[DWelbz19]

?

I mean, nice skill and all, but surely the pass to Martial is on there?

 

[Bobski]

Mata produced some lovely moments last night, demonstrations of high class technique. He also on a couple of occasions OUTPACED defenders. That CSKA team might be the slowest I can recall watching at this level, must not be involved in the state sponsored doping.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

I mean, nice skill and all, but surely the pass to Martial is on there?

I agree with you, watching it that first time my immediate reaction was there is the ball to Martial then he did that 1 skill too many.

 

[manutddjw]

Reminds me of Berbatov. A joy to watch, probably the most skillful player we have, but for whatever reason it just doesn't work the way you'd expect.

 

[acnumber9]

I mean, nice skill and all, but surely the pass to Martial is on there?

It would've been wasted because Martial had stopped so he wouldn't run offside.

 

[Robaldo]

I mean, nice skill and all, but surely the pass to Martial is on there?

Agreed, and he probably could have passed earlier to Rashford earlier on.

Kind of sums him up: he gets plaudits for nice touches but isn't very effective...

 

[anant]

I mean, nice skill and all, but surely the pass to Martial is on there?

I felt the same initially, but having rewatched the video I feel the weight of his body was leaning to the opposite direction making the pass near impossible to execute

 

[Yagami]

Wasn't on for long so not much to comment on bar his nice pass to Martial for the Lukaku chance.

 

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

That pass to Martial was beautiful.

 

[Jaybomb]

Why do we never start him in the big games? So fecking frustrating. He’s got one of the best records against top teams in the league.

 

[dichinero]

Why do we never start him in the big games? So fecking frustrating. He’s got one of the best records against top teams in the league.

Because he's not 7ft tall and plays the ball on the turf

 

[Bubz27]

He's got a very good work rate, why not try him in place of Herrera? Its not a very Jose thing to do, I understand. Ironically Pep probably would play Mata there.

 

[acnumber9]

Needs to play when Pogba isn't playing. He's the only other player you can trust to actually pass the ball to a teammate.

 

[2mufc0]

Can play that killer ball in the final third, probably the only player in the squad who can. Shame he's physically declined so much.

 

[Jaybomb]

He's got a very good work rate, why not try him in place of Herrera? Its not a very Jose thing to do, I understand. Ironically Pep probably would play Mata there.

Herrera is rubbish. Spanish Tom Cleverley.

 

[gavdim2002]

Both Mata and Zlatan should have started, but we have no balls. We lost with fear, by fear to fear. It is not all about Pogba playing or not playing, it is an attitude issues when you as Manachester United do not dare to play any and all teams without fear at home. Sad really sad.

 

[Di Maria's angel]

I remember under van Gaal he was easily the best player in all the games. Should start but wont happen.

 

[Devil may care]

Played a part in creating our best chance and almost scored on the rebound after Lukaku's duff.

 

[Snow]

Overall our football is better when he's on the pitch, especially when he gets to play in the middle. I get why he didn't start today considering the game plan for this match but still, we need someone that can let the ball flow in few chances, that makes intelligent runs and also works hard in defense.

The second name on the team sheet in attack after Martial for me.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Anyone thinks he needs to start every game that Pogba doesn’t? Granted, he was wank in his last PL start but he adds a slickness and imagination to our passing and movement that nobody else can provide when big Paul isn’t involved.

Said this on Tuesday and think tonight vindicated my opinion. We’re so vanilla with our passing and quality on the ball whenever him or Pog don’t play.

 

[bucky]

Said this on Tuesday and think tonight vindicated my opinion. We’re so vanilla with our passing and quality on the ball whenever him or Pog don’t play.

They are our best players in terms of playmaking ability, so not surprising. Don't know how much of a difference both make, if we are set up like we were though.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

They are our best players in terms of playmaking ability, so not surprising. Don't know how much of a difference both make, if we are set up like we were though.

Not sure what you mean? We’d set up slightly differently with them in the team, because we’d have different players on the pitch. So it’s not really comparable.

 

[bucky]

Not sure what you mean? We’d set up slightly differently with them in the team, because we’d have different players on the pitch. So it’s not really comparable.

Overly defensive, not trying to dominate the game ourselves. Not the first time Mourinho approached a big game like that a bit too hesitant.

 

[Ace of Spades]

He's got a very good work rate, why not try him in place of Herrera? Its not a very Jose thing to do, I understand. Ironically Pep probably would play Mata there.

Especially when the Hetrera-Matic pairing does not seem to work.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Overly defensive, not trying to dominate the game ourselves. Not the first time Mourinho approached a big game like that a bit too hesitant.

Liverpool and Spurs would be the only other ones I could think of where that criticism applies. Neither Pogba nor Mata started either of those games.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Should have come on earlier really.

 

[Sylar]

Understand why he didnt play, but should have come on around 60 minutes imo. He keeps the ball moving and holds possession well. We badly needed that at the time when we went 2-1 down.

