Fantastic today, especially the first half.
8
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 35
- Goals
- 10
- Assists
- 4
- Yellow cards
- 2
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik @Rood and Imran @Annihilate Now! start with the good news by celebrating Manchester United Women's emphatic FA Cup win over Spurs at Wembley and the future of manager Marc Skinner.
Then it's the bad news and the ever worsening form of our Men with losses to Arsenal and Palace.
Finally the main debate - ETH Out now or keep him until the end of the season - if not longer. Are you Team Nik or Team Imran?
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Very pleased. Great overall performance. Was also overlooked a couple of times from our defenders who shat their pants again everytime they had the ball on their feet.
His touch really is exquisite.
Proves yet again that he can be majestic at home.
Really improved performance from him this game. Willingness to be involved and more importantly taking ownership of carrying the ball forward and playmaking was extremely pleasing. Well involved for the first two goals! Hope he keeps it up.
Played like a proper 10 today, linking the midfield with the strikers.
He benefits having a Rooney or Herrera in the midfield. At times he has looked lost when he's playing in the hole and the midfield is too deep for him to actually work with. When he has a midfielder pushing up with him he clicks into action.
He benefits having a Rooney or Herrera in the midfield. At times he has looked lost when he's playing in the hole and the midfield is too deep for him to actually work with. When he has a midfielder pushing up with him he clicks into action.
Loved seeing him try tougher passes rather than keeping it ticking over. He has it in him to make those passes so should be trying them regularly. Great performance.
Exactly my thoughts on his performance, he's good enough to create some dangerous situations with his passing. Whether it's by playing it through, crossing it or just combining with others.
Thought he was good today. Space + quality players around him = hurting teams.
Was good today,will be average another day. Thats just Juan.
I gave him 8 and thought he played well today, but long term I think he is too slow and lacks strength to play in there with Rooney as the other #8, we wont stretch teams that are more compact and powerful than the likes of Hull and Newcastle without some added dimensions in the attacking set-up.
Fair play to him, i've been criticising him all season but deserves praise today, still remains to be seen if he can do it away from home, he also benefited from Newcastle's lackluster play the amount of space he found himself in won't happen often.
He was very good today. Very positive in his runs and passing. He's been too timid at times but today was what you would expect from a player of his ability.
He'll always play well in home games like these where he has acres of room. He's a great option to have in any squad.
I agree, and I'd rather see us lose possession because Mata tried to be dangerous and direct, than because he pottered about with the ball to long around and got barged out of the way with ease.
It's interesting to see him and Rooney adapt to basically both playing as advanced centre mids. Rooney provides the legs when Carrick gets overrun and Mata has the ability to play some exquisite passes as we saw today. I actually thought that some of his best touches and passes came when he was under more pressure from Newcastle which is odd because he is quite susceptible to being pushed off the ball quite easily.
In a system I hate, I like the balance that Mata and Rooney have finally found - but they need Carrick in there. Carrick himself doesn't have to be majestically brilliant to tie it together, but he's a different animal to a Fellaini and of course Fletcher when it comes to bringing the pair of them into the game.
In a system I hate, I like the balance that Mata and Rooney have finally found - but they need Carrick in there. Carrick himself doesn't have to be majestically brilliant to tie it together, but he's a different animal to a Fellaini and of course Fletcher when it comes to bringing the pair of them into the game.
With time and space his delivery is impeccable. A great player but squad player for us. I'm OK with that.
Helps when he has people running and moving for him so he can pick them out. His pass to Rooney was obviously the pick.
There was a fair bit of space out there but we know Mata is a final third type of player. He is wasted deeper. Great vision for Rooneys second goal. There was speculation about his future earlier in the season so it's good that he's had a lot of football recently.
Helped that there was a blast crater of space between Newcastle's midfield and defense. Mata, like may of our midfielders can look like world beaters when given time and space to collect the ball, turn and spray passes, which he did quite well today. If Newcastle had a semi functioning midfielder like Tiote, it would probably have been a bit of a challenge. I hope his form improves but today did not reveal anything we didn't already know about him.
He was immense in the first half, him and Rooney were a joy to watch in midfield.
He's world class at old trafford but often goes missing away from home....delighted for him that he is looking like first team material now after a very slow start....a very useful player to have
He was phenomenal today, really pleased with him. I think this was one of the his best performances of the season.
I was thinking this while I was at the game. He wasn't anonymous and influenced the game a fair bit today.
Hope he has a good away performance next.
Damn...I knew he perfomred better at Old Trafford but that's alot more stark than I thought it would be. Anyway, he's a joy to watch when he's on form.
Absolutely, he was immense today. It was his best performance of the season. Rooney, Falcao and Jones were also very good.
Looked like the player he was at Chelsea today; really pleased to see him come back into form.
Having Rooney, Falcao and RVP in front of him must be a dream situation
Having Rooney, Falcao and RVP in front of him must be a dream situation
Great seeing Mata play well. I still see people giving praise but making sure they get their criticisms in there at the same time. Fact is though, he impacts the results of games as much as anyone.
He is a pleasure to watch, especially in that kind of form.
We are coming up to him being at the club for year and while the price tag will influence judgement, I think he has done very well. Obvious room for improvement but very happy with how he has played for us.
He is a pleasure to watch, especially in that kind of form.
We are coming up to him being at the club for year and while the price tag will influence judgement, I think he has done very well. Obvious room for improvement but very happy with how he has played for us.
Forward passes? Surprising. Solid performance.
Again, can only play at home. He doesn't have the physical capabilities to hold his own to express his technical abilities in away games. I say this over and over again. I'm still confused as to why we bother with him away from home.
Lovely little run and pass to Rooney for the second goal.
I've been saying it all season, it's about what you put in front of him. Falcao might not have scored the goals but his energy, movement and aggression were the difference between this Mata, finding spaces and providing assists, and the Mata who was playing behind an out of form and virtually stationary RVP earlier in the season.
Still a shadow of the player he were at Chelsea but a very, very good game from him today. Him and Rooney ran the game until late on when we took our foot off the gas.
Good performance. Seems he really is the 'home game specialist' at the moment though. Will be interesting to see how he goes against Spurs now, if he is picked.
You think teams are more physical at home than they are away from home? It's still the same group of players with the same "physical capabilities" regardless of what pitch they're playing on...
People need a stick to use, let them use it.
....
Even without those stats, its quite clear that Mata plays better at home, for whatever reason.
No doubt stats show stuff like that and I'm not arguing that.
However, it's just a case of people needing a reason for the sake of having one. Sometimes things just happen, whether it be coincidence, luck or by design. The same players take the field home and away, the home players don't take the field with an extra 3kgs each week. He has performed away from home before for us and Chelsea.
Would love a strong performance against Spurs and see what the reaction is.
He could get 2 goals and an assist against Spurs and those stats would look pretty much the same for home vs away. That's how small the sample size is.
Very naive way of looking at it. It's obvious teams don't press us at Old trafford like they do away. Mata has a lot more time and space to work on the ball at home as a result of how teams set up against us at home. Away he gets bullied and thrown around like a rag doll. The stats someone posted in this thread are not that surprising
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