Who will De Gea mix with now? Ander and now Mata have gone 
Juan Mata officially leaves Manchester United
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I was going to answer the post but it is no point. Lingard is not even 1/10 of a player Mata is/was. Both on and of the pitch.
Nice guy but should have left years ago, was never good enough. A symbol of our decline.
As a professional loyal player who hasnt seen a bad word, he will be missed. As a player (and partly not his fault as never really played as a number 10), he isnt really ot be missed, in fact though its hard to say, he was and has been an awful signing. He was a club record signing at the time, that fee then was huge and he has never been more than a bit part player really, good player that never really fitted in on the pitch. In terms of fee and what was produced, one of our weakest signings, that transfer window was awful by Moyes and cused him straight away
Nice guy but forgettable 8 years at the club, with exception of few nice moments, when you consider how good he was at Chelsea. No idea how he’s lasted so long from either his or club’s perspective.
Lots of talk about him being misused but reality is not many managers wouldn’t have stuck him on the wing. That number ten role has been dying off and he’s too limited physically to adapt to another central role. The big difference is at Utd he was kept around unnecessarily whereas at another top club he’d have been sold off years ago.
Lots of talk about him being misused but reality is not many managers wouldn’t have stuck him on the wing. That number ten role has been dying off and he’s too limited physically to adapt to another central role. The big difference is at Utd he was kept around unnecessarily whereas at another top club he’d have been sold off years ago.
RonaldoWho will De Gea mix with now? Ander and now Mata have gone
Good luck to Mata. Such a likeable guy. Such a shame we couldn't fully utilise him.
A gentleman off the pitch, a very intelligent and kindhearted person. Just never really showed enough quality on the pitch after his high profile transfer. There were glimpses like Juanfield and his understanding with Herrera back in the day, but all in all it wasn't a very impressive United career. He had vision and intelligence but the combination of weak and slow is quite hard to work around as an attacking player in the Premier League.
Wishing you all the best for the future, Juan
And thanks for not following quite a few of your team mates who subscribed to the inverse formula of...
Decreasing time/performance on the pitch= Increasing disloyalty & disrespect towards the club.
You remained a decent human being throughout testing times while others failed that test miserably. We know who they were/are
Shame because there was a very good footballer in there, you just never got managed well. Imagine playing your silky football in front of a proper midfield 2 that could provide a shield of steel(sorry McFred, but you are more steel wool) for the creative ones to go express themselves?
Saying that, as one poster questioned that you more than likely could have got more playing time if you had moved to a league/team more suited to your skill set but you didn't.. why?!
Cynics will say it was "money for nothing" But I genuinely think you were like the rest of us, hoping, every time a new manager joined/backroom staff upgraded, that it would lead to happier times, which you rightly wanted to be a part of...Alas it wasn't meant to be
Adios Amigo
And thanks for not following quite a few of your team mates who subscribed to the inverse formula of...
Decreasing time/performance on the pitch
You remained a decent human being throughout testing times while others failed that test miserably. We know who they were/are
Shame because there was a very good footballer in there, you just never got managed well. Imagine playing your silky football in front of a proper midfield 2 that could provide a shield of steel(sorry McFred, but you are more steel wool) for the creative ones to go express themselves?
Saying that, as one poster questioned that you more than likely could have got more playing time if you had moved to a league/team more suited to your skill set but you didn't.. why?!
Cynics will say it was "money for nothing" But I genuinely think you were like the rest of us, hoping, every time a new manager joined/backroom staff upgraded, that it would lead to happier times, which you rightly wanted to be a part of...Alas it wasn't meant to be
Adios Amigo
Great fella cultured footballer , must have been sad for him take see the dressing room implode. Should have played a lot more than he did , he was our David Silva but every manager we had for some reason couldn’t see it , Cheers Juan
Exactly. He was wasted by clueless managers. Which, to be fair, can be said of a lot of our post SAF signings. Just think of the reactions to the majority of the players we've signed in those last 9 years. Almost to a man, they've been hailed as the missing link who will turn this around for us, then they come to OT and within a year they're written off as shite.
Players that we bought in their prime and didn't contribute enough because the managers had no clue or refused to use them in their most effective position. Why we never tried to just build a functional team around a guy like Mata is mystifying to me. Over those eight years it could have been done. He had the quality.
For years now the club simply collected footballers of varying quality and purpose and threw them together expecting miracles to happen. No plan, no strategy. Hard to blame Mata for it not being a productive spell. At least he was professional, respectful and gave his best at every moment.
Love Mata as a player and a person, we seriously fecked him. He deserved so much better. Thanks you handsome genius.
