I want to start off by saying that I think Mata is awesome, he's a player I'd wanted United to sign before he went to Chelsea, and p...
I want to start off by saying that I think Mata is awesome, he's a player I'd wanted United to sign before he went to Chelsea, and provided Mata's arrival isn't placating the fans for Rooney's departure, I'll still be a very happy person.
It's been pretty obvious that Moyes seems intent on keeping United in a 4-4-2 system, there has been very little attempt at migrating our style, or improving the gameplay at all, in fact, it's just worse in every department. Whilst, I'm sure any number of ABUs would argue that this is how poor the team actually is, they still are the team that won the league at a canter last year. If last year was United playing greater than the sum of their parts, then this year, the opposite is true.
The main problem with Mata's arrival would be the exact same one we've currently got with Kagawa, he's a player who wants to get on the ball, have the teammates make runs in and around the box, and he can find them.
This is not how United play, nor does it look like Moyes has any idea how to implement it.
Whilst every United fan is crying out for a midfielder who can play a forward pass, that won't count for anything if that's not what the team are set up to do.
It's been a problem for a while, that we will manage to contain the opponent up to the edge of their own box, then struggle to get the ball out wide, so we can put the ball on the overlap and try to get in behind them, it's even more obvious this year, it's part of the reason Kagawa has never shone for United, you can't have one intricate and fluid attacker in a sea of statues and assume he'll be able to do something with it, United only come alive when the ball goes out wide.
Unless United start to implement a different system, or try to make a more fluid style of play, Mata would have nowhere to fit in, and certainly nowhere to play as well as he has for Chelsea, mainly because he isn't a Winger, he couldn't play in a midfield two (because he wouldn't defend enough), and he isn't a striker.
You can try to put names on it as much as you want, United don't have a number 10, Rooney may drop deeper to pick up the ball, but he isn't looking to play between the midfield and the defence and link the midfield to the striker, he is still one of the front two, he gets the ball, and plays it to Valencia (60% of his passes must be out to the right wing, at least) before getting in to the box. I'm not saying Mata doesn't have the ability to do this, but he wouldn't be as good in our system as Rooney is.
If we're going to spend that much on a player, they really should either suit the system we're trying to achieve (we aren't changing tactic it appears) or walk straight into a position that we're weak in (he's not as good played out wide, and he wouldn't get as many goals as Rooney up front)
So, to cut it short, yea, Mata is the calibre of player we should be looking to buy, but honestly, I can only see if turning into another Kagawa headache. If we're gonna spend that much on a player, I'd rather get Reus.
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The fan zone blog is an avenue for all readers to have their write ups about their clubs posted on the blog! If you want to participate, just comment below or send a mail to Wolexis.blogspot@gmail.com
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