Manchester United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread - Read Mod Warning in OP 7/1/15

BloodBath wrote: »

Mata gone in the summer I'd say.

He's simply not good enough, neither is Fellaini imo. They have a role in the squad at the moment but I can't see that lasting due to their inflexibility. Nice 1 Moyes. Your legacy lives on.

Mata can play on the wing, as a second striker or as an attacking midfielder.

Fellaini can and has this season played CDM, CM and CAM.

Inflexible?

Can't exactly blame Moyes for LVG preferring to shoehorn Rooney into midfield in place of Mata.

Whatsisname wrote: »

Can't exactly blame Moyes for LVG preferring to shoehorn Rooney into midfield in place of Mata.

Mata can't play central midfield for ****e. If you think Rooney is bad there Mata is worse. At least Rooney will impose himself on the game.

Mata is invisible for most games, never challenges for a header, can't tackle for ****e. He can't play anywhere centrally. Number 10 is the only role he can play half decent and he's not even that good there.

P.S. I don't give a crap what he did 3 seasons ago at Chelsea.

MANUTD99 wrote: »

Against Leicester. Woopdy doo! What does this stat prove?

I'd actually he interested to see how many passes Rojo or Jones made for that matter

MythicalMadMan wrote: »

Even if Mata isnt good enough (bearing in mind he was Chelsea player of the year two years running) he is 100% someone I'd want in our squad, when we get back challenging for trophies we will need more than just 11 great players you need a great squad. Keeping him 100% once he is happy to stay.

£37 million and £150k a week for a squad player is a bit much no? He's not starting 11 material. Granted we will hopefully have more games with CL next season so I see your point.

I know stats will suggest otherwise but Mata has been hugely disappointing at Utd so far.

Amazes me how reactionary people can be at times.
Juan Mata is no longer good enough for the tean? What a load of nonsense. This is the same man that contribute 80+ goals in 2 seasons with Chelsea, 55 in his last season.
His performance for United haven't matched that level yet, but in the 12 months he has been at the club the club's performances have been shocking as well, and obviously players are going to look worse when the team around them are playing poorly too.
What outfield player at United can realistically say they are proud of how they performed at the club in 2014?
Mata can probably be more proud than most to be honest, as when he was played in his rightful position he has consistently banged in goals and provided assists. Wasn't his goal contribution in 2014 higher than Hazards.

When the team finally (hopefully) gets to a stage where it is playing good confident and attacking football Mata is the one player we absolutely have to hang on to for me, as he is the only one who provides something different, genuine quality on the ball to do things that very few in the game can.

Juan Mata playing the CAM role with a group of quality players on form around him is a sight to behold, as his time at Chelsea clearly showed!!

On another note, WT actually F is wrong with people in here these days?

People rightly being happy that Southampton dropped points today but of course a few have to come in and complain that we are discussing the relevance to us of a Swansea Southampton game.
Yeah, we all wish the club was at the stage it was at under Fergie, but at this exact moment in time its not, but most of us are smart enough to see that a rebuilding process is in place and the main concern at the moment is securing CL football for next season, and the long term future of the club could depend on it.
So yeah, its a shame that we are concerned with how Southampton are doing, but that result in the long run could be the difference between us winning the title again in the next year or two or going on a barron run, so people are rightly celebrating it!!

Going to ask a daft question now....is LVG going to surprise us all and sign a quality CB at around half ten tomorrow night!!?

Bleating Lamb wrote: »

Going to ask a daft question now....is LVG going to surprise us all and sign a quality CB at around half ten tomorrow night!!?

Dunno but reports from some source in France are saying we've had a €45m bid for Marquinhos rejected, mainly cause PSG haven't enough time for a replacement but we'll be back in the summer for him.

BloodBath wrote: »

It's hardly reactionary. We've had a year to assess his performances. You can't just blame the players around him. He himself has not done enough. The same people were saying give Shinji time. He was player of the season for Dortmund etc. He wasn't good enough either.

We aren't playing a 4-2-3-1 which might suit him so what's the point? If Van Gaal want's to play 4-3-3 then Mata has no place in that team setup.

Fair enough if you think that Mata doesn't suit the formation that we're going to play, but to pretend that Mata is inherently not good enough for United is just bollocks.

Also, there's no particular sign that LVG is going to play 433. He's been playing 442 diamond and 352 so far. And the 433 that he used to always talk about before he came to the club was what the rest of us would normally call a 4231 - with two central midfielders and a number 10 behind the centre-forward - so if he ever goes back to that then Mata would suit it.

If you assess the performances of any of the current squad based just on the last year, you could make a case for selling every single one of them. Nobody has done enough in that time so I don't think that's a good enough argument for selling Mata. If he doesn't fit LvG's system then yeah, maybe he should go. Personally I don't think it will work out with him and I've felt that way for a long time but LvG seems to like him, given he's played in 20/23 PL games this season. He could be a really important player for us next season if we're competing on all fronts so I wouldn't jump the gun on him just yet.