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Mata: Manchester United face ‘six finals’ in December

By Tyrone McGarthland

Source: The Guardian
Source: The Guardian /
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Juan Mata believes December will be a key month in deciding how Manchester United’s season ends

Manchester United midfielder Juan Mata has admitted that the Red Devils have ‘six finals’ to play in December with the football season beginning to heat up.

The Red Devils are currently third in the Premier League table after missing the chance to go top on the weekend. A win against Leicester City would have took Louis van Gaal’s side above the foxes. However, it was arch rivals Manchester City who went top after they beat Southampton.

United drew 1-1 after Bastian Schweinsteiger cancelled out record breaker Jamie Vardy’s early strike. But it wasn’t enough and now United have a busy Christmas schedule with every game a must win.

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The 20-time champions are unbeaten in over a month but the results and goals haven’t come easy at Old Trafford and away from home. And most importantly, both struggles came in the two important games. Last Wednesday, United needed to beat PSV Eindhoven to progress into the knockout stages of the Champions League. The final result though, was 0-0 and it means that the Van Gaal and his men will need to beat Wolfsburg in Germany.

And Mata, who is a key player for the side has noticed the errors made in the last few games. The former Chelsea man is always honest and speaking on his weekly blog, the midfielder has admitted that its a big month for the club if their season is to succeed after the minor setbacks.

"He said, as reported by manutd.com: “November was an important month in our calendar and it leaves a bittersweet taste – in the last 30 days we haven’t been defeated, but the last two draws haven’t been good for us, especially the one on Wednesday against PSV because we knew it was a game that we had to win. The score was not the one we wanted, which means that winning in Wolfsburg is almost the only valid result for us if we want to get through. It’s not an easy task but we are confident that we can make it to the next stage. The Champions League is a very important competition for us and we want to remain in it.“That game in Germany will be one of the six ‘finals’ we are facing in a busy December. We’re starting to see a Christmas atmosphere in the streets of Manchester and, in this country, that is a synonym of football and more football.”"

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The season so far has been up and down for United with their struggles in Europe then being backed up by the league position. But fans have made it clear that Van Gaal’s approach is preventing the side from getting better results, with his possession style and defense minded line-up forcing the side to play negative.

In the next month, United will need to score goals and defend well so the tactics may change slightly. And against West Ham United they will have to with the London club likely to sit back and defend deep, a game Mata lists as ‘important’.

"“The next game – therefore the most important one right now – is on Saturday against West Ham,” he continued.“They have had a good start this season and have won more games away than at home. However, as I said, we don’t like draws and we want to go back to the victories. They have a very good manager and some of their players are very talented, but our aim is to get the three points and we have the whole week to work well on this game,” Mata added."

Next: Schweinsteiger: Draw not good enough

United will travel to Germany to take on Wolfsburg in what will be a huge night in the Champions League.

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