Juan Mata officially leaves Manchester United

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Tavern in the town said:
You can’t be serious. He’s levels below players like Bernardo and David Silva.
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He's better than Bilva technically for me. Silva and him are quite similar, I think people forget how good Mata's 1st touch is and how good his control was. If anything the players you've mentioned along with Mata are comfortably in top tiers when it comes to technical ability
 
anant said:
He's better than Bilva technically for me. Silva and him are quite similar, I think people forget how good Mata's 1st touch is and how good his control was. If anything the players you've mentioned along with Mata are comfortably in top tiers when it comes to technical ability
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Bernardo is an absolute wizard. Mata could never dribble past 4 players and put one on a plate for a forward like he did vs Liverpool, or keep the ball no matter how much he was pressed like you see Bernardo do nearly every game.
 
AFC NimbleThumb said:
But. . . he got the club blah blah blah.
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Apparently because he won one game against Liverpool with two goals, we have to call that Juanfield and repeat it ad infinitum like we're Stoke or something celebrating a win against the big boys.
 
fps said:
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.
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Not his fault that is it? He's more or less always been available and never coasted when actually on the pitch.

And anyway, he basically played pretty regularly apart from the last 2 seasons (and I think he should have played more in the last 2 years) which coincided with Ole deciding we should only play about 13 players regularly (which turned out wasn't a great move)
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Not his fault that is it? He's more or less always been available and never coasted when actually on the pitch.

And anyway, he basically played pretty regularly apart from the last 2 seasons (and I think he should have played more in the last 2 years) which coincided with Ole deciding we should only play about 13 players regularly (which turned out wasn't a great move)
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I don't remember him being on the pitch. A Man Utd attacker should at least be memorable. Can't remember seeing him, genuinely. Presumably he was doing that thing he does on the right where he bookends the pitch, controls nicely, and passes inside inoffensively.
 
fps said:
I don't remember him being on the pitch. A Man Utd attacker should at least be memorable. Can't remember seeing him, genuinely. Presumably he was doing that thing he does on the right where he bookends the pitch, controls nicely, and passes inside inoffensively.
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Considering most are memorably shit, I'd argue having good control and keeping play moving, even if not overly memorable, is a decent trait!

To my mind he's been largely decent when he's been on the pitch, or was just too few and far between
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Not his fault that is it? He's more or less always been available and never coasted when actually on the pitch.

And anyway, he basically played pretty regularly apart from the last 2 seasons (and I think he should have played more in the last 2 years) which coincided with Ole deciding we should only play about 13 players regularly (which turned out wasn't a great move)
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He didn't, though. The last time he started more than 20 league games or played at least 50% of our league minutes was 2017/18.

As for never coasting when actually on the pitch, he's scored 4 league goals and assisted 6 in the equivalent of 31 league games across the last 4 seasons (for an easy comparison to the poster boy for coasting on the pitch, Martial's numbers over the last 2 seasons are 5 goals and 6 assists in ~19 games)

Is it Mata's fault we've kept him around for so long despite having been finished a long time ago? Obviously not, but it's also not a reason to give him a free ride. He stopped being useful years ago.
 
King Azaz the Unabridged said:
He didn't, though. The last time he started more than 20 league games or played at least 50% of our league minutes was 2017/18.

As for never coasting when actually on the pitch, he's scored 4 league goals and assisted 6 in the equivalent of 31 league games across the last 4 seasons (for an easy comparison to the poster boy for coasting on the pitch, Martial's numbers over the last 2 seasons are 5 goals and 6 assists in ~19 games)

Is it Mata's fault we've kept him around for so long despite having been finished a long time ago? Obviously not, but it's also not a reason to give him a free ride. He stopped being useful years ago.
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We play in more competitions then just the league though...in 19/20 he played in 37 matches out of 61... That's playing fairly regularly.

A free ride insinuates that he wanted to not be selected and just collect a pay check, and I'm not sure how anyone can say that's the case with a professional like Mata.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
We play in more competitions then just the league though...in 19/20 he played in 37 matches out of 61... That's playing fairly regularly.
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He appeared in 37 matches, starting 21 and playing 1,939 minutes (35% of the possible maximum) . And a large chunk of those appearances (11) and minutes (770) were in the Europa League, against poor opposition. The season before and after that when we were in the CL, he was barely trusted at all in Europe.

And a "free ride" insinuates not giving him any criticism for contributing virtually nothing on the pitch for years now, while other players the fanbase has decided are less likeable are torn apart. I'm sure he wanted to be selected, but he hasn't been good enough at a Premier League / Champions League level for close to half a decade.
 
