Mata is not a player that can feature consistently in a side challenging for a league title. Since he's moved to England his teams have finished 6th, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th. Obviously not his fault entirely, but there's clearly a trend (same at Valencia as well). A team like Everton is actually his level.
Juan Mata
- Thread starter MyOnlySolskjaer
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) are here to discuss Amad saving our blushes in a win against Southampton as well as our now annual loss at home to Brighton. They discuss Amorim's post-match comments, revisit how mid-table we may or may not be, and discuss some transfer news.
Had really high hopes for Mata when he signed, but I havent really been impressed with him at any point. Granted, LVG's system didnt do much for any of our attack minded players, but the more I saw him, the more I realised that Mata - like Kagawa - is a bit of a luxury player. Looks good when the team is playing well, but simply could not be relied upon to create something or impact a game when the chips were down, not in the way that the likes of Silva, Ozil or Hazard (when on form) could.
He is very weak, lacks pace, does not take players on, offers little defensively, and simply plays it safe.
Lack of impact is the key phrase for me when describing Mata. Lovely bloke and all, but I hope we get rid. A bit surprised that Everton are showing interest given they already have Barkley as their #10, but I would take the £25m at this point, although arguably his market value is a bit more than that.
He is very weak, lacks pace, does not take players on, offers little defensively, and simply plays it safe.
Lack of impact is the key phrase for me when describing Mata. Lovely bloke and all, but I hope we get rid. A bit surprised that Everton are showing interest given they already have Barkley as their #10, but I would take the £25m at this point, although arguably his market value is a bit more than that.
Im not saying to keep him for that soul reason. On his day he is a class player, not when your asking him to play out on the wing.
As long as we get a decent fee for the lad ill not be to fussed I always knew Mhkitaryan was always going to be a direct replacement. With the type of fees being threw around at the minute id expect at least 30Mill for him.
How would he be ideal for Spurs? Spurs play fast and physical football. Mata would never be able to cope with the intensity of Pochettino's tactics.
It's really unfortunate that Mata cannot play multiple positions well enough to guarantee a starting role. If we could build around him he'd be great..but we cant and yeah I don't see hims ettling for a bench role. I'd rather have him than Rooney in the first team behind Ibra but Captain Fantastic has an iron grip on the club...
I can personally see him at Roma, but not at the others.
I think he'd want to stay in the Premiership, but he'd be needed at a top 6 team.
Arsenal already have Ozil, Chelsea would be ideal but we know the history, City actually a good match but again Rivals.
It's a hard one, where does he go?
They just lost their best midfielders (Pjanic).
Interesting, I have not really followed much in world football this year, maybe Roma is a good place for him.
Great city, great culture, top club too.
Rumours are we won't be playing with a proper 10, due to the 433. Not to add if we do play with a CAM, Mickey is better.
Why cant the likes of Fellaini be sold first...
Selling him to premier league club could give better value and if Everton is interested then why not sell him now.
Let's not forget the second time even our fax machine protested.
£10+Mata = Stones should be a good deal
Dortmund will be perfect for him. He'll play for a manager that'll get the best out of him, while he could be that rare player that will be good enough for Dortmund, while not being enough to attract the interest of Bayern, RM, Barca, PSG etc. He seems like the romantic type so I reckon at this age he'll want to start building a legacy at one of the bigger clubs in Europe.
Sell for 20m with first option on Weigl/Dembele?
Sell for 20m with first option on Weigl/Dembele?
Valuing him lower than Stones, adding insult to injury as we send him out the door
Poor Mata, what did he do to deserve this
Mourinho loves provocative ones... only reason I can come up with.
Sooner or later he'll snap out of it.
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As life isn't fair.
Why do people have to post about other players being sold on a thread about Mata being sold. It matters not whom we want sold, if the club have received a bid of a level that they would consider selling a player for, then they're obviously not going to say, oh we'd rather sell a,b or c player to you first.
Can we keep mata because he's such a really nice guy and I love him so much. We don't deserve him
Too drunk to argue properly but:
As you said, even Mata would agree that last season was poor on his part. So why limit the stats to just last season?
I believe (though I may be wrong) he is our second top scorer since he arrived at the club? That indicates productivity to me, especially as he arrived in a team that we all agree struggled for the sort of attacking impetus that would benefit him.
It's not the workrate, but the defensive quality is the problem. With Mata, even if he is there and tackles, the chance of the opponent came out with the ball still high! Remember the goal vs Mid...land where Mata went tackling and somehow the other team player just still have the ball like Mata was not there.
7:23 in the video
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Nah, sell him to Juve with first option on Dybala. We need a feeder club in Italy too.
Juan Mata is one of the symbols of our transfer failings post Sir Alex retirement where we have signed players without properly assessing their suitability to the team and set them for failures by either altering their game too much for eg Herrara or playing them in positions they are not comfortable with eg Schneiderlin he is defensive minded CM not DM.
