Why Juan Mata should play more for Manchester United!

Juan Mata’s performance against Chelsea was somewhat surprising as much pleasing. The Spaniard showed a different side to his game as well as reminding us of his natural ability. So surely Mata should play more regularly for Manchester United.

It will be five years this January that Manchester United signed Juan Mata. And it’s difficult to sum up his time at the club. Apart from his first half-season under David Moyes where he played 15 of the 16 games in the league, you wouldn’t say he’s been a cast iron starter. But not through any fault of his own.

I can’t remember Mata ever being in a rut where his performances warranted him being dropped from the side. He has always been written off before he’s been given a chance.

In 2014/15 under Louis Van Gaal, it was said with all the Gaalacticos coming in Mata would struggle to keep his place. But come the end of that season, Mata was a key part of the successful 433 system which defeated Man City, Liverpool and Tottenham.

The season ended strongly again as Manchester United won the FA Cup and Mata withstood the rise of Marcus Rashford to keep his place and play every Premier League match that season.

Then, perhaps the most public writing off of Mata was when former Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho arrived at the club in 2016. Mourinho was the man who sold Mata to United in 2014 and the media were stirring up stories of Mata’s departure before a ball was even kicked.

Despite these nonsensical reports, Mata played another key role in United winning three trophies, captaining the side when others were substituted more than in previous campaigns.

Juan Mata has recently become underappreciated

Other the past two seasons, Juan Mata has not played as frequently. In Jose Mourinho’s first season, Manchester United played some of their best football since Sir Alex Ferguson left, but they were not clinical. The likes of, Mata, Lingard, and Mkhitaryan were dynamic together, but all guilty of missing chances.

Over the past two campaigns, Mourinho has seemed to take a different approach and become more ruthless. He now fills his side with pace and power, with more clinical players such as Romelu Lukaku and Anthony Martial. A system often deployed in the games against the top six is now being used for everyone.

That obviously excludes Mata then. As the Spaniard apparently doesn’t have the capabilities to play in difficult circumstances, away from home or against the big sides. But, at the moment United are not creating regular chances. They miss the silkiness of Mata and Lingard who thread balls through and glide into spaces.

Mata’s importance has become more apparent in recent months due to the role he has played in certain games. One example last season, United were losing 2-0 at Selhurst Park against a rampant Crystal Palace side.

The Eagles had settled on their two-goal cushion but United were awful. They couldn’t string two passes together without succumbing to give the ball away under Palace pressure. On came Mata and he changed the game. He strolled across the pitch in a slightly deeper role and knitted the whole team together, helping United clinch the match 3-2.

This confirmed that Mata has to play when teams sit back as Palace did in that second half. If you just go with quick wide men, you are playing percentages football. Hoping that once out of 10 times they take someone on they beat them and then one of their crosses finds the centre-forward.

With a player like Mata on the field, you can build up the attack, continually exerting pressure on the back line, finding gaps and threading passes through to create clear chances.

Mata’s performance against Chelsea was a masterclass

My next example is Manchester United’s most recent league game against Chelsea. It was said beforehand that Mata can’t play in big games because he doesn’t possess the size, or physicality of a Marouane Fellaini or Ander Herrera. But why not talk about what he does bring.

Mata brings vision, he brings spacial awareness, he brings calmness, he brings quality on the ball, something that Herrera and especially Fellaini lack. But still, there was a myth that the former Real Madrid academy product couldn’t battle against the big boys.

So Mata and Mourinho found a way he could. They knew he wouldn’t be able to man-mark Jorginho in a physical sense, winning duals and niggling away at him, but he is intelligent enough to intercept the spaces in between the ball and Jorginho to stop the supply going into the Italian.

His performance last weekend was a standout in his Manchester United career for me. Not just because of the display on the pitch, but for what it meant going forward.

Hopefully, now Mourinho sees that Mata should play against teams that require a craftsman, an artist to break them down. And hopefully, Mourinho believes that Mata can play against the top six sides too when one moment of quality could be enough to win you the match.