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AVB/Benitez/Mourinho couldn't work out what to do with him? I dunno. I think Mourinho knows what to do with him but prefers Hazard and Oscar in those positions so that's that. Mata managed to get 20 goals and 35 assists last season in 60 games and he's got 3 goals in 10 games for Spain last year, too. I wouldn't say this is a player that managers can't figure out what to do with, because whatever they did with him it sure seemed to work last season/year.
Hmmm... I honestly didn't expect any kind of business for Utd this window. We would definitely be paying over the odds. The rejection from Chelsea will be reasonably swift, I reckon. There's no way they'd let him go for less than £40M. Still, I think our situation is desperate enough that we should pay it though.
Like BoB says, he's proven in the Premier League. He's not particularly defensive minded which isn't the best. Unless Fletch returns to full fitness, we're also gonna need a holding midfielder as well. Anything to protect our back four which is the worst I've seen for Utd in a number of years. Mata will help the cause but there's too many other areas requiring improvement for it to have a massive effect.
I'm not convinced Chelsea will sell at all.
I genuinely don't think £35m is over the odds in today's market, unless you're basically saying the obvious thing that every single player out there is bought over the odds when purchased by a big enough club.
I agree that Chelsea will likely say no, but then, there are already rumours about that Mata is heading up for a medical. God knows. I'd be delighted if we do get him, though, regardless of him not being a holding midfielder. When you need 3-4 great players, the first one is merely one less player we need.
I would say he only can't get a game because he doesn't suit Mourinho's style of play. What do Hazard, Willian and Oscar have in abundance? Pace and power. Mata's more of a silky gentle kind of player.Quote:
Originally Posted by Loony BoB
Still, this also goes against your desire for a winger. Mata aint a winger in the United sense - bombing up and down the wings, spamming crosses like it's going out of style. He's a "winger" in the Benitez sense in that he's an AMF who cuts inside. I've never seen United utilise a player like that except for when they stick Kagawa out there. United would have to totally revamp their playing style if putting him on the wing is the goal. Not that it's necessarily a bad thing, mind you, but it's not a change that will happen overnight. On that subject, I also don't get the comments about Rafa not knowing what to do with him because he was Chelsea's best player under Rafa and spoke out about he brought out the best in him. YES I'M A RAFA FANBOY I PAY ATTENTION TO THESE THINGS OK :shobon:One theory doing the rounds is Financial Fair Play. If you've got £35m-£40m coming in you can immediately go and spunk it on Falcao or whatever shiny bauble is in this week.Quote:
Originally Posted by Old Manus
I was also going to disagree about Benitez not getting the best out of Mata. Then I realised that sounded like praise for Benitez.
I think I need a lie down and a cup of tea :(
:tumbleweed:
Ugh.
When I started supporting United Liverpool fans were the glory hunters.
ANYWAY
Breaking News: Juan Mata has been arrested after attempting a U-turn on the M6
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Well then... What a penalty shootout that was...
In the words of Patches O'Houlihan... it was like watching a bunch of retards trying to smurf a doorknob.
Negative notes: Last night, from the 60th minute onwards, was probably the worst I have seen a proper first team play at United in a decade or so of watching them. It was that bad. It wasn't through lack of hard work by some players, but sadly - Smalling excepted - those players were not having a good night (hi, Hernandez) despite their efforts and their passes and control were horrid. They body language displayed by our team was at times pretty bad, too. There was notably a distinct lack of leadership in the side - the only player I saw consistently ordering other players around was Jonny Evans. I have no idea how good he is as a leader, but we need more players capable of doing that. Januzaj, Hernandez, Kagawa, Welbeck, Buttner, Rafael, Smalling... none of these guys are likely to be motivating the others or chastising them when they cock up, they're just not those kind of players. Fletcher and Carrick, not sure. De Gea has his moments but he's not that strong just yet. It was one of those rare occasions when I was really hoping Giggs would get brought on.
Neutral notes: The first 50-60 minutes weren't amazing but there were strong attacks and we weren't at our worst, either. I will point out that we were most definitely at our best when Kagawa was in the hole. It wasn't Rooney-level quality he provided, but he provided the best final ball of any of our players. Januzaj had the best moments of our attackers by some distance when you consider "quality AND quantity", but he struggled massively when put into the hole at the time when Kagawa was put on the wing, and he made some really poor mistakes to balance out the quality. Kagawa was taken off on the 60th minute, and suddenly we would get to just outside their box and kind of pass it sideways a lot, nobody was making a run and nobody was making a great pass. It was painful to watch.
Positive notes: We still won the match. If it were a Premier League game we'd have won 1-0, if it were a Champions League tie we'd have gone through before extra time kicked in, and the second they hit a goal in we didn't give up and we snatched one back immediately. Also, this Mata stuff is looking like it will actually happen! Juan Mata (get it?) sorted, just about five other Matas to take care of after this.
Was a rough game to watch, really hard to take watching us play that badly. I tried to focus on Mata's probable signing and on NZ's victory over India in the cricket, of which highlights were playing just before the United match on Sky. Yay!
EDIT: Dammit, not again. I'm closing that other thread, I keep getting confused. *moves a couple of posts over*
:shobon:Quote:
Originally Posted by Loony BoB
I think this could have a big impact on United. The players who missed penalties - and De Gea, who made that clanger to let Sunderland back in - are all relatively young and yet also some of, in my opinion, United's best performers this season. I've never seen a worse penalty shoot out and the pressure on the club is clearly weighing heavily on them right now. I wonder if that failure is going to destroy the confidence of a couple of them for a while and turn them into Fellainis.
It can be a real confidence destruction but I do believe that most of them have gone through some pretty devestating losses and come back stronger from them, too. Most of this group were there when we lost the title in the last minutes two years ago, let's not forget.
Any professional football player should be well aware how much of a lottery penalty shootouts can be. I don't think any of them would suddenly think themselves that much lesser a person because they failed to get one specific penalty on target. Not to mention that few (none?) of them are actually our preferred penalty takers - they are traditionally RVP, Rooney, Giggs and Nani. None of them were on the pitch, sadly.
You don't have to defend them, Daniel, it wasn't a criticism. :p Any human being would feel awful, no matter how many times they've gone through that sort of thing.
Anyway, I don't get how you can say shoot outs are a lottery and then say a reason for defeat was because your best takers weren't on the pitch ;)