[Canagel]

I like Mata but he must stop drifting inside all the time during the building up phase. When he actually stayed on the wing and played a combination with Young and Herrera we scored a goal from it. Our coaches must instruct him to stay in his position if he's going to play on the RW.

 

[Mcking]

I like Mata but he must stop drifting inside all the time during the building up phase. When he actually stayed on the wing and played a combination with Young and Herrera we scored a goal from it. Our coaches must instruct him to stay in his position if he's going to play on the RW.

He'd be anonymous, and won't be able to influence the game..

 

[Roboc7]

Don’t see point of him with three in midfield and completely kills the right hand side of the attack. Also limits the press as he moves in slow motion.

 

[el3mel]

Very passive.

He should never play these kind of away physical games. Not suited for it.

 

[Minimalist]

Some nice play but quiet tonight.

Doesn't help Valencia is his 'partner'.

 

[Zlatattack]

I think we should only play him centrally. He's brilliant there, but we have better options on the right.

 

[izec]

Not good enough for the wages he gets and he doesnt suit our style. He should be sold in the summer with plenty of other players joining him, namely Jones, Rojo, Darmian, Valencia and Fellaini for a start

 

[-Supreme-]

Very disappointed with his performance today, especially he only played in the Huddersfield game over the festive period so he should be fresh in comparison to his team mates but he looked slow and careless with his passes.

 

[sullydnl]

Not good enough for the wages he gets and he doesnt suit our style. He should be sold in the summer with plenty of other players joining him, namely Jones, Rojo, Darmian, Valencia and Fellaini for a start

What's "our style"? We're currently operating under Solskjaer's style with no idea what the next permanent manager will want.

 

[TwoSheds]

He did fine. Not his fault Valencia has PTSD.

 

[izec]

What's "our style"? We're currently operating under Solskjaer's style with no idea what the next permanent manager will want.

Our free flowing style with pace, Rash, Martial and Lingard with Pogba behind. Mata doesnt suit the modern game played on the wing, and pogba is better centrally than him.

 

[Raw]

This wasn't his kind of game. I know there's gonna be people here who'll want him gone but Mata is still really good in other games.

 

[sullydnl]

Our free flowing style with pace, Rash, Martial and Lingard with Pogba behind. Mata doesnt suit the modern game played on the wing, and pogba is better centrally than him.

A style and set up that has been in place for four games and could dissapear just as quickly when the new manager is appointed. Less "our style" and more "our current style". There's zero guarantee the new manager will rate all the players you mention, or play them in that way. Which makes it an odd basis for deciding who should stay or go in the summer.

Not that this means Mata will suddenly play either, mind.

 

[BluesJr]

He’s useless on the right, middle or bench.

 

[drdoityourself]

As intelligent of a player he is supposed to be he has an awful habit of passing just a tad too slow and passing straight to players or behind them. He's good at quick passing in front of goal but earlier in the build up he frustrates me too often.

 

[Devil81]

I see Mata as a game-changing substitute now. His lack of pace has a negative effect on our attacking if he starts from the off.

He's either got to play through the middle or from the bench for me.

 

[Art]

He still has a place in this squad but only with a super offensive right back.

 

[Andersons Dietician]

Bit of a standard Mata performance he does a lot of nice things and his quality should never be in question but he really just doesn’t work for us which is annoying. He’s such a good footballer but it’s the same old problem of fitting him in to our team.
He congested the middle of the park today where he should have stayed out wide to open it up and allow more space for himself, Pogba and Martial to operate in. It’s not a coincidence as soon as we shifted Rashford right and he kept the width we started to create more dangerous moments.

That pass he lofted in to Martial that was criminally sloppy. Was an easy pass along the floor that Martial could finish in one. No idea what he was thinking there.

I’d be tempted to play him when Pogba isn’t playing.

 

[Based Adnan]

Makes the side so unbalanced when he plays on the right as he basically abandons the flank from minute 1 and just plays central. Makes our attack so predictable and he's not as creative as people make out. Should be a bench option at best.

 

[The Real Treble 99]

Fantastic player very underrated. Best footballing brain in the team but today he found it hard against a very defensive Newcastle side.

His strongest play comes when it’s a free flowing game. He’s the one that can thread the ball into spaces for the wingers etc but unlike today where there wasn’t any space he struggled.

For me he’s still one of the few who can change the game for us.

 

[owlo]

As intelligent of a player he is supposed to be he has an awful habit of passing just a tad too slow and passing straight to players or behind them. He's good at quick passing in front of goal but earlier in the build up he frustrates me too often.

Not only this, but positionally he is all over the place. Either deeper than Matic to play a substandard pass or crowding out the space that Pogba wants to run into. You saw the difference when Sanchez came on; he and Pogs were occupying a similar space, but by the time Pogba received the ball, Sanchez had moved. Mata just sits 5 yards off waiting for a little pass.

 

[Adisa]

We have no business offering him an extension.

 

[rooneyberbatov]

Poor performance today. There wasn't much he could do about it though. Needs more players around him to click with. Valencia was AWOL on the right and Rashford somehow looked exhausted in the first half.

 

[Raees]

Frustrating performance and I am not too sure if he brings the best out of Pogba. Both seem to step on each other’s toes a bit and whenever he plays our right flank becomes a graveyard.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

We have no business offering him an extension.

Even if you don't think he deserves a place in our squad (which he clearly does - he's been good his season more often then not)... he's worth about £10-20 million on the market for a start...

Not offering him an extension would be bad business.

Anyway he was ok today, and was generally part of our better football in the first half... This despite him being severely hampered by Valencia playing instead of Young.