Is it mystifying? He was signed and we had Rooney, who at that stage was better than him. Then we brought in LvG who wanted the control of a 4-3-3, which Mata is best suited to on the right so he can cut in (we did actually try him in the middle in the first game, when Swansea battered us in the middle largely because he was missing so much) and he actually does play there a fair amount, and largely does absolutely nothing. Then we get to Mourinho who not wanting him in the first place is the reason we got him. By this point Mata plays like he’s at least a decade older than he actually is too.
Then we get to Ole wanting to play with pace on the break, a skill that nobody could ever accuse Mata of having and, to be Frank, when he has been on the pitch in the last 5/6 years he’s been neither use nor ornament. He’s just been very poor for a long, long time and been allowed because he’s a “nice guy”.
Why did he stay 8 years then If he was being wasted? Happy with the big salary and no real pressure? Jose is not everyone’s cup of tea but I think Mata was another he called right while at Chelsea.
Rooney was on a steep decline. I'd definitely put the blame on the lack of strategy from the top. When you spend the kind of funds we did on Mata to not look to use him effectively seems idiotic. And if the succesive managers don't want him why not try to sell?
Why did Mourinho not sell him then? What about Ole? This is a question that can be asked both ways. What we know is that Mata loved and respected the club and its fans and did what the managers asked of him. Professionalism goes a long way.
If I was Mourinho I'm not sure the fact that I thought Oscar was a better pick than Mata is something I'd be advertising.
The rarest of items, a United player no rival fan could hate.
Doesn't change the fact that Lingard won us that game and his contribution in winning it was more than Mata's. I believe Pogba was player of the tournament in the EL too.
Mata has been hiding behind his image, he should be receiving just as much criticism as the other two if not more.
Goals against Pool, City (including the one in LC which we went on to win), Chelsea, Arsenal, Leicester, FA Cup final along with assists in quite a lot of big games.
I'm fine if people say that he wasn't as good as his Chelsea days, but I dont think one can call him a flop. If anything, I'd say he was among top 10 signings in the post SAF era despite him being misused by nearly every manager.
I'm fine if people say that he wasn't as good as his Chelsea days, but I dont think one can call him a flop. If anything, I'd say he was among top 10 signings in the post SAF era despite him being misused by nearly every manager.
A case of what could have been. We wasted him. He was a top, top player but we never played to his strengths. Will never forget Juanfield.
That’s the Mourinho paradox - he can identify the players who are not good enough but is incapable of bringing in better replacements. To be fair, he did win the title in his second stint, something Mata has never done.
It’’s because the manager does not have the last say. Why he is he “loved and respected”? I grew up on Robson, Wilkins, Eric, Keane etc. Mata has been largely a virtue signaling mascot apart from a brace against a soon to be sacked Bendan’s Liverpool team. I’d rank him along side the likes of Birtles in terms of value for money.
You read it wrong, Mata loved and respected the club and the fans, at least that what it looks like from my perspective.
With what we've seen re: Judge today, I agree that it may not have been the manager's call when selling players they did not want to use.
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I don't really have any hard feelings towards any of the players who have left, so I'm not playing favourites here. But can you explain to me how Lingard would have been in a position to score that extra-time winner if Mata hadn't scored his goal? Cause I'm all ears here.
Absolute bollocks we just wanted a tiny slow left footed player to play wide right!
we ignored all his strengths and set him up to fail
Proving my point. Tiny slow attackers don’t excel in the modern game unless they’re exceptional technically. Mata isn’t exceptional technically. He’s just pretty good.
Think we completely wasted him by playing him out on the right wing to be honest, as there's no way he couldn't have played more centrally against teams lower in the league when we were struggling to break them down, but it's definitely the right time to go.
I know, I just really like Mata and really dislike Rashfords recent attitude. Mata has never been anything other than a perfect servant to the club. Never caused issues, seems like a lovely bloke and does loads of charity work in the background.
You can’t be serious. He’s levels below players like Bernardo and David Silva.Huh?
Hugs! We'll always have Juanfield. He was class in LVG's first season.
Honestly I feel like Mata has been paid millions, for years, for fetching the half-time oranges, making cups of tea for people, and smiling.
But. . . he got the club blah blah blah.
More like a symbol of our incapability to make use of good footballers.
A superb technician and playmaker, used by dinosaurs like Mourinho and counter attacking play like Ole. We've made the worst of a fantastic talent and yet, he never rocked the ship or complained.
The only player we've signed over the last 10 or so years that I feel deserved better.
When all's said and done he was a bit useless for us.
Wasted. A cracking player but wasn't a good fit for any managers we appointed. Maybe LVG at a push. Would liked to see a younger Mata playing for Ten Hag but not to be.
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