He has but he's not in great form at the minute and I feel Martial doesn't get as much out of Alexis as Mata does. I'd like to see Martial up front again like when he first joined but I'd be surprised to see that happen again.
8
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 40
- Goals
- 3
- Assists
- 7
- Yellow cards
- 1
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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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Huddersfield 0:2 Man Utd
Unlucky to be denied a goal
He has been very good. Only player who is on the same wavelength as Sanchez. His movement today has been great, specially when he rest of the midfield are playing like poles stuck to the ground.
Also didn’t get bullied off the ball.
Also didn’t get bullied off the ball.
Quality today. Always looks good with Sanchez too. Hopefully he starts against Sevilla, though I doubt it as Mourinho can't trust him in big games (despite him being one of the few who regularly turned up in big games while LvG was here).
Would absolutely love it if he dedicates an entire paragraph of his weekly blog on VAR
Such a shame he joined during our wilderness years.
Fantastic intelligent player.
Terrible VAR decision.
Fantastic intelligent player.
Terrible VAR decision.
He and Sanchez could be our Ozil and Sanchez. They're linking very well.
If only he had that bit more speed and strength. He always makes intelligent runs but often can't outpace or out strength the defender. Still, good game from him tonight.
Seems he and Lukaku are linking very well with Sanchez. No need to disturb it then.
Assist aside he was very poor I thought, a passenger far too often to be starting for us.
He should stay in the team for Sevilla. He's Spanish and going back to his homeland he'll know everything about them. When Mata plays we always play better football. His linkup play with Lukaku and Sanchez was very good as it always is. Mata is probably the most intelligent player we have going forward and he should play more.
Goal ruled out by a knee cap? This world has gone mad.
Love Juan, such a laid back character. Played well today and instils confidence in his teammates around him.
His perfect English reminds me, did anyone see Bellerin’s interview at Oxford Union? His English is not only perfect but his accent is spot on, he sounds like a cockney
only been in London for 6 years.
His perfect English reminds me, did anyone see Bellerin’s interview at Oxford Union? His English is not only perfect but his accent is spot on, he sounds like a cockney
only been in London for 6 years.He has to start against Sevilla, had very little to work with in the first half but he still managed an assist and a cruelly denied goal.
He was ok.
So, was he offside? I thought he was when i first saw the replay
He is a good player. A lot of people in here are too hard on him.
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Great ball to Rom for the first goal. Was unlucky to be denied the goal, which was very close.
How was that goal not given. He did brilliantly with it too.
Exquisite is the only word to describe him
Exquisite is the only word to describe him
If he was faster he'd be up there with the best in the world. His touch is sublime.
Always looks better in a match where we score early - has space when we attack
Would love to see us try and transition him into a midfield role like David Silva.
Without VAR it would have been a brilliant goal. Imo it still is.
He’s definitely capable of being a CM in my opinion. In a 3.
I reckon you'd always come up against the fact that he has no engine. Silva isn't exactly an athlete either, but he covers more ground than Mata and seems to tire less for it.
Besides, our focus in terms of who can and can't perform where in a midfield three needs to be solely on Pogba until we make it work. He's far, far too good to waste any effort letting experiments with Mata or whoever get in the way.
Besides, our focus in terms of who can and can't perform where in a midfield three needs to be solely on Pogba until we make it work. He's far, far too good to waste any effort letting experiments with Mata or whoever get in the way.
His nice guy image has clouded many a judgment on him.
He should be a squad player, no acceleration, no strength and his good footballing brain can only get him so far on the RW.
He should be a squad player, no acceleration, no strength and his good footballing brain can only get him so far on the RW.
He'd be one of the best strikers in the game, his finishing is one of the best. I'd personally try him in a Cazorla role in some of the easier games, he doesn't have a speed to press but can dictate the game, his touch would never get him into trouble, with a mobile defensive beast like Fernandinho he'd be great I reckon. Guardiola would maybe use him in the deeper midfield role too. But just speculation.