Mata signing was a panic buy approved by out of depth manager in attempt to convince concerned and skeptical fan base of his relevance. Mata would always produce good numbers if a team is build around him but he lacks in too many areas to be the main man for team with title aspirations, So if we are able to recoup substantial amount of his transfer fee then it would be in our interest to sell him this season as his value would only depreciate from here on.
Mata signing was a panic buy approved by out of depth manager in attempt to convince concerned and skeptical fan base of his relevance. Mata would always produce good numbers if a team is build around him but he lacks in too many areas to be the main man for team with title aspirations, So if we are able to recoup substantial amount of his transfer fee then it would be in our interest to sell him this season as his value would only depreciate from here on.
Mata is a strange player. He has played well for United but when you watch him play it's hard to figure out what he's good at. He's slow and weak on the ball. He isn't particularly brilliant creatively or lethal in front of goal. He doesn't go past players and is poor defensively.
He has really good technique and is a good passer of the ball. He's intelligent, has a great attitude and seems a really nice guy. But for £37m he should be the creative fulcrum of the team and he never will be. Compare him to Ozil, Silva, De Bruyne, Hazard, etc. He isn't on that level.
I would be amazed if he's still at United when the season starts. He isn't a Mourinho type player. I would expect Jose to value someone like Lingard as a better squad player.
After Mkhitaryan, I can see another 2-3 coming in and 3 or 4 out. Mata is very likely to be in the "out" category.
He has really good technique and is a good passer of the ball. He's intelligent, has a great attitude and seems a really nice guy. But for £37m he should be the creative fulcrum of the team and he never will be. Compare him to Ozil, Silva, De Bruyne, Hazard, etc. He isn't on that level.
I would be amazed if he's still at United when the season starts. He isn't a Mourinho type player. I would expect Jose to value someone like Lingard as a better squad player.
After Mkhitaryan, I can see another 2-3 coming in and 3 or 4 out. Mata is very likely to be in the "out" category.
I'd keep him as a squad player. Can't be a consistent starter (still started the most games) and not good enough to build anything around him. He still is productive, so wouldn't mind having him as an option.
I'd love him to join us. Would mean Barkley could move back to CM and Lukaku would finally have a quality AM to feed off (assuming he stayed).
Nobody will buy will Fellaini, we are stuck with him till his contract runs out.
I'd be selling half a dozen attackers before even considering getting rid of Mata (Rooney, Young, Fellaini, Depay, Lingard, Januzaj etc).
Mata for Stones plus cash, how does that grab you?
Don't you think Barkley would be a bit of a defensive liability and ruin the balance of the midfield if he played there regularly?
I'd rather take the 50m for Stones and buy Mata on the cheap which usually happens when United sell players.
He's too inconsistent with through balls to play at AM and his best attribute is box-to-box driving runs. His defensive game has suffered a bit due to him playing at AM but when he first began playing it wasn't an issue at all.
Mata is definitely a classy player, but he sometimes would also slows down our attack move, and may not be ideal player for Mourinho.
I don't care who goes first but Mata has to be one of the players out. Just not good enough for a championship winning side and don't see the point of him being a bench player at this age. Leave that for Lingard.
We have to get at least £30m for him or its no way Jose. He along with Schneiderlin are the only players we'd consider selling that can fetch decent fees.
I think there's a good chance he'll leave because he'll be no where near the starting 11. But has this Everton rumour got any credibility at all? It doesn't seem to.
I'd be surprised if we got more than £20m for him for two reasons, he's not that good and his wages are sky high.
I'd be surprised if we got more than £20m for him for two reasons, he's not that good and his wages are sky high.
I will carry him to Goodison Park myself for £25m. Lovely bloke but a very ineffective footballer. If i were on a beach somewhere in Brazil playing Futsal I would be quite happy to have him (and Herrera) on my side but we are not. We are playing in the most physically demanding league in the world and he will never hit the heights we need
Indeed... If Jose got rid at chelsea where he had been fantastic the previous couple of years it seems likley that he will be off again... Could see him back in Spain
If we are to sell him, I'd naturally sell to whoever offers the most money. But if we can use a Mata swap to get Pogba, I'd be all for it.
Come on.. he's not even close to a symbol of transfer failing. That symbol belongs to Fellaini. Mata could be better, yes definitely. I think everyone should get a fresh start under Mourinho though, it's difficult to judge players when they play under Moyes and LVG. Only person that should go is Rooney, as SAF tried to get rid and you read all the threads now and it's very clear that Rooney does not excel in any position but people try to shoehorn him in because he's Rooney and no manager has dared to drop him continuously.
I have to agree with the original poster. It's not about the quality of the player but the plan of how to use them. Mata and Fellaini summed up the Moyes era. Under Fergie there was a purpose to every signing. Even if the player ended up not being good enough you could see there was a plan for how each player would be used.
Mourinho and Guardiola's signings show the style of play each manager plans on implementing. Moyes had no plan at all. What style of play was he going for with Mata and Fellaini?