Nice guy and technically gifted, I wonder if he might have a couple of seasons in Italy, always thought he'd suit Serie A.
 
Nice guy good footballing brain, and on his day playing in the right position he carried a threat.

Juan certainly found a 'soft place to fall' when he arrived at United, I cannot forget the look on Moyes face when he had to announce Mata's arrival at a 'presser', he looked as though he had only just found out minutes before meeting the press that Mata was a United player now!

Of course we were soon to find out that Woodward's plan was to buy a top name player every season, didn't matter whether the manager wanted them or not, they would sell shirts and help him gain sponsors. Looking back (hindsight's marvellous isn't it) I suspect Juan was the first of these ' shirt player purchases' from Ed....... not Mata's fault of course.

Thanks for the memories Juan ( the brace against Liverpool always enjoy) best of luck.
 
Maticmaker said:
Nice guy good footballing brain, and on his day playing in the right position he carried a threat.

Juan certainly found a 'soft place to fall' when he arrived at United, I cannot forget the look on Moyes face when he had to announce Mata's arrival at a 'presser', he looked as though he had only just found out minutes before meeting the press that Mata was a United player now!

Of course we were soon to find out that Woodward's plan was to buy a top name player every season, didn't matter whether the manager wanted them or not, they would sell shirts and help him gain sponsors. Looking back (hindsight's marvellous isn't it) I suspect Juan was the first of these ' shirt player purchases' from Ed....... not Mata's fault of course.

Thanks for the memories Juan ( the brace against Liverpool always enjoy) best of luck.
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TBF that was Moyes for his entire stint as our manager. I think the bloke couldn't still believe it that he was the manager of Manchester United.
 
I think his obvious humanity and kindness enhances his reputation as a player

Mata is a wonderfully gifted player but his best days are long long gone.

I'm slightly surprised his left. I did wonder if Ten Hag would keep him around as a role model and a useful midfielder to see us through the early rounds of Europa.
 
He's a poster boy for the mediocrity post SAF. You look at the amount of praise and contracts he got compared to the precious little he offered. It's astonishing that a player so average has received this much love.

Valencia, Rafael, Smalling left the club with not even a quarter of the fanfare that Mata seems to be leaving with and they were infinitely better players for us.

Mata has been here pretty much since we turned shite and got progressively worse. Fellaini was of more use to us and we treated him like shit. He'll always be a Chelsea man to me because he did next to feck all as a red.
 
One of the most likeable players in football, unfortunately for us, he never got anywhere near his Chelsea form for us and we really held on to him for too long.

I wish him all the best for the rest of his career though.
 
King Azaz the Unabridged said:
He appeared in 37 matches, starting 21 and playing 1,939 minutes (35% of the possible maximum) . And a large chunk of those appearances (11) and minutes (770) were in the Europa League, against poor opposition. The season before and after that when we were in the CL, he was barely trusted at all in Europe.

And a "free ride" insinuates not giving him any criticism for contributing virtually nothing on the pitch for years now, while other players the fanbase has decided are less likeable are torn apart. I'm sure he wanted to be selected, but he hasn't been good enough at a Premier League / Champions League level for close to half a decade.
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So he did feature fairly regularly in matches then didn't he? Wasn't just sat twiddling his thumbs was he?

And maybe... Just maybe, a players leaving thread isn't the place to be tearing apart someone who's been at the club for 8 years? And who's been a consummate professional throughout?

Honestly - why would you want people to slagging him off?
 
Annihilate Now! said:
So he did feature fairly regularly in matches then didn't he? Wasn't just sat twiddling his thumbs was he?

And maybe... Just maybe, a players leaving thread isn't the place to be tearing apart someone who's been at the club for 8 years? And who's been a consummate professional throughout?
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Except this is exactly what's happening in Pogba's thread. And like I said in the other thread about rating Mata's time here*, it will happen to players like Martial and Rashford if we sell them right now, despite all three of them being far better and more useful for the club than Mata was.

Posts 255-257 are spot on.

*Someone else in this thread was trying to use Mata's goal and assists stats to say he was actually quite good for us. Same guy was in the "Pogba officially leaves" thread trying to argue Lingard was a better player for the club overall.
 
Tavern in the town said:
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.
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Not on the right wing they don’t!
im guessing you bash fifa
Mata was a top top player and we messed it up
 
I expect him to be back in a couple of years when he retires. He has a lot going on at United/Manchester including the Common Cause project.
 
I wish him the best for the rest of his career. There are not that many ex-players that I would say this about.