 

[bucky]

Liverpool and Spurs would be the only other ones I could think of where that criticism applies. Neither Pogba nor Mata started either of those games.

And last week against Arsenal? Pogba started that one.

 

[Jacky Quacky]

feck it lets put him in a midfield three with Pogba just so we can have more control in the game while maintaining creativity.

Matic
Mata Pogba

Why not give it a try.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

And last week against Arsenal? Pogba started that one.

We didn’t set up defensively in that game at all.

 

[The United]

Said this on Tuesday and think tonight vindicated my opinion. We’re so vanilla with our passing and quality on the ball whenever him or Pog don’t play.

It was weird how jose planned this game with the intend to win second ball with 2-3 fast players going behind city's defense without someone who can actually do the passing. I suppose he overestimated lukaku's heading ability to knock the ball into martial/rash/lingard's patch to start good counters.

I also thought he should play blind in place of rojo to add some composure and passing going on.

 

[bucky]

We didn’t set up defensively in that game at all.

Not sure what game you saw. We practically invited Arsenal to score, if it wasn't for De Gea and Arsenal being Arsenal we wouldn't have won that game. They had 33 shots to our 8, 16 on target to our 4, 75% possession. Sure, we won that game, but can you really fault people wanting us to be a bit more proactive? It's not like Mourinho has the defenders he used to have at other teams either. Last year it was okay to give him a pass considering previous seasons, but a bit more this season is hardly too much to expect. Especially when we are at home, we could have approached the game differently.

 

[Pogue Mahone]

Not sure what game you saw. We practically invited Arsenal to score, if it wasn't for De Gea and Arsenal being Arsenal we wouldn't have won that game. They had 33 shots to our 8, 16 on target to our 4, 75% possession. Sure, we won that game, but can you really fault people wanting us to be a bit more proactive? It's not like Mourinho has the defenders he used to have at other teams either. Last year it was okay to give him a pass considering previous seasons, but a bit more this season is hardly too much to expect. Especially when we are at home, we could have approached the game differently.

I saw the same game as you. We didn’t set up defensively at all. What we did do was play defensively once we got a two goal lead. Different scenario though.

 

[Charlie Foley]

Said this on Tuesday and think tonight vindicated my opinion. We’re so vanilla with our passing and quality on the ball whenever him or Pog don’t play.

I agree with this. You just feel with him on the pitch he can get something or create something. His pass to Martial or his assist for Rashford during the week just show that little X factor.
I thought it strange we had no passer of the ball either in our midfield or at the back until Lindelof came on. Of course playing hoof ball mata would probably be peripheral

 

[anant]

I love Mata, but I think it was a bit obvious why he wasn't playing. His strengths are more technical based and it involves us playing more through the ground. This is pretty much where City excel as well, and playing to Mata's strengths is equivalent to playing to City's strengths and there was no way we could match them in that aspect of the game

 

[adexkola]

I love Mata, but I think it was a bit obvious why he wasn't playing. His strengths are more technical based and it involves us playing more through the ground. This is pretty much where City excel as well, and playing to Mata's strengths is equivalent to playing to City's strengths and there was no way we could match them in that aspect of the game

Counter attacking football at it's best requires a lot of technical skill. With Mata missing we had no ability to start them from the midfield, instead resorting to hoof ball from the back. I think that we would have had more opportunities to hurt them with Mata starting, and Lukaku wouldn't have looked so clueless up top by himself.

I do agree that they are on another level technically (even Delph can split a defense) but that doesn't mean we can't aspire to a minimum level of competence technically, them complement it with speed on the break.

 

[freeurmind]

I think Mourinho should try playing Mata in central midfield in a deeper role, especially when Pogba is out. We seriously lack quality in midfield and Pogba and he seem to be the only players to be capable of playing quality passes. Would love to see both he and Blind in midfield against Bournemouth. People will say that pairing lacks pace and mobility but so did the Carrick-Scholes partnership and we won loads with them. We looked far more threatening after he came on in the derby.

 

[Canagel]

Mata, Pogba and Ibrahimovic are the most creative players in the squad. At least one of them has to play every game if fit because when they don't play we hardly create any chances. Plus they link up very well together. Mata lacks pace but it shouldn't matter. We have a team of giants with lots of players above 6 foot and other quick players like Rashford, Martial and Valencia. You need to balance that out with players like him. We need to buy a proper RW in the summer to address this issue. Di Maria would've been the perfect player for this role but we know what happened to him unfortunately.

 

[sugar_kane]

It was a big mistake leaving him out on Sunday but fairly understandable as Jose was using Lingard for pace on the counter.

The problem was we had hardly any player on the pitch capable of creating proper chances or cutting defences open so just resorted to twatting it upfield.

Lukaku had a bad game in that he gave away two goals but he also had zero quality service all game. Mata could have helped with that.

 

[haram]

Put him back on the right today.