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2021-22 Performances


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5.0 Season Average Rating
Appearances
12
Goals
0
Assists
0
Yellow cards
0
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Schmeichel's Cartwheel

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
Joined
Dec 21, 2014
Messages
11,420
Location
Manchester
Why is he still here? Nice guy & all but this sentiment shit has been holding us back. We need to get more ruthless. He belongs in the MLS or a league or similar level.
 

Harry190

Bobby ten Hag
Joined
Apr 18, 2010
Messages
7,603
Location
Canada
Not sure why he came off instead of Martial. He was playing well I thought.
 

charlenefan

Far less insightful than the other Charley
Joined
Aug 17, 2005
Messages
33,052
I'm not someone who lost their mind that he got a new contract however Elanga looked more of a threat when he came on
 

Van Piorsing

Lost his light sabre
Joined
Feb 10, 2006
Messages
22,525
Location
Polska
Could be great goal from difficult angle, but came off the post.

Other than that not much really...
 

Abraxas

Full Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2021
Messages
6,023
It's getting stranger and stranger that he's an option in these games.

It's not that he's outright bad, he looks after the ball. It's that with every passing season he becomes less and less influential in games. He can pick out a cross or the odd goal but so can many players.

It feels like an opportunity lost to bed in a few younger players. I'm not one for banging down the door as I believe the staff are generally in the best position to assess youth but when you see Mata it's quite strange given the attacking young talent available.
 

anant

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
Joined
Feb 28, 2015
Messages
8,258
Thought he was ok. Nothing extraordinary, but not too poor as well, as the caf suggests. Probably unlucky to have come off considering Lingard and Martial were significantly worse than him, and Sancho wasn't getting into the game as well
 

Alfie092

Full Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2015
Messages
1,009
He was only ever going to big up the majority of his minutes in the League Cup and the FA Cup. Knocked out of 1 cup so we will barely see him play now.
 

M Bison

Full Member
Joined
Oct 26, 2015
Messages
6,795
Location
In the Wilderness
Supports
York City
He did ok, but i dont know why we persist with him when he's clearly done. Seems such a waste of minutes when we could have played Elanga for longer and given him more opportunity.
 

IRN-BRUno

Full Member
Joined
May 26, 2021
Messages
1,113
I didn't mind Mata signing a new contract at the time but in hindsight it looks a bit pointless. He did okay last season and no doubt would have played more had it not been for his time away for personal reasons so it was understandable. But I assumed that Lingard and Pereira would be sold, at least 2 of Hannibal/Amad/Elanga would go on loan and of course nobody expected Ronaldo's return.

Doesn't give the impression he's someone happy to just take the money so I don't really understand why he's content with this squad role either. He's still only 33 and could easily be a regular starter for a bottom half PL side. If we want to give him a role at the club when he retires then that's fine, but it doesn't mean we have to keep him here until then.

Possibly sounds a bit harsh but he's just blocking a pathway to the first team now for the younger players. He was decent yesterday but that's not really enough to justify starting ahead of Elanga.
 

lex talionis

Full Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2017
Messages
13,615
Juan is one of the great guys and a genuinely brilliant technician with the ball. He’s got moments in him, but although he’s physically fit his athleticism is such that he can no longer cope the physicality of PL clubs like West Ham.
 

The Uncle of All Uncles

New Member
Newbie
Joined
May 11, 2018
Messages
70
I'm sure I read before that under Ferguson, players over 30 were only ever extended on a 12 month basis. However, this guy (and Matic) have both been given multi-year contracts when already in their 30s, and the kicker is they both look slow and tired and struggle to complete games and get about the pitch quickly.

It's strange. They've both managed to look like they're in their twilight years, even in their early 30s.
 

Born2Lose

Full Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2015
Messages
2,534
Should have gone years ago, a sign of the apathy at the club currently that being nice off the pitch is valued more than being a winner on it.
 

BorisManUtd

Full Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2013
Messages
3,652
Why is he still here? Nice guy & all but this sentiment shit has been holding us back. We need to get more ruthless. He belongs in the MLS or a league or similar level.
Think I read somewhere the club is planning to hire him as club ambassador after he retires, so possibly that could happen next summer and we're only keeping him until then.
 

flappyjay

Full Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2016
Messages
5,931
Think I read somewhere the club is planning to hire him as club ambassador after he retires, so possibly that could happen next summer and we're only keeping him until then.
Park played for qpr after us and still ended up as a Manchester united ambassador. He can go play somewhere and get hired as an ambassador later.
 

