In a subterranean room decked out like a speakeasy,
Juan Mata is peeling back the curtain on his career at
Manchester United and laying out the changes he feels are required to resurrect the club. The dim lighting and oak decor of Rendition, Mata’s new cocktail bar and kitchen in the city centre, creates the perfect setting for a candid conversation.
“From a manager point of view, winning will come closer when you bring the best out of every single player in the squad; the ones who play more, the ones who play less,” says Mata. “And, unfortunately, I don’t think that has happened this season. For me, that is a big problem, rather than the specifics of tactics or whatever.
“I am not in the position of picking managers. What I do know is that being at Manchester United, this club needs first-class individuals for each department. That is how I understand Manchester United. This club should be top of the class in every department, on pitch or off. That is the only way I see this club competing for the biggest trophies.
“That’s what I hope for in the near future, otherwise you cannot compete with clubs who are doing very good things with a certain identity and professionalism in the way they make decisions. They are getting the results they deserve because of doing the right things. When you think about Manchester United you think about the best level possible, as far as I understood football growing up. I don’t understand this club without having first-class individuals for each department.”
Mata hits the table as he makes that last statement, a clarion call to everyone associated with United. The implication, that second-rate permeates parts of the building, is strong. Clearly, it comes from caring. Even though he is 34 and out of contract in the summer, an hour in Mata’s company proves his passion for the club still burns. Eight years at Old Trafford have given him prolonged insight into issues that need addressing. All areas — from recruitment to players and coaching — must be scrutinised.
Ralf Rangnick took over from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and results got worse. United will finish with their lowest points total in the
Premier League era. The quality of training sessions has been questioned, so too application among the squad.
“It’s clear that on the pitch, we have made many mistakes,” Mata says. “We could have also dealt better with certain situations that were happening in the club, managers changing, negative things. At the end of the day, we let that maybe affect too much the energy of Carrington.
“Certain standards were not met. Whether that’s attitude, level of training, off the pitch, which doesn’t include players, we haven’t been good enough. So that’s where we could learn. Also, certain things were out of our control, which we shouldn’t let affect us. You feel that way when you see certain things are not good enough. But we shouldn’t have let things happen.
“Many circumstances can affect certain behaviours. If you don’t have a solid base, when bad things come, it is difficult to stay all together.
“We need a reset in the culture of the club. That’s how I feel. The standards, what it means to represent this club to any player, what entitles you to play for Manchester United, what is expected on the pitch and off the pitch. Many things that need to be clear — this is Manchester United and anyone who doesn’t meet those standards is not up to the task and should not be here. That’s as clear as I can be.”
Erik ten Hag will be in the stands at Selhurst Park on Sunday, beginning work officially the next day — a sign he knows serious surgery is required and an early start is necessary. Mata is happy at Ten Hag’s appointment but thinks players’ views come secondary to those making the choice. “Otherwise, if you ask one player he might say one thing, ask another player he says another thing, and then what? If you ultimately have the decision-making power you should do your own research without having to commit to players’ preferences.”
Mata believes Ten Hag possesses “a clear identity” of style and “has done great things with an Ajax team that plays in a way I very much like”. He adds: “I have heard he is very methodical in the way he approaches games, he is very focused and serious on the matter. He wants to win but in a certain way. I just hope, honestly from inside of me, whether or not I am here with him, he can implement that, can be true to himself, and win trophies with this great club. This is a unique club, because of the history, because of what we represent, but also the expectations we have to fulfil.”
Mata’s United exit, once his deal expires in June, has been anticipated. But he reveals he has “a conversation pending” with Ten Hag and could stay. “I will see when we speak how we feel, what his ideas are, after that a decision will be made.”
Last summer, Mata signed a one-year extension on vastly reduced wages for a variety of reasons. “First because I love the club, second because I hoped I could give much more on the pitch than I ended up doing, and third because last season was horrible for me, for many reasons, especially because of the passing of my mum.” Mata was very close to his beloved mother Marta Garcia.
“It wasn’t an easy season at all with the pandemic and that personal tragedy,” he says. “I didn’t want to end my career at Manchester United that way, without fans in the stadium, with all that I have lived over the last months.”
There was another motivation. “When we made the signings we made I genuinely felt, ‘We are gonna really compete to win the Premier League now’. That’s why I renewed, I wanted to be part of that. One of the things I always say: winning a massive trophy with Manchester United would be an incredible feeling after being here for so many years, knowing the fans and everyone working in the club like I do.”
Mata knew early on, from
David de Gea, the scenes of jubilation a victory parade would provoke on the streets of Manchester. “He won the Premier League the year before I arrived. The first thing he told me, I remember going through Deansgate, he told me, ‘This club, when you win something like that, is the best feeling in the world’.
“That’s why the disappointment is so big now, because the expectations, at least for myself and I think many other people, were higher. We had come second, it felt that we could get there, right? But at the end of the day, we didn’t.”
Mata was always available this season and wishes he had played more. “I felt when the team needed a goal, I could have helped in that way much more.” He made his first Premier League start against
Brentford in United’s 36th game and reminded of his quality in a 3-0 win. Near midnight outside the stadium, he was still posing for pictures with fans in the Manchester rain. “I enjoyed the atmosphere. It was nice to feel that way but it was also a feeling of, ‘Now? Two games to go?’. There were opportunities to have done it earlier.”
