah they happen precisely because of high risk tackles that suddenly go from harmless to dangerous when mistimed. That's why high risk tackles should be punished accordingly.
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The most injuries happen when there is no one around you and when you running alone, shall we remove running from football? Its a contact sport(at least it was), they now the risk and they are highly payed to take that risk. You realize the game was a lot more aggressive in the past and they were no more injuries then today, in fact i would bet that today we have more injured players.
 
Feel bad for the lad against West Brom.. It's one of those embarrassing moments as an athlete, you know you lost your head at the wrong time.
 
Mata won't miss the next game will he? 2 yellows aren't a ban rather than a straight red?
 
The thing I don't understand about people who want him sold... Are these the same people who say we need 7 new first team players? Because in terms of our starting XI you could only really put DDG, Shaw, Martial and Smalling ahead of him in terms of performances. Surely we have around 5-6 other positions to worry about (CB, RB, CM, RW, CF) before even thinking about a new number 10 (particularly one who has been in really good for since returning to that position)?

Then you have to also think about the fact that aside from the aforementioned 4 players the whole squad has looked poor this season, which is a key reason why people want Van Gaal out (and the reason I don't believe we need 6 new first teamers). Is Mata one of the few that's difficulties are solely down to himself rather than the awful tactics we often seem to employ (which wouldn't make sense as he's starred on the few occasions we've actually played well)?
 
Mata couldn't tackle a fish supper, with the ball very good, without hopeless.
What this team needs more than anything is players with a bit of aggression who can get stuck in to the opposition, something sadly lacking.
 
Di Maria's angel said:
Both Pool and Arsenal went down to 10 men in their games this weekend. Liverpool went on to overturn a 1-0 deficit to win the game. Arsenal were inches away from doing the same.

We, on the other hand, were pathetic with 11 as we were with 10. Look at our recent PL performances - awful against Chelsea, Sunderland, Watford and West Brom. One half decent game against Arsenal doesn't change that. We haven't turned a corner. We're regressing and there's still room for more (shitness, that is).
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Liverpool got 2 gifted goals from Palace.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Why didn't Dean book Daley Blind then? Or Craig Gardner?

Remember, the question isn't that Mata's challenge warranted a booking... it's that Mike Dean had decided - in the same game of football - that other challenges that were similar in certain ways, didn't warrant a yellow card.
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I'm not doubting there were inconsistencies, just doubting that they occurred because the ref was desperate to issue someone a second yellow.
 
Fergus' son said:
I'm not doubting there were inconsistencies, just doubting that they occurred because the ref was desperate to issue someone a second yellow.
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So if you admit it's inconsistent, it's not out of the realms of possibility that Mata wouldn't have got a first yellow card for his second challenge is it? When we've just seen Daley Blind kick someone in the head and not get a booking, Mata doing similar - just to a different body part - also stood a decent chance escaping a booking... considering the precedent set by Mike Dean himself.
 
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