That's such a tired line that gets trotted out way too often. I think he's the greatest human ever I've never met, but that hasn't stopped my criticizing his form when merited. I think most see him for what he is: a talented player with some great qualities (touch, finishing, intelligence,) who, sadly, hasn't quite reached the heights expected of him since his transfer.
Given that he's expressed zero desire (publicly at least,) to move on, and seems happy to play whatever role he's assigned, I can't understand why some are so desperate for him to move on.
The difference between Mata and D.Silva/Cazorla is that, unlike them two, Mata cannot resist pressing players. He's very easily dispossessed and, as a result, would leave us very vulnerable. We're already pretty poor at resisting high pressing teams as is.
The player we have who I think could eventually make the transition eventually is Alexis. He is strong on the ball, very efficient at 360 turns allowing himself to wriggle his way out of trouble, is a great playmaker and already contributes a lot defensively.
I agree, even though he's quite small i feel he could use his body better to protect the ball when he's in possession.
I think he tries his best to use his body to shield the ball but he just isn't strong enough. Like, I don't think Silva and Cazorla are that much bigger than him but they're very strong - you rarely see them being shoved off the ball despite being two of the smaller players in the league. They have an incredible ability to resist pressing players.
It's a bit overstated, according to WhoScored, Mata has only been dispossessed 20 times this season, at a rate of 0.8 times per game - only Lingard has been dispossessed less. Obviously it's just stats and what not, but the way I see, it Mata actually deals with pressing fairly well - as he doesn't really shit himself in possession as a lot of our players tend to do when someone bares down on them (he'll just use his quick feet to move the ball on, something which he obviously is very good at) - what he struggles with is when someone catches up to him and powers him off the ball / comes from behind and take it off him because he's spent a bit too long on the ball.
Overall though pretty much all of our players seem to struggle when pressed... Valencia is for me is probably the best player at dealing with it.
He's very good at quick interchanging passing, which is a good way to bypass a press, but when we need him to hold onto to the ball from an opposing player, he is pretty easily dispossessed regardless of his fabulous technique. It doesn't happen often because he's a pass and move sort of player - not a D.Silva or Cazorla who take their time on the ball (& are able to take their time because they know they can resist the press), dictating play, which is what I think most want him to transition into. If he were to play deeper in said role, I think he'd be dispossessed quite often as he'd be heavily targeted due to his weakness and it'd just be a disaster.
I agree that Valencia is at least our most consistent player at dealing with pressing players. Shaw's good, too, so is Matic, Alexis, Martial and Pogba has the potential to be great at it but sometimes he gets too cocky in holding players off that he lets the ball run a bit too far away and is dispossessed because of this. Lukaku and Herrera have their moments.
I think everyone else is below par at this aspect.
Absolutely - spot on.
And I think he might have been even better in the No. 10 role - as it is, he's played where asked even if not his best position, and he never whinges, always does his best.
Off the field he's a fantastic role model and ambassador for Manchester United. There's zero diva moments.
It was a tidy finish too.
Agree, just to add some more. Mata knows his limitations though, so he release the ball very quickly, pressing him is pointless. One of the traits which makes Mata our best player in inter-change movements, linking attacks, and transitioning possession upfield. Very rarely he hold the ball for far too long. Downside, too many safe passes than few riskier killer passes. Not a problem since we now have Sanchez to balance it.
Mata is bad at holding the ball though, can be dispossessed easily, hence why he rarely does it. Matic and Valencia are awesome at holding and keeping it. Pogba lose balance and ask for a foul too much though, despite his actual top class capability at that. Martial is not that bad, but must face defenders instead of backing them up. Valencia is better when facing than backing, so I would say Matic is the best one at both. A must have trait is composure and calmness.
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That's probably fair - I just love that Valencia actually uses his brain a lot of the time and realises that if someone is sprinting towards him, he can just knock the ball to their left/right and run around them (and he has the speed/strength to pull it off)
who's desperate for him to move on?
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