I'm lagging. Is it serious? Likely to start vs Chelsea?
The snails will hold this team back
- Thread starter IrishRedDevil
- Start date
I agree pace isn't everything but that doesn't make Mata faster than Silva
It's important to have a snail like Mata in the team. When the opposition is parking the bus, Juan has often been our go to guy. His passing and creativity is better than any of our wing rockets.
No to the first question, Ole said it's a precaution as he doesn't want to risk anything before the Chelsea game.
When Mata had 20 goals and 20 assists for Chelsea, Silva didn't look so much better, did he?
My point is that to blame the lack of structure in our game on Mata's absence of pace is exaggerated.
cheers
Not sure, just said he had a back injury.
Reasons:
1) Minimal reason = Pogba injured
2) Main reason = Ole rates him highly
Fred and Pereira are available to partner up with McT.
I think you'll be surprise with that bold part. Mata will somehow find a snivel way getting a spot among the 11.
Mata isn't faster than Silva and isn't as good also but our problems go much deeper than Mata's pace, imo.
That's only one season where you could say Mata was arguably better than Silva. The latter has consistently been the best or one of the best City players since they've signed him.
Mata has been a disappointment at our club, considering the price we paid for him at the time, bar some legendary moments like Juanfield.
At this point, I'd bench Matic and play McTominay as our DM. Madness that we didn't try to fix this area of the pitch.
I don't think Mata would look great for Liverpool either and would definitely hinder City's game. He's got great technique and solid fundamentals but he's not creative enough nor productive enough to justify having him as a #10
Neither should play important games.
Enough is enough.
We can't keep playing these passengers.
Enough is enough.
We can't keep playing these passengers.
It's not so much a lack of pace, but both Matic and Mata are clearly both past it and look old and slow out there. It's one thing being physically slow, another thing just looking slow and constantly a step off pace on the pitch. That's the issue with Matic, Mata, Sanchez, was the case with Lukaku, often times the case with Young in how he gets himself in trouble. Fred and Pereira as well are similar in terms of their mental decision making. They process everything far too slowly for the premier league and need way more space than they actually get. Whenever any of those 6 or 7 players play, we have the same problem. For some it's the speed of thought that lags behind, the other is a bit of everything when you are just past that physical prime.
It would certainly help if they didn't often take needless extra touches for a simple pass. You make a good point, this is why we aren't close to the best european teams. The pace at which we move the ball, with acres of space even, is too slow.
We have no real pattern to our attacking play. We essentially rely on pace on the counter. So creative players like Mata will suffer. Silva will too in our team. I guarantee you that in a team like City with more attacking cohesion Mata will look very good.
Matic doesn’t seem fit to me. His sharpness is his problem. You don’t lose the ball the way he did because of a lack of pace. He did have a couple of good moments.
Matic doesn’t seem fit to me. His sharpness is his problem. You don’t lose the ball the way he did because of a lack of pace. He did have a couple of good moments.
Just watching Matic in the first half today...
He is going to be absolutely eaten alive this season if he plays. I know he looked a pub player for most of last season as well, but he looks 0% better for the break he's had.
He is going to be absolutely eaten alive this season if he plays. I know he looked a pub player for most of last season as well, but he looks 0% better for the break he's had.
Matic was a problem. Mata was noway near as bad as people claim him to be. Martial was pretty shite too.
Even more worrying is the clear lack of quality on the ball. Even if we replace them with faster players it doesn't mean anything. All the pace, energy and pressing in the world is no use if we can't hold the ball for more than 5 seconds after we regained it.
Dont forget our 2 slowest CBs Lindelof and Maguire.
Fastest would be Bailly, Smalling, Tuanzabe and Jones
Fastest would be Bailly, Smalling, Tuanzabe and Jones
I was happy enough with keeping Mata for another year, but was really hoping Matic would have been moved on this summer. I guess like with nearly all of the players we want gone, there's no one out there remotely interested.
'Snails' is quite presumptive.
The issue is more to do with directness of passing. In other words, players who don't dawdle on the ball.
The issue is more to do with directness of passing. In other words, players who don't dawdle on the ball.
