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2016-17 Performances

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6.2 Season Average Rating
Appearances
42
Goals
10
Assists
6
Yellow cards
5
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Never a red that, he actually pulls out of the tackle when he sees he's late so has a bent leg at the time of contact. Jenas was spot on on MOTD.

Quite poor last night but until we get a Griezmann-style replacement he has to play as he adds goals to a side in desperate need of them.
 
Regulus Arcturus Black said:
Never a red that, he actually pulls out of the tackle when he sees he's late so has a bent leg at the time of contact. Jenas was spot on on MOTD.

Quite poor last night but until we get a Griezmann-style replacement he has to play as he adds goals to a side in desperate need of them.
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Jenas is full of sh*t. It was reckless and dangerous and so could/should have been red. However, there is no consistency of refereeing, especially when Mr. Taylor, the Altrincham fan is in charge ;)
 
Polite Poster said:
Jenas is full of sh*t. It was reckless and dangerous and so could/should have been red. However, there is no consistency of refereeing, especially when Mr. Taylor, the Altrincham fan is in charge ;)
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Jenas is normally a good pundit in fairness. I agree its a yellow though.
 
even not at his best he always scores or asists, so no problem with that, he must be the most effective player in the premier league past few years
 
Polite Poster said:
Jenas is full of sh*t.
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Maybe, although I actually think he's one of the few pundits who talks a lot of sense. On this occasion he was bang on, if Mata had followed through and connected with a straight leg then I'd agree with you, but he quite clearly pulls out and has a bent leg at the time of impact so most certainly not a red. It's also low and the contact is on the foot rather than Vardy's leg.

vardy-tackle-1.jpg
 
He had a good start to the season but he's been poor for months now. He's not good enough as a 10 for us and just not a winger.
 
The actual tackle wasn't that bad, it was more the speed of them coming together which made it look much worse. The fact Vardy sort of flipped in mid air made it seem much more dangerous.

The leg was low and it was 1 footed sliding, rather than jumping in. It's a strong yellow in the modern day game, would of only been a foul back in the 90's/early 2000's.

Mata's squeaky clean reputation may have got him away with it, and the fact Vardy deserves a good clattering at times.
 
Escobar said:
He had a good start to the season but he's been poor for months now. He's not good enough as a 10 for us and just not a winger.
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Actually it's been more like a month, but feel free to exaggerate.
 
Freak said:
It was quite frustrating watching him play yesterday. He kept on going backwards and passing it backwards.
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Its generally sideways to Valencia, which I feel is more of an instruction by Mourinho than anything else. Anyways it's better that he moves the ball rather than trying something fancy and getting dispossessed
 
I thought he was actually pretty bad yesterday.

Nice finish for his goal but other than that I don't think he was too impressive. Still though 8 goals for the season so far, on course for double figures again.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
I think the physicallity thing when it comes to Mata is always way overplayed. He does of course sometimes get overpowered by other players, but it's not like 5 or 6 times every game or anything, more like once. I mean, according to the stats, he got dispossesed twice, whilst Mhki got dispossesed 3 times, so it's much a muchness really.
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It's not just being 'overpowered', he's just not a 'threat' when he's in a one-vs-one/back to goal/not being respected (i.e an opponent in up his grill) so his default move is ball rentention. That's a criticism because he doesn't do enough on it when we need it (like in the first half) but also an acknowledgement that yes, at least he makes the right choice to recycle the ball.

The problem though is that we should expect more, like better hold up play and ball carrying. He's essentially a free roaming attacker/2nd striker.
 
Will hot double digits in terms of goals and assists for the 3rd season in a row for us. Invaluable player.
 
Best player on the pitch so far.
 
He's a match winner and you have to find a place for him in your team. He's been outstanding.
 
The opposition can sit back and try to frustrate us but then Martial / Mkhi pick up the ball and cause havoc to their organisation with their direct running.
Mata takes advantage of this chaos. If we didn't have those horrendous misses he could be on a 4/5 game scoring streak by now
 
That flick for Valencia was just:drool:.
Apart from his movement, he's always been a part of any sexy 1-2s we've played, not just today but throughout the season
 
Hopefully this puts to bed the myth that he's better centrally. His movement is class and he finds loads of space between defenders.
 
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