Rate Mata's United career

OrcaFat said:
I gave Pogba 4. I like Mata and he did just as much as Pogba in his first two or three seasons but couldn’t get into the team after that. So I don’t see how I can give Mata more than 3.

For reference, on this scale I give Kagawa 2 and Park 6.
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Someone's a harsh critic!
 
Mostly shit. He gave us Juanfield and that's about it. Being nice doesn't give him additional points. He should have left years ago. He hasn't had the legs for the PL for quite a while. I do think we wasted him on the right, though. He should have been our #10.
 
4/10

never a United player. Too slow and too weak. Fantastic ability but would suit another club, like Arsenal.
 
5/10.

Tried his best every time he played for us, but we wasted his talents out on the right. So many times he'd make an intelligent pass and there was nobody who'd read the play and understand what he was going to do.

He was very highly rated when he moved to us and if he'd gone to Liverpool, City, even Arsenal back then, he'd have had a much better career.

Excellent professional though and a nice guy.
 
phelans shorts said:
But what did he actually do on the football pitch.
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Played over 200 matches, scoring I think 50? Goals, had a big part in the last few trophies we’ve won, scoring in the FA cup final. Incredibly short memories on this forum.
 
Didn’t need him at the time of signing and was overpriced at £40m. Shoved out to RW which didn’t suit him at all because of his lack of pace.

When we used him centrally he was a decent player but this wasn’t often. Another case of United putting a square peg in a round hole.
 
6/10

He was good until 2016/2017. (Although still below what was expected of him) and mostly anonymous from 2018 till now.

I was going to give him a 5 but he gets an extra point for being a nice guy (since we apparently have such a toxic atmosphere at the club)
 
We misused/underused him when we first got him, and some spells of quality, so I'll give him a generous 6/10 for overall contribution. For how successful successful transfer was all things considered, probably a 4/10.
 
OrcaFat said:
Haha yeah true but I like to use the whole scale so that the 8s 9s and 10s actually mean something…
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Giving Pogba 4 makes Park at 6 mean nothing.

One of those 2 played a bit part role in winning an FA Cup and a Europa League. I say bit part because he turned up and performed as and when he felt like it.

The other played a key role in winning 4 league titles, a European Cup, a Club World Cup and 3 league cups. I say key role because he never gave anything less than everything he had in the shirt, and Fergie knew he could rely on him to perform in the very biggest games.
 
5/10 maybe?

He really had six full seasons here where he played a lot (32+ appearances). In his best spells across that time he was central to the team's attack, relatively productive and always had a basic high level of technique and intelligence that stood out in particular during the very grim LVG periods of deathly dull football.

But ultimately he was a square peg in a round hole from the very start and never really stopped being so. When you think of what he showed at Chelsea and the fee we paid for him, he's been a big disappointment.

I don't think anyone would suggest that was down to any lack of professionalism or effort on his part, as he's always been the sort of pro you'd want your club to be associated with. He was mostly a victim of circumstances, I think. Wrong club, wrong time.

The comparison with Pogba is interesting. I wonder how they compare in terms of appearances/goals/assists here?
 
harms said:
4/10 probably? Such a lovely player and character, but he was finished by the time he moved here, despite the relatively young age. I genuinely forgot about his existence from time to time during the past few years.

We’ll always have Juanfield though. Hugs!
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He was only 6 months removed from winning his second consecutive Chelsea POTY after a season in which he had 19 goals and 35 assists. It seems to me that it was more a case of right club wrong time rather than him being finished by the time he signed for United.
 
Excellent player who made a wrong career move. He was ok for us and he was a solid signing but he is no10 and only no10. Position with which Moyes, Giggs and LvG didn't play. Jose and Solskjaer had different plans for that position.
I still don't understand why Jose didn't used him more on no10. He played Lingard over Mata ffs

Shame how this ended. He should have played more and do more for us.
 
5.5 - just feels weird that he was here so much longer than at Chelsea because I feel like he's barely made a dent in the last nearly ten years relative to how aces he was in two and a half seasons for them.
 
5.5 out of 10.

I think Ole completely mismanaged him the last 3 years.

I do think that in 2014-2015, 2016-2017 (the two years when at spells, we actually played good team football), he was among our best players.

If the rumor that Chelsea had offered money and him for Rooney is true, then I would put his transfer to 3.5/10. Not his fault, but it makes his transfer even more disappointing.
 
Good player, horribly misused at first because the shoehorning of Rooney and then he was kinda finished by Mourinhos second season.
 
Would have been a 6/10 if we moved him on in 2019, but he's been sitting around doing literally nothing for three years, so I'll take another couple off and give him a 4.