Oles been quietly ruthless since he came in and it’s clear his ‘starters’ for Chelsea got more minutes tonight. De Gea, AWB, Lindelof, Smalling, Shaw, McTominay, Rashford, Martial.
I can’t see Matic getting anymore than bit part minutes this season which is the right thing to do. Massively at fault for their first goal.
I can’t see Matic getting anymore than bit part minutes this season which is the right thing to do. Massively at fault for their first goal.
Mata is a luxury player we never should have bought. Hes also played out of position since we bought him. We have 4 players Dalot, Greenwood, James and Sanchez who should all start on RW before he does. All will perform better. Same as Matic. he could be brought on with 15 mins to go if we are winning 2/3-0 to shore up DM even more.
The thing is he has never been that player at Utd. Silva has been much better than him since he has been here, played in the right position or not.
You are correct
Mata signed a 3 year contract this summer. Matic’s contract is ending next summer but I genuinely have a horrible feeling, which will not be surprising, that we offer him a new 2 year contract or so.
We have had plenty of opportunities to get rid of our deadwood but never seem to do and just like to offer them new deals when the existing contracts are due to expire i.e Rojo, Jones, Young, Mata.
Don't forget the mental snails too. The really low RPM thinkers. Perreira's brain runs on dial up when he's on the ball
Matic did very well for our first goal today, and Mata had a huge part in both our winning goals for our previous two friendlies... But yeah, let's just be negative before the season has even started and we don't really know what our first XI will look like or anything like that, because that's fun.
Seriously, this whinging on this place before a ball has been even kicked this season has been something else.
Seriously, this whinging on this place before a ball has been even kicked this season has been something else.
I think it is pre season. in 30 games this year we will be vs a side parking the bus and you can't just run past them... might be happier we have mata as an option then... or else we just take the pep tactic and say it isn't fair that a team countered our tactics by defending
Good post, I agree with this
This won't change until the youngsters start being integrated and we sign Sancho to go along with that. If Rashford was our least technical player of our top half of the side, we'd be one of the most technical sides in football.
Gomes
Pogba
Dybala
Martial
Rashford
Greenwood
Sancho
We are treating mata as if he was a United legend when in reality he always looked as a bit of a surplus here. We should have gotten rid of him last summer and then spared the salary from him and Jones to pay herrera what he wanted
The whinging on those two has started since last season. Give it a bit of more time and you will join.
This isn't Winning Eleven where you need 19 speed for all the players. It's all about getting the best out of them and covering their weaknesses, not asking them to run the whole game.
I definitely think Silva has better acceleration at least. Even if not, he excels in other ways which Mata doesn't.
Matic plays the most important role on the pitch and is completely crap. Heard couple of rumors about Inter or Milan wanting him, we should have given him away for peanuts. He plays the vital role of transitioning from defence to offence but will take a long even before making a simple sideways pass.
But there is no point replacing Matic if our movement isn't going to improve IMO. I haven't watched a single pre-season game so far, so others can point out. Has our movement off the ball improved? Our biggest problem post Fergie was our players being stationary and waiting for the ball instead of moving and giving the passer different options. If that is not going to improve then not even the likes of Modric, Busquets etc can improve us.
But there is no point replacing Matic if our movement isn't going to improve IMO. I haven't watched a single pre-season game so far, so others can point out. Has our movement off the ball improved? Our biggest problem post Fergie was our players being stationary and waiting for the ball instead of moving and giving the passer different options. If that is not going to improve then not even the likes of Modric, Busquets etc can improve us.
Why does not buying any new players mean he's forced to play Mata and Matic?If anything the second half of yesterdays game once Fred replaced Matic and Gomes was introduced into a quick front 4(Gomes,Lingard,James and Greenwood) will hopefully steer Ole away from the two M's.
As for Ole looking despondent during the game
.Just absolute nonsense.So neither start today. Thanks for listening, Ole.
Well, neither are part of what Ole considers to be his first team.
They’ll have their roles, but I don’t expect to see them paired together in the future.
They’ll have their roles, but I don’t expect to see them paired together in the future.