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2020-21 Performances

View full 2020-21 profile

5.9 Season Average Rating
Appearances
18
Goals
3
Assists
3
Yellow cards
0
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Is he injured at the moment?

Find it very odd that he hasn't made the squad two games in a row. Even when not playing, he's normally always on the bench.
 
Strange how little he is being used, considering he has looked really good this season. Felt like a game for him tonight.
 
Man Utd 1:0 Watford
Looked his age today.
 
In some games he manages to bring on some of his old Chelsea magic but most of time today is what we get.
 
I thought he was easily one of our more comfortable players. Anytime we did look bright he was usually involved.

Not setting the world on fire, but he tends to play better with better players, which is hardly surprising.

He was also one of our more vocal players whenever we were defending set-pieces... which tickled me.
 
Will be such a breath of fresh air seeing someone like Diallo getting game time instead of this guy.
 
His little arms and legs flailing around when he's running, he looks so cute.
 
Not sure what he gives us that's worth anywhere near the £160k a week he's on

Should be his last season here. Wouldn't be opposed to him being moved on this month.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
I thought he was easily one of our more comfortable players. Anytime we did look bright he was usually involved.

Not setting the world on fire, but he tends to play better with better players, which is hardly surprising.

He was also one of our more vocal players whenever we were defending set-pieces... which tickled me.
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Agreed, looked one of our better players. Only had VDB on his wavelength.
 
Over the course of the match he was the best of our four starting attackers. He, James and Lingard all started the match playing decently, but the other two fell away after 20-25 minutes while Mata continued with his 'decent' performance for most of the match.
 
With Cavani up front, I wonder if we´ll see more of Mata in the coming games against weaker opponents, e.g. Sheffield United at home. With Cavani´s movements in the box, I see Mata as a much better fit than Greenwood on the right. Mata - Cavani - Rashford.
 
Hope he stays on as a coach. Although I imagine he's got another move in him for big wages abroad. The players love him. Just saw Bruno raving about him in an interview.
 
I assume he will stay next season, then move on for a couple of years before retiring. Would love him to be an ambassador at the least.

very rare you find such a nice guy playing football.

met him at Carrington a few months after he signed. It’s a shame United and Mata never really suited each other - we’ve not seen the best of him. He’s not suited to the modern game.
 
FujiVice said:
Hope he stays on as a coach. Although I imagine he's got another move in him for big wages abroad. The players love him. Just saw Bruno raving about him in an interview.
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What did he have to say?
 
We should move him on, he really doesnt suit our style. He's slow and weak. He's really smart and can get a beautiful pass from time to time, but I can't imagine him contributing much more that he has this season. He'll get minutes from time to time but feck he's on a 160K a week contract, even 80K would be too much for his current contributions. Just let him leave to the MLS or some Arab league where he can still make money.
 
SAFMUTD said:
We should move him on, he really doesnt suit our style. He's slow and weak. He's really smart and can get a beautiful pass from time to time, but I can't imagine him contributing much more that he has this season. He'll get minutes from time to time but feck he's on a 160K a week contract, even 80K would be too much for his current contributions. Just let him leave to the MLS or some Arab league where he can still make money.
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Juan Mata doesn't strike me as the kind of guy with those kinds of priorities.
 
jem said:
Juan Mata doesn't strike me as the kind of guy with those kinds of priorities.
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Well he can of course find a team from la Liga or half/bottom PL that can pay him 40K per week.
 
I said it at his last extension that it was basically the best contract he could ever sign for at his age.

Big money in a big team, where he get's little criticism both because of his image/affiliation with the club and also because we don't expect anything of him.

Some were arguing that he was doing us a favour because he could go play elsewhere and that he would be a big fish in a small pond and flourish.

Wrong, he's been on his last legs for years and he absolutely would not walk into a team like Carzola/Silva have and be the main man. In fact, it'd be very likely his career would peter out.

Love the guy but he really should have been shown the door or sold years ago. I'm not saying he hasn't contributed or won't continue to contribute but his minutes really should have been given to the youth.
 
I said at half time that he could have been something different for us today, and I’ll stand by that. He’s linked up well with Bruno previously and I think we needed his ability on the ball. He would have offered a different threat to what we had with Rashford and Martial.

Shaw’s form has been decent, but I don’t see the benefit in that sub at all. Telles has a decent cross anywaythere was never going to be any room for Shaw to run into.
 
Perfect game for Mata. Defence sat back, operating in tight areas on the edge of their box. They want to play deep, go man for man and pin them into their own box.
 
Mata should have been brought on for Martial as soon as we scored the equalizer. We lacked movement (apart from Cavani) as well as incisiveness in the final third and Mata was the perfect player to solve that
 
What I find sad with Mata is he really thrives of linking up with Fernandes yet he doesn't get any game time anymore.

Surely he'd have been the better than Martial.
 
This is surely his last season with us. Barring an injury crisis I don't see how he gets much game time anymore.
 
Does anyone have a clue what's happened to him? All season long, even when he's gone longish periods without playing, he's been on the bench - even back when we only had 7 subs. Now 4 games in a row, he's nowhere to be seen. Like he's litetally vanished off the face of the Earth, no training pics, no social media, nothing.
 
Looks like he’ll be moving on . 4 defenders on the bench and still no sign of him .
 
Great lad. He was actually really sharp this season on the rare occasions when he played. A lot sharper than previous years.
I don't know why we never really played him in his best position before Bruno arrived.
 
Games like today are exactly why he needs to feature more.
 
If he's not injured, he should get ahead of Martial in the picking order.

We need more dimension to our game, and he always brings something to the way we play
 
Not to even be on the bench instead one of our four defenders is completely baffling.
 
Lost count of the amount of times we have said that he could unlock the door against packed defences
 
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