One of the most exciting attackers in the league at Chelsea in 2012/13. Decent-to-okay for us without ever really living up to the potential he showed as a 24-year-old - never the fastest or strongest player anyway, and once he started declining physically he was more or less finished.

Lingard and Pereira were more useful than him by Solskjaer's first season.
 
diarm said:
Giving Pogba 4 makes Park at 6 mean nothing.

One of those 2 played a bit part role in winning an FA Cup and a Europa League. I say bit part because he turned up and performed as and when he felt like it.

The other played a key role in winning 4 league titles, a European Cup, a Club World Cup and 3 league cups. I say key role because he never gave anything less than everything he had in the shirt, and Fergie knew he could rely on him to perform in the very biggest games.
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Well Park gets a significantly higher rating than Pogba. I suppose I could give Park 7 but that only leaves 8, 9 and 10 for players who had better careers and there are a lot of those. If I give Pogba 3 that puts Kagawa at 1 and there’s plenty worse than him.
 
OrcaFat said:
Well Park gets a significantly higher rating than Pogba. I suppose I could give Park 7 but that only leaves 8, 9 and 10 for players who had better careers and there are a lot of those. If I give Pogba 3 that puts Kagawa at 1 and there’s plenty worse than him.
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I'd have Kagawa much closer to Pogba to be honest. Possibly even level with.
 
WeePat said:
He was only 6 months removed from winning his second consecutive Chelsea POTY after a season in which he had 19 goals and 35 assists. It seems to me that it was more a case of right club wrong time rather than him being finished by the time he signed for United.
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And yet he never replicated even remotely that sort of form neither for United nor for Spain since. It’s obvious that United was the wrong choice for him but I still think that he was past his best (and that half a season for Chelsea add up to that).
 
Good in LVG's seasons and, oddly enough, Jose's first season after being written off by everyone, the rest of his time though he has been quite poor. I can only remember his goal against Juve in the last 4 or 5 years.

Very nice and likable chap but another who has kinda wasted a chunk of their career here.
 
5 probably. Last 3 years it's been pointless keeping him as he was not getting game time. Mata is still here though and perhaps is not definitely leaving.
 
harms said:
And yet he never replicated even remotely that sort of form neither for United nor for Spain since. It’s obvious that United was the wrong choice for him but I still think that he was past his best (and that half a season for Chelsea add up to that).
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Just wasn't dynamic enough when you compare him to the likes of David Silva, or Bernardo. Ozil was a better player as well, by a fair margin. Nice, tidy player, technically pristine, but not creative enough.
 
Aside from scoring against Liverpool.

I struggle to remember anything else he dod that was even remotely note worthy. Didn't help that certain managers kept putting the smallest slowest guy on the right wing for some weird reason.

I'd say a 3 or 4 out of ten.
 
Record £38m signing in early 2014. Dreadful return on our investment (the first of many to be fair) and seems to have some stipend arrangement where he stays until retirement despite never playing. At the time, I would say one of our worst ever signings although since then the likes of Sanchez and AWB may have taken the crown.
 
7.5/10 until 16/17, hard to rate over 5 since then.

Perhaps didn't help that we never really played a style that suited his game. Kind of sums up the way that we've been run from top to bottom that we saved him from a Mourinho system, only to then hire the same manager who shunned him and not think about moving him on.
 
3/10. Signed without a plan, completely misused, seemed to play like a 35 year old from the age of 28.
 
I want to be clear that I highly admire Mata the footballer and the man, but it must be said his 8 seasons at Old Trafford were a waste of everyone's time.
  • Panic buy by Moyes, who had no idea what to do with Mata.
  • Criminally mismanaged by Moyesey's successors, each of whom deserved to be sacked.
  • Got old and slow, all the while picking up contract extensions from Woodward and Ole, neither of whose departures can be second-guessed.
 
phelans shorts said:
But what did he actually do on the football pitch.
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... besides being played out of position the majority of the time he's been here, he's actually contributed similarly to Pogba across his time in the premier league, statistically, while coming with absolutely none of the baggage, an agent that didn't give our club dogs abuse every week, and wasn't a world record fee at the time.

https://www.premierleague.com/players/4287/Juan-Mata/stats

I think this may include his Chelsea stint as well, to be fair, but he has been at Manchester United a LOT longer than he was at Chelsea so there's that.

https://www.premierleague.com/players/3920/Paul-Pogba/stats

Mata was better for us than people remember, and has never complained about his time here, despite (to be honest) having plenty of reason to. And with that I'd still say like, 6/10, but I can't help thinking that's no fault of Mata's, he tended to play really well whenever he was given an opportunity at 10 but Mourinho preferred Fellaini and Solskjaer preferred Lingard.
 
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