Martial was much more ineffective then he was, but hey it's easier to shit on Mata I guess.

 

[owlo]

Anyway he was ok today, and was generally part of our better football in the first half... This despite him being severely hampered by Valencia playing instead of Young.

Martial was much more ineffective then he was, but hey it's easier to shit on Mata I guess.

Nah Matial was poor and couldnt get past his man for shit but at least he held position somewhat and occupied defenders.

Mata was all over the place, in everybodies space but his own, doing next to nothing except killing momentum. Other than the free kick, which was good.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Nah Matial was poor and couldnt get past his man for shit but at least he held position somewhat and occupied defenders.

Mata was all over the place, in everybodies space but his own, doing next to nothing except killing momentum. Other than the free kick, which was good.

That's what him and Lingard do though... They drift all over the place.

Also considering Valencia was over his side doing the square root of feck all, it's not really a surprise he went off to try play football elsewhere. Lingard would have done the same thing.

 

[owlo]

That's what him and Lingard do though... They drift all over the place.

Also considering Valencia was over his side doing the square root of feck all, it's not really a surprise he went off to try play football elsewhere. Lingard would have done the same thing.

You'll rarely if ever find Lingard deeper than Matic playing 5 yard square balls. He is very clever in his movement, in that when he sees a teammate occupying his space, he moves, and then moves again. Creates the space for the likes of Pogba to move into instead of shutting it down. Smart underrated player.

Agree on Valencia not helping though. And surprising that Martial didn't try popping up on the right too as Yedlin was very solid on his side.

 

[Foxbatt]

He is useless now and should be sold.

 

[Leftback99]

Should only start in our easiest home games. He's only going to be holding back youth from game time from next season.

 

[Adnan]

We need to move him on, he's not a player that has the dynamism to play on the right. Even centrally he isn't as good as Pogba. Slow, immobile, physically weak. Nice guy but not good enough for us going forward. Chong and Greenwood would offer more on the RW imo..

 

[AltiUn]

Been generally good when he's played this season, he'd have done better with Young stretching the game for him so when he did come inside he'd have license to do so. He's always been a bit iffy in these proper physical games. I'll let him off for tonight as Valencia was anonymous so he basically had to run that right wing himself.

 

[Galactico]

Not good enough for the wages he gets and he doesnt suit our style. He should be sold in the summer with plenty of other players joining him, namely Jones, Rojo, Darmian, Valencia and Fellaini for a start

You've nailed the list of exactly who needs to go. Mata is a player I really like and pops up with a goal every now and then (great at free kicks too), but I think he's going to struggle in this system of Ole's and it's time to move on.

 

[Mrdan1709]

he was really good in first half was creating chances for our forwards. You guys are being very unfair in your critiscism towards him, what do you expect him to do on the right wing with someone like valencia being his fullback. Valencia is seriously bad and has been for many seasons now. I dont think in the entire match valencia put in one cross, made one forward overlapping run or even attempted to dribble past a single player.

 

[Bola]

Night and day when he plays as AM or RW. Very poor at the latter as he either lacks the ttafitional attributes of a winger at this level (pace, dribbling) or just abandons the position and goes central. Most the time it just disjoints our attacks and makes the team weaker - this is what we saw tonight and was made worse by a lack of attacm8ng intent by Valencia

Big decision for the club to make as he is a) either kept as a matchday rotation option, b) we drop our 433 for an attacking mid formation, c) we move him on

One of the harder decisions to make in the squad. Personally, I'd reluctantly go for option c. We appear to have a winning formulae, he is too good to be a bench warmer and I want to be ruthless in clearing the way for the next generation (Chong and Gomes could perform the RW and AM role respectively).

 

[MikeKing]

If he was dangerous in front of goal or providing assists you could look past his weaknesses but it is so hard to do when you have performances like this half the time. It wasn't his fault though and it seemed like he just wanted to prove himself a bit too much. Didn't move with the pace of the game, neither did he manage to change it and in result it made him look pretty useless out there.

 

[Canagel]

Bit of a standard Mata performance he does a lot of nice things and his quality should never be in question but he really just doesn’t work for us which is annoying. He’s such a good footballer but it’s the same old problem of fitting him in to our team.
He congested the middle of the park today where he should have stayed out wide to open it up and allow more space for himself, Pogba and Martial to operate in. It’s not a coincidence as soon as we shifted Rashford right and he kept the width we started to create more dangerous moments.

That pass he lofted in to Martial that was criminally sloppy. Was an easy pass along the floor that Martial could finish in one. No idea what he was thinking there.

I’d be tempted to play him when Pogba isn’t playing.

Yep my thoughts too. There was also one time in the first half he stayed on the right and played combination with Rashford and we quickly moved it onto Pogba who could've done better with a shot. There was also the option of Martial even further to the left but it underlines just how good the team would be with actual RW. Mata is not a winger and ruins the balance of the team because he doesn't stay in his position. Lingard does the same but he's got a bit more pace to get away from markers whereas Mata can only go sideways or backwards under pressure.

 

[100]

Thought he was decent. He's a great squad player. People have become misguided as far as the performances of squad players at top clubs go. There's wanting the club to do well and then there's expecting a squad of 18 or so to be playing scintillating football 38 games a season.

 

[Devil may care]

Didn't really get a good foothold in the game tonight but he did create a decent half chance for Martial early on.

 

[stevoc]

Mata and Valencia is a terrible combo on the right, main reason we struggled 1st half. I hope Ole realizes this quite quickly, Jose didn't in 3 years here. Play Mata centrally or keep him on the bench as an impact player.