This. Mata proves it time and time again that he is almost always involved in our most important goals and has been the difference for so many of our victories. This is still an issue I have with Jose, but I'm happy he brought him on at half-time.
8
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 42
- Goals
- 10
- Assists
- 6
- Yellow cards
- 5
- Status
Man Utd 4:0 Reading
I love watching this man play, its a just a joy to watch him play for United.
Genuinely my favourite player in the world. Was fuming when Chelsea signed him.
Genuinely my favourite player in the world. Was fuming when Chelsea signed him.
Running the show today.
Just like Rashford his finishing and composure has been shambles which is very unlike Mata. But he seems more direct with his passing and runs. Joyful stuff. I am wondering if he meant to assist Rooney or to shoot.
He looks like he's having so much fun out there, lovely little player.
Always in the perfect position for those cut-backs from wide/the byline. If we can get him playing centrally behind Zlatan, with Martial and Mkhi wide, he'll get a lot of goals that way.
Top class. We have this little magician sitting on our bench for most of the season, we are spoilt.
Played well just forgot his shooting boots.
It's probably because of defensive reasons Mourinho doesn't prefer him. One thing I have always wondered is, why doesn't he bulk up a little. Seriously, he has the physique of a boy. He doesn't have pace either but otherwise is an exellent footballer.
Shooting has been awful
He doesn't like scoring when it't not important.
I feel I cursed him today with my last post about his finishing, his beared was immense though, growing it in Pirlo-esque.
His linkup with Young on the right was really good. He underhit two passes which would have put our players in which was a shame. His finishing today wasnt great, but the build up was fun to watch especially when he has the likes of Rashford and Martial to run off him.
I mean it's one of those games, he will still finish 29/30 big chances he will have in the next run so it's good that he had a day off today
You know it was just one of those days but he was quite poor, in the buildup and with his finishing. Smart player though I think he has more impact with punching tired defenses off the bench late in games because his ability to poach is very high. He ruined a couple of very good attacks but ho hum, we move on.
Made and found space well today. As previously mentioned above, he had the vision to see some opportunities & just under-hit the passes and also came up short with his shots on net, but a wonderful player to watch. He may not start every game for us but what a player to have on the bench! Lovely jubbly 
Mata the GOAT 
It's impressive but he's miles off the top in terms of key passes (27th - Mikhi is 6th) or assists (68th - Rooney is 12th). Which is not ideal considering the position he usually plays, even if he is very good at retaining possession.
All stats per 90 minutes.
Just passing it sideways and backwards, pfffff.
I mean, stats don't lie but one can only assume that's how Jose wants him to play. He's had some games where he just kinda floated, but his spot seems pretty secure.
Interesting stats and therein lies the problem with Mata, far too safe and steady, often plays it easy without taking a chance. Not saying he's a bad player and pops up with some very important contributions for us but is only ever a squad player, albeit a good one.
True - but just as this stats should be seen in context, so should those - and one thing you can say about Mata is that even if he's not getting the assist, how often is he involved in the move that leads to the goal? It might not be a key pass, or an assist, but he quite often is in and around the move that leads to the goal (unfortunately I can't really back this up with stats), and his accurate passing is something that can make that happen.
Another stat in which he doesn't look good is forward passes vs backward passes. Players like Eriksen, Ozil and Silva all pass the ball forwards more often than they pass backwards. With Mata it's the other way round. Interestingly, this is something he's only been doing since Van Gaal took charge. When he was playing under Moyes his forward/backward passing ratio was the exact opposite. I can't find his Chelsea stats but wouldn't be surprised at all if it was similar to what we saw in 203/14. I suspect his conservatism in the first few months of this season is a hangover from the previous manager. Hopefully he's play with a bit more adventure as the season goes on.
Only Mkhi and Lingard make more key passes than him in our team, and they have played much less(especially Mkhi) so his stats were always going to be flawed. He isn't very lucky with the assists though(like Rooney and Martial for example are, Mata is 5th in the list for our team).
Worth saying that he also has the second best goal per mins ratio in our team, only Ibrahimovic beats him.
Also worth saying that he rarely takes set pieces and players who take set pieces are always high on the key passes lists.
Mind posting a source for that if you don't mind?
Anyway, I do agree with everyone here that he plays it far too safe and has a tendency to float. I'd like to see him be more adventurous as well now that it seems Jose has released the shackles. That or just score more goals. He probably has the best looking kicking technique from the squad, he should be more selfish with regards to pulling the trigger.
He's at 6 now, wouldn't be a stretch of the imagination to see him get 10-11 more in all remaining competitions.
Mata's best attribute is that he scores a lot of important goals. Of the top of my head, he scored against Arsenal in the EPL and City in the EFL Cup this season. He scored in the FA cup final last year. Even when playing weaker opposition, he scores the first goal which opens the flood gates like against Leicester and West Ham. But overall, a player like Mkhitaryan brings more to the table than Mata when played on the wing. I hope Mata gets more games in the No.10 position.
Well, it's verry cherrypicked, thanks to some reddit detectives whom has noted:
91.1% - Mousa Dembélé has a higher pass accuracy than any other player in the Premier League this season (595+ passes)
If we say 700+ passes then it becomes Adam Forshaw of Middlesborough with 90.4%.
