He's also scored more goals than any midfielder in the league since Jan 2014.

People go on about pace. Those people be idiots.

And he's so cuddly

He's got the second most assists in the league since the 2011/12 season. Silva is first.

he's had a lot of poor games masked by a goal or an assist.

however he is a very good player and works in our system and his form is more consistent this season. he's improving in his role and providing the creativity we need.

he can slow us down in the counter attack sense, he wouldnt have the pace to carry the ball out like depay, but mind you depay usually ends up wasting it..

I miss Mata

Mata is helping my FF team massively, hope he keeps this run of form going.

comment by Knobb (formally Robb) (U20351)
posted 21 minutes ago
He's also scored more goals than any midfielder in the league since Jan 2014.

People go on about pace. Those people be idiots.
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This is true.

Even more interesting is how many more people constantly complain about Mata being played out on the RW, as if he can't play there.

completely ignoring that he has been one of our best players while playing there.

He's playing well. But I'd still drop him for a different player.

Don't know what it is about him, I just think he's a squad player. Excellent cover, but I think we could do better, not much, but better.

Hazard for example would be better there.

Well if it comes to that I'd drop Hazard for Ronaldo.
And how do we know Hazard would be better,and in what way?
Mata,quietly, is one of our most effective players.

Hazard is having a shocker this season. Really really bad.

He scores for us. We dont have many players that do that consistently so he has to play.
His form will get better not that he's playing awful but he can just sharpen up a little more

comment by manusince52 (U9692)
posted 10 minutes ago
Well if it comes to that I'd drop Hazard for Ronaldo.
And how do we know Hazard would be better,and in what way?
Mata,quietly, is one of our most effective players.
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How do we know Hazard would be better?
Well we don't. The same way we don't know if Mike Phelan would be better on that wing.

But I feel with a Hazard style player on the right wing, it would give us fantastic width.

Rooney drops deep, allowing us to combat 3 in midfield.

And Tony Marshall would be loving all the service he'd get.

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What Mata is slow at is running.

The rest of his game more than makes up for it.

They won't be stuck on one axis.

AM will pull wide, Depay will cut in, Rooney will float wide, the Mata replacement will come inside.

Unlike Mata, who ALWAYS cuts inside, the winger wouldn't ALWAYS go outside.

Not only is Mata slow, he's uber one-footed.

But don't get me wrong, he's a quality player, he'd be excellent in a rotation policy with Rooney, or maybe the wide forwards if needs be, I'd just prefer a more all round Reus, Hazard type player for the first team.

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

Have you ever played footy Uww, genuine question

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He does help us keep the ball.

But I think he slows our play down.

comment by United we win (U19958)
posted 1 minute ago
Shinjisshin - Tony Marshall (U1700)

Those players won't help keep the ball though, something LVG wants.
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That's true, but our other 8 players will, even if the front 3 don't.

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Comment deleted by Site Moderator

Mata is the type of player who can pick a pass or score a goal out of nothing, even he isn't playing particularly well. There's a lot to be said for players like that

Mata is our best attacking player by a mile. Creates 90% of our chances or scores them, and people want him dropped.