BorisManUtd

Full Member
Joined
Nov 4, 2013
Messages
3,652
Park played for qpr after us and still ended up as a Manchester united ambassador. He can go play somewhere and get hired as an ambassador later.
I agree, Vidić is an example too. There was reportedly some offer from Lazio to Mata year or two ago but it didn't happen obviously. It was pointless giving him new contract this summer, we've got better players than him in both RW and CAM position.
 

sullydnl

Ross Kemp's caf ID
Joined
Sep 13, 2012
Messages
34,063
How often was he expecting to play? :confused:
That's what I was thinking but tbf at the time he signed his contract it wasn't clear the likes of Lingard would be staying. Plus we've just been knocked out of the competition he was most likely to feature in.
 

Seij

Full Member
Joined
Jun 17, 2014
Messages
1,398
He's played 62 minutes in the Carabao cup this season. What a great ROI for 160k/w, which was once again renewed this summer.

Manchester United is the best place to retire. Hard to blame the player for taking the renewal at his age (although if he renewed thinking he'd get game time, then that's on him). Our board just keeps giving them out.
 

anant

Correctly predicted Italy to win Euro 2020
Joined
Feb 28, 2015
Messages
8,258
He's not on 160k. His previous contract was closer to 125-135k by all accounts and I'm sure the new one wouldn't be more than that
 

Ixion

Full Member
Joined
Apr 11, 2003
Messages
15,275
Unless we're planning for him to go immediately into coaching the squad next season the new contract makes no sense. He and VDB should be allowed to leave in January.
 

Dolf

Full Member
Joined
May 27, 2016
Messages
2,887
Location
Amsterdam
Seriously what is the point of letting a player come on for 20 seconds?
Wasting time?
 

Attila

Full Member
Joined
Apr 12, 2013
Messages
11,059
Location
RIP Mino
Supports
Trad Bricks
I hope Rangnick sells Mata in January.

The club is too sentimental
 

SAFMUTD

New Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2018
Messages
11,787
Wonder if in the summer we'll start finally seeing the "great servant of the club" messages.
 

VivaRonaldo85

Full Member
Joined
Nov 24, 2018
Messages
1,984
Only at United could we keep a player for a season as a token gesture with no outlay or intent to play. His minutes per ££££ will be special let alone goals and assists. What are we all about these days?
 

yumtum

DUX' bumchum
Joined
May 10, 2009
Messages
7,117
Location
Wales
20 Appearances in two year, can't believe he's only 33 either, seems like he's been finished for about 4 years now.

Crazy to think next month will be 8 years for him here, the club seems to want the record for the amount of players achieving testimonials.

This strategy of keeping players no matter what has never been in Uniteds "dna" so I'm not sure why it's happened, buy if players haven't shown ability to succeed at the top level within three years the likelihood of them ever doing it will be slim - sure we may miss out on some late bloomers, but I'd rather that than keeping the likes of Mata, Jones, Smalling for close to a decade with no reward.
 
Man Utd 1:1 Young Boys

Based Adnan

Full Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2014
Messages
4,064
I'm convinced that he's one of the reasons we look so disjointed everytime we mass rotate the team in games like this. He plays the game at walking pace these days. Must be a nightmare playing alongside him.

There's no way he manages another season here...surely?
 

Thepinhead

Full Member
Joined
May 2, 2016
Messages
723
Location
Denmark
Donny had to cover the whole midfield from 20 min and on because Mata was done after that. We are better off giving that game time to the younger ones from next season.
 

Solius

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Staff
Joined
Dec 31, 2007
Messages
86,296
Guy is cooked. Needs to leave at the end of the season unfortunately.
 

Roboc7

Full Member
Joined
Mar 31, 2014
Messages
6,562
It’s crazy he’s only 33, he moves like he’s 53. Everytime I watch him I’m just staggered he got a new contract, he offers nothing at this level.
 

MadDogg

Full Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2002
Messages
15,813
Location
Manchester Utd never lose, just run out of time
What a strange match. He had a 10 minute period (from the 15th to 25th minute of the match) where he was absolutely brilliant and everything he touched turned to gold. Unfortunately for the remaining 80 minutes he was terrible and had one of his worst matches where even his passing was off.
 
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