How can you not love this man?
8
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
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Wtf did I watch and why did I laugh so much 
Arsenal 2:0 Man Utd
Hey look! Juan Mata is not a fecking RB, shocked me that he struggled to influence the game from deep in our own half........
Did he get played at right back today?No, it was a 4-3-3. ...Mourinho's 4-3-3 in big away games which basically means the wingers are wing-backs.
Practically, the negative way Jose demanded they play meant Mata and Mkhi were very wide and closer to the fullbacks than Martial most of the time.
Was really surprised we didnt have Mata in the centre and Rooney on the left (and Mkhi on the right). It probably would have suited the team more.
Mata is better than mkhitarayan in my opinion. If I was a rival club; I'd take a punt on him considering him being relatively cheap and play him centrally.
He easily has the capability to have a stunning season like the one he had at Chelsea.
He easily has the capability to have a stunning season like the one he had at Chelsea.
Encouraging how much work he was able to get through on his come-back game... and he actually looked quite quick at times.
Thats about all that was encouraging mind you... but yeah, I'm sure he'll be of benefit in the coming games.
Thats about all that was encouraging mind you... but yeah, I'm sure he'll be of benefit in the coming games.
Agreed.. if we had played Mata centrally yesterday behind a duo of Rashford and Martial, we would have won that game imo.
His reaction to Rooney yesterday
Considering how Rooney behaves when our players are crap/do something to upset him, he should have walked over and slapped him
He's not a fullback.
Nope.
The Mata/Mikhi wing-back myth was spreading like wildfire last night though. Why the feck would Mourinho pick Mata and Mikhi - of all people - to play as wingbacks?!?
We didnt play Mata as wing back,we played him as RB in some situations, seems Axel got told to shadow Sanchez,which made a space behing and Mata had to play RB instead to cover their LB.
Arsenal played with wing-backs. Who our wide men had to help defend against. Which is their job in every game, except they're usually up against fullbacks who are a little less likely to get into very advanced positions. How the hell this got twisted into United lining up with Mikhi and Mata playing as wing-backs is a mystery to me.
Ehm,i didnt say anything about Mikhi,nor i said that we played with wing backs in Mata.
I didn't realise Mata was in such a good position. Ridiculous decision from Rooney, it was a tight angle and Cech was right on top of him. Certain goal for Mata and it would have changed the whole game
Wing back is quite a flattering description, it would imply they had licence to get forward.
He had some tidy passes in the first part of the game but slowly regressed into the RB role as we lost control of the game. Happy he's back, I hope he starts on Thursday.
I know! But many others did.
Mind you, you did say that Mata played as a fullback. Which is also wrong.
Neville was a joke yesterday. He spent the first 20 minutes preaching to Mata about getting back and helping out the RB from getting isolated.
Mata actually does this and it's used against him in the post match analysis.
Sky have waited since Chelsea in October to put the boot in and Jamie especially finally got his chance.
He said he doesn't care that 4 of our starters weren't match fit. Well done Jamie, your attention to detail and your understanding of the game is top notch.
Just repeat game management over and over again and bluff us some more
Mourinho's tactics can be nightmarish for most attackers. Yesterday the attacking threat was so less and the Carrick- Rooney midfield was so pathetic that he was almost playing as an RB for most of the match.
Way to go Jose, making Juan Mata play like an RB. We should check Griiezmann's RB skills too seeing that we interested in signing him.
Way to go Jose, making Juan Mata play like an RB. We should check Griiezmann's RB skills too seeing that we interested in signing him.
Yea what i meant is that few times,Mata ended up on RB by backtracking due Axel following Sanchez.
He should have dropped the Mr Nice Guy routine and clouted Rooney after that miss.
You're getting caught up in semantics mate. The responsibilities Mourinho had clearly assigned them and also the choices he made for his fullback positions (both in terms of personnel and in terms of tactical instructions) meant that Mkhitaryan and Mata by the end of their game had heat maps which very clearly resembled (to not say "were identical to") heat maps of classic wingback-play. They were clearly very different (to me, at least) from the heat maps similar forward players like Hazard, Sterling or Sanchez produce, even when their teams enjoy less possession than the opposition.
Whether Mourinho told them "you're playing wing back" or not before the game is highly irrelevant in context. They ended up in those positions because of the responsibilities assigned to them and Mourinho's tactical choices elsewhere. Feel free to disagree, but don't act surprised people are picking up on it.
I didn't realise Mata was in such a good position. Ridiculous decision from Rooney, it was a tight angle and Cech was right on top of him. Certain goal for Mata and it would have changed the whole game
In my stream they had been lauding Rooney seconds beforehand about how his head was always up and he was looking at the positions of all the other players..
Glad Mata is back, he helps us retain possession so well with his smart passing and movement off the ball. Yesterday was down to negative tactics but Mourinho does seem to have reverted to type the longer season has gone on.
There was an important moment in the first half when Herrera played the ball down the line to Mata whose run had taken him behind the defence and had Mkhitaryan free centrally, approaching the area, through on goal, if only Mata could find him with a pass. Mata's pass went straight to Cech. Obviously not as bad as Rooney's failure to hand Mata a tap-in but still a huge opportunity wasted.
The other thing I noticed was how impressive Mata's close control is in small spaces when faced by several opponents.
The other thing I noticed was how impressive Mata's close control is in small spaces when faced by several opponents.
I remember that run. But Mata was quite wide though and he had to put a cross with his right foot. That's the problem with playing wingers/forwards inversed. It might be great in term of them cutting inside and shooting but hard to provide a quality cross from a wide position on your wrong foot.
Tottenham 2:1 Man Utd
What does he actually do? Complete passenger in near enough every game. Get rid in the Summer.
Put Messi in this set up and I don't think he'd do a lot better than Mata either. Can't expect a painter to build the whole house can we?
Complete passenger apart from constantly providing goals and assists.
He's so far down my list of players to show the door to.
Good to see him getting minutes under his belt. Will be a good option come the final.
I agree that he doesn't do enough, not strong enough to dictate a game and lacks the yard of pace needed to play out wide.
Id be surprised if he was sold in the summer (partly because I don't believe many clubs would be in for him) but I also think there's bigger problems that need fixing in the squad first.
Id be surprised if he was sold in the summer (partly because I don't believe many clubs would be in for him) but I also think there's bigger problems that need fixing in the squad first.
Mata is the epitomy of a great squad player. Scores goals, makes assists and is adaptable in terms of formations. There are a few in the attacking line I'd much rather see leave before Mata.
That being said, he was poor today.
Do you mean the Messi at Barca?
Time to quit United forum for a while.
Honestly, I only realised he was playing as he was subbed off.
I think he should start in the final
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