Juan Mata is Manchester United's player of the season so far
Man Utd manager Jose Mourinho has helped Juan Mata discover his best role in the team and he has been a consistent influence in fixtures.
Not every Manchester United player was enthused by the prospect of Jose Mourinho becoming their manager and it will not surprise supporters one of them was reportedly Juan Mata.
Weeks after it was reported Ed Woodward was dialling Lisbon in the wake of that unconscionable home defeat to Southampton and the Midtjylland humiliation, sources indicated the Spaniard idealistically hoped United could lure Luis Enrique from Barcelona.
Mata has history with Mourinho but, with the exception of the Community Shield flashpoint Mourinho defused away from television cameras, it has been inconsequential since the Portuguese's appointment. Henrikh Mkhitaryan's resurgence has cost Mata his place but the playmaker remains United's player of the season.
Another senior player who was wary of Mourinho's appointment has not risen to the challenge yet Mata, perhaps sensing his future was in jeopardy and intent on staying, has raised his game and could ensure a Spaniard receives the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year award again in May. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has scored prolifically and Eric Bailly has been a revelation, but neither have performed as consistently as Mata has.
"Rashford and Mata," Mourinho corrected an M.E.N. journalist when asked about the impact of the younger substitute at the London Stadium. Rashford received the man of the match award and Mata was typically magnanimous about the teenager's latest accolade, having clinically struck the winner at West Ham.
The pair collaborated enterprisingly against Middlesbrough two days earlier and, while they might dread the 'super sub' moniker, their blend of innovation and inspiration stretched 10-man West Ham. "We gave width with Rashford, we gave positions," Mourinho explained. "An extra body in the creation area."
Mata has six goals for the season now, four short of the 10 he tallied in both of Louis van Gaal's campaigns. A forward restricted by the Dutch manager's rigid system and often ostracised to the right flank, Mata's returns were all the more impressive and it is under the manager who sold him three years ago that Mata has discovered his best position in the United side.
"Why don't United use Mata more?" a visiting journalist asked in the post-match huddle. Mkhitaryan was signed as an upgrade on the right flank and has, since his return from exile, shown he was not the Mino Raiola makeweight some conspiracy enthusiasts theorised. Mkhitaryan is the superior playmaker; those teenage years spent in Brazil have allowed him dribble like an expert samba dancer which belies his Armenian nationality, whereas Mata is more languorous; a modern day maverick.
"I didn’t sell him because my job is not to buy and sell," Mourinho clarified in the wake of that win. Mata had 'asked to leave' Chelsea, and the revelation was another indication the pair's working relationship would be more fruitful than it was during their few months together at Stamford Bridge.
In certain fixtures - Stoke and Burnley - Mourinho mistakenly withdrew Mata when he was United's most enterprising attacker. Mata, the substitute who was substituted against Leicester at Wembley, has been hooked in all but one of his 17 starts.
A tepid performance in Mkhitaryan's absence at Crystal Palace (marred by his erroneously disallowed goal) last month convinced Mourinho to demote Mata but he was missed from the start against Boro on New Year's Eve.
A game in which Michael Carrick enjoyed a breather, an additional forward was required rather than a midfielder and it was natural Mourinho turned to Mata as United searched for the breakthrough. It was his delicate cross which assisted Paul Pogba's winner but Mourinho was right to leave Mata on the bench in East London.
"Mata is Mata," Mourinho cooed on Monday. "We know what Mata is. He is just to trying to anticipate the game, and to try is it better to start, is it better to come later, and today I felt against a tired team, I felt that coming from the bench."
Mata's enthused by Mourinho's management now.
www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/manchester-united-news-fixtures-mata-12402920
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