I used the "per 90 minutes" stats, in post above. Which had Mikhi 6th in the league and Mata 27th for key passes.
I did the same for assists. Rooney was 12th in the league, Mata 68th (Martial 26th). No doubt you will put this down to luck. People often do when they don't like what stats show them.
I know, but Mkhi has just 455 minutes in the league and half of that were sub appearances. 4 out of 15 his key passes were just in one game, against Middlesbrough, and 3 against West Ham. That's almost half of his total in just two games, during our best period of football. He hardly played when we were struggling to create anything, while Mata was our best player(during first few months).
So there is really no point in blaming Mata for not having more key passes per game when he is our third best in that and he is just worse than Mkhi and Lingard whose stats could be described as flawed.
It's not really just luck, Rooney was always quite productive player so it's not a coincidence he was involved in some goals, but Mata's assist again Middlesbrough was probably more important than any of Rooney's and Martial's two combined this season. I mean, Rooney has at least 3 assists this season where he passes the ball to a player who either scores long range goal or who beats few player and scores a goal(there was somehwere video of his all assists this season). Martial also has 2 assists like that in first game of the season.
It's not really luck, but you cannot call it being creative either, that's why assist don't really always tell you who the most creative player is. Mata should have one or two more assists this season though, altough he hardly picks any assists when the games are over, so that's on him.
Going to back this up with any stats you lucky bastard?
Hmmm... It's almost as though there's some correlation between fielding a player who plays a decent number of key passes/game and our creativity as a team...
When someone who is supposed to be one of our most creative players is miles off the pace in terms of assists and key passes, you can't reasonably talk about his lack of creativity being down to bad luck, or dodgy statistics. Especially when you take into account the forward vs backward passes stuff I mentioned above.
Every stat I've mentioned in this thread comes from here.
Here's a summary of PL stats re creativity from all the players who usually play behind Ibra. All per 90 minutes played.
Mata makes more passes than most (and has best pass completion %) but is the most likely to pass the ball backwards. His key passes and chances created are worse than Lingard but better than Rooney/Martial, who are two most likely to get an assist in any given game.
Mikhi is the most likely to pass the ball forwards and has the best stats in terms of key passes and chances created but has not yet got any assists.
Mata makes more passes than most (and has best pass completion %) but is the most likely to pass the ball backwards. His key passes and chances created are worse than Lingard but better than Rooney/Martial, who are two most likely to get an assist in any given game.
Mikhi is the most likely to pass the ball forwards and has the best stats in terms of key passes and chances created but has not yet got any assists.
Mkhitaryans interceptions are really high compared to everyone else in that link. 2.4 a game while the rest are 0.8
This fails to include key characteristics of a creative player by way of tempo. Mata is often the player making the team tick, which won't be picked up in the statistics. He is one of the fewer players who can retain the ball and move it around quickly through minimal touches. Ferguson was always a big advocate of moving the ball around quickly when needing a goal, and Mata is a key contributer to that uptick when he plays.
You'd usually want tempo to be set by the players in deeper positions. Pogba, Hererra and Carrick should be setting the tempo and switching the direction of play. The other attacking players need to actually penetrate.
FWIW I think it's a little harsh to judge Mata by these stats alone. It's no bad thing to have someone who is so adept at retaining possession and is so good at getting on the ball (hence he makes by far the most passes) Plus he's a brilliant finisher, who scores important goals.
I agree general pace of the game is set from deep, but penetrating the opposition's defense comes from quicker tempo of passing from attackers, which is more of the uptick I refer to. Seemingly only Pogba and Mkhitaryan look like they can consistently beat a man, but in congested areas of the final 3rd, Mata's skills to interchange with teammates are right up there with the best.
I accept the statistics you provided but agree they sound a bit harsh if used as standalone I suppose. His movement can be great too and as you've said he pops in with some key goals.
I knew you'd pick that up, but you know it's not true, since our good form started before Mkhi started playing, d then he got injured and we continued playing good football without him. We also failed to beat opponents in two of last three games in the league with Mkhi playing until Mata came in and made massive difference in both games.
Now you are starting to be ignorant, how exactly is Mata miles behind everyone in terms of assists and key passes? He is our third player by key passes, only two ahead of him are players who have played far less football than him so their stats are obviously flawed.
Also the thing about forward passes, he makes more forward passes than any other you compared him with, and you are criticising him for that? Forward vs backward passes is always going to be worse because you didn't notice on thing - he makes far more passes in general per 90 minutes than the players you compared him with. Btw, I am not sure that "total passes" thing are accurate passes, or just attempted. Because Mkhi for all his attempts makes lot of wrong ones.
And while you are at stats check the "attacking score" thing. It seems like you just concentraded on the stats that make him bad.
His stats on key and forward passes are lower because he's mostly played on the right.
If you're slow and left footed there's only so much you can do on the right of midfield. In fact it almost encourages you to pass the ball backwards.
If he was consistently playing in the middle I'm sure those figures would be better. Much better in fact.
If you're slow and left footed there's only so much you can do on the right of midfield. In fact it almost encourages you to pass the ball backwards.
If he was consistently playing in the middle I'm sure those figures would be better. Much better in fact.
- Status