Mata remains one of United’s most technically gifted players, still a class act having arrived out of a helicopter wearing a suit on a rescue mission for David Moyes. He has lifted three trophies — the FA Cup, League Cup and
Europa League — and scored 51 goals in 284 appearances, including two in a cherished victory at Anfield. But for a player who joined with winners’ medals in the
Champions League,
World Cup and European Championship, there is a tinge of melancholy about his time at United. Mata finds the rub.
“We had different directions, different types of managers, that is fact,” he says. “Maybe my type of football wasn’t 100 per cent fitting to their style. Who knows, if someone else had come to Manchester United five years ago, a manager whose idea of football benefited completely my qualities as a player, maybe we would be speaking about a different thing.”
He becomes passionate. “But I tell you one thing, I am proud of my time here. I didn’t always play good, and had bad times. I was frustrated with myself for that. But I’m proud because disregarding who was in charge, disregarding the style they had, fitting or not for me, I tried to adapt. I am honest and I think I did the best I could under the circumstances. And I was always there for the manager, whoever he was. I am happy with myself for that.
“It would have been easy to say, ‘OK I know I am not in his style of football, so I am gonna leave, give up, and go somewhere else’. I never felt that because of the belonging I feel for this club. And I always felt I could adapt with my qualities as a player.
“I also understand football has changed. When I was playing with
Spain and we were winning, everyone tried to play that way, and we were the best players of that style. You could feel whoever you put in the team would play good because we were all trying the same things and understanding the mechanisms.
“I understand people now believe football is more physical, quicker, box to box. So that was also happening, not only at United but outside. But I still feel the principal things in football, as I understand it — decision-making, reading what the game asks of you, the speed not of movement but of thought and of execution — are key. I would love to have players with that in my team, if I was a manager, and I would never take that part of football away from being a priority.
“Sometimes I think now we tend to highlight physical attributes, stats. So many stats, that are not very important. What do they mean? You need the context. Stats are good because they’re a tool, but you need to prioritise — is it noise or helping me to actually analyse good?”
Mata is speaking ten years to the day since he claimed the Champions League with
Chelsea, having delivered an 88th-minute corner for Didier Drogba’s equaliser. Chelsea employed an interim in Roberto Di Matteo and found success. The same strategy has gone sour at United.
“Each situation, each squad, each moment in time has its own circumstances,” Mata says. “At the time, at Chelsea, we had many players who had been there many years, and a manager who had the ability to bring them together with the younger players in the team. We made it happen.”
Mata insists United’s squad does have that kind of potential, with players of huge character, primarily
Cristiano Ronaldo. “Disregarding if he plays better or worse, if he scores or not, he always does the same things before and after the game. So for him, the game is just the most important part of his day.
“That’s something I look at. He’s like, ‘This is the right thing to do because that way you get into the game with more confidence in yourself. I’ve done everything I could to play good. I am going to play good’. He’s a great example of how he prepares for games.”
“Cristiano does a very logical thing over a holiday, he invests his energy, his effort and his time in his well-being. I mean, it makes total sense to try to be the best you can be in your body and mind, not only to play football, but to live a healthier and better life. That’s what he does.”
Lee Grant suggested Ronaldo’s arrival made players shun dessert after dinner. “There was some banter between tables, but nothing serious,” Mata says.
Of greater relevance is the debate about Ronaldo’s influence on the team. He has scored 24 goals in 38 games and is a prime candidate to be United’s player of the season, but Rangnick has experienced problems with his pressing.
“Maybe this debate exists because of who he is,” says Mata. “He’s
the top scorer in the history of professional football so people are going to speak about him, whether it’s good or bad. What is true is his standards and his will to win, to show himself in the most important moments of the season. He has the capacity to do that.
“So, it has been a great experience to get to know him better, to train with him and to see also how he understands football. I have had many conversations with him about football. I mean, he’s a bit older than me, so maybe he doesn’t look at it like this, but we are from the generation who saw football in a different way to the new generation.”
Mata says United players discuss constantly how to get better results.
Bruno Fernandes is a key figure. “Bruno is football sick,” Mata laughs. “Sometimes I tell him, ‘You’re too heavy, shut up!’. With Bruno I speak a lot about football, he knows a lot of players, he knows everything, kind of like Ander Herrera was.”
Many others talk about United too. Pundits, former players, have laid into the team this season. “Sometimes, I don’t know, it feels like they haven’t played the game by their comments,” he says. “That comes along with this club. It’s incredible that even when other teams are winning, still Manchester United are in the conversation.”
There were reports last year that Mata was stepping into coaching. “No base at all,” he corrects. “I have seen so many things over the years out there, which were not true. I remember my granddad, when he was alive, he always called me when he saw something about me. ‘Are you going? Are we doing this?’. I said, ‘No, no. If it’s something important. I will tell you’. But no, there was nothing like that in my conversations with the club.”
Mata is doing his coaching badges with others such as Fernandes,
Harry Maguire and
Phil Jones. He would also like to take in a match from a fan perspective. “The other day I was taking photos in Old Trafford and for one game I would love to be in the stands, feeling the atmosphere from their point of view. I don’t understand some football players being far from fans. I don’t think it makes any sense. Football without fans would not be the same. So for people who are putting their time, money, effort into our professional lives, being with them should be a normal thing.”
But Mata is not thinking of hanging up his boots any time soon.
“I am as hungry as ever to keep winning, and try to keep enjoying my football,” he says. “And I honestly feel within myself that I’m not finished winning, that I’m not finished competing at professional football at the best level.”
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