With that said, I'm very happy that he's gone as he should've been sold several years ago. He is the prime example of how terribly Woodward ran this club. Club record signing without knowing how he'll integrate into the team and contract renewals at a salary most star players at other clubs would be jealous of, over and over. He avoided much of the criticism for his on-field performances because of his public persona and his looks.

Overall, he was a bad signing for us and was kept on way longer than he should've been, but that's the story of the club under Woodward.
 
Annihilate Now! said:
Not his fault that is it? He's more or less always been available and never coasted when actually on the pitch.

And anyway, he basically played pretty regularly apart from the last 2 seasons (and I think he should have played more in the last 2 years) which coincided with Ole deciding we should only play about 13 players regularly (which turned out wasn't a great move)
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Had Lingard been bypassed in the way he was against Brighton they’d have been pitchforks out. The idea of Juan Mata always seems to cloud the actuality. He was spoke about being a United player far better than he played as one.

Was he good enough to play more this season? Yes probably but given the team is a shambles it isn’t saying much.
 
sullydnl said:


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This can't be true surely? We pay the best wages for the most inexperienced people, the clubs money should be going to the best in class ffs.

I'm going to start applying for high ranking jobs within the club soon, seeing if that stupid hiring process extends throughout the club, or is it because we like hiring people with "big names".
 
I would love to see Mata in a managerial or administrative role. He is a calm, educated guy who would suit perfectly to a key position at the club.
 
yumtum said:
This can't be true surely? We pay the best wages for the most inexperienced people, the clubs money should be going to the best in class ffs.

I'm going to start applying for high ranking jobs within the club soon, seeing if that stupid hiring process extends throughout the club, or is it because we like hiring people with "big names".
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hmmm... is United unique is that?
 
sglowrider said:
hmmm... is United unique is that?
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Can't remember an organisation as big as ours consistently putting under experienced people in charge I'm key roles?

I'm sure other like Bayern put former players in key roles, but they tend to learn from their more experienced counterparts before taking over, we just throw them in the deep end.
 
yumtum said:
Can't remember an organisation as big as ours consistently putting under experienced people in charge I'm key roles?

I'm sure other like Bayern put former players in key roles, but they tend to learn from their more experienced counterparts before taking over, we just throw them in the deep end.
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Ajax with Edwin fella? He was only a marketing guy when he first got there and now a CEO. Got to start somewhere. Bayern is loaded with former players.

Its a unique business where your customers judge you every 3-4 days. I think you need to have been there before to appreciate the constant pressure. I work in tech but I cant imagine having evaluations every 3-4 days by your customers but also peripheral folks like the press, media etc every day.
 
sglowrider said:
Ajax with Edwin fella? He was only a marketing guy when he first got there and now a CEO. Got to start somewhere. Bayern is loaded with former players.

Its a unique business where your customers judge you every 3-4 days. I think you need to have been there before to appreciate the constant pressure. I work in tech but I cant imagine having evaluations every 3-4 days by your customers but also peripheral folks like the press, media etc every day.
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So Edwin started somewhere other than CEO? Not straight to from player to technical director, and I'm guessing that Edwin shadowed someone whilst in that marketing role.

And I did mention Bayern, but again, they tend to groom their ex players into these roles first and I'm pretty sure Kahn was shadowing Rummenigge for a while before taking over.

I have absolutely no qualms with ex players getting these jobs, my qualms are with them seemingly learning on the job.
 
All the best. My favourite player but should have left years ago for his own good. He could have been a legend but came to a sh*t period of our club. He is the most intelligent player in United. I would like to have him as part of the staff in the future. Nice guy.
 
yumtum said:
So Edwin started somewhere other than CEO? Not straight to from player to technical director, and I'm guessing that Edwin shadowed someone whilst in that marketing role.

And I did mention Bayern, but again, they tend to groom their ex players into these roles first and I'm pretty sure Kahn was shadowing Rummenigge for a while before taking over.

I have absolutely no qualms with ex players getting these jobs, my qualms are with them seemingly learning on the job.
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Edwin was marketing manager or director when he first started. And was taking a management course in parallel.
 
sglowrider said:
Edwin was marketing manager or director when he first started. And was taking a management course in parallel.
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Well that makes more sense, I've no problem with Mata taking a job here and then learning from someone to eventually take that role, just seems weird going straight from a player to technical director.
 
yumtum said:
Well that makes more sense, I've no problem with Mata taking a job here and then learning from someone to eventually take that role, just seems weird going straight from a player to technical director.
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Like get a lot of jobs it's about who you know.
 
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