Player Focus: Why Has Juan Mata Fallen Out of Favour?

Poor Juan Mata.  When he arrived in the Premier League, he seemed the ideal overseas star. He not merely settled in to life in London without fuss, but did so with all the zeal of an enthusiastic gap year student, forever updating his blog with photographs of him posing in front of national landmarks. Not only that, but he played superbly as well, being named Chelsea’s player of the year in each of his first two seasons at the club.

But last season, Jose Mourinho made clear from the start that Mata wasn’t his sort of player. There were suspicions of personal differences but, equally, it was clear that Mata didn’t fit the manager’s template for his attacking midfielders: Mourinho wanted physically imposing runners, players who could carry the ball at high speed on the break for 40 or 50 yards and Mata, for all his qualities, was not that.

Things got little better after his move to Manchester United. Nobody blamed him for what went wrong last season, but there was the sense that he was an extremely expensive sticking plaster, a sop to fans frustrated by a lack of activity in the transfer market rather than part of some integrated plan for the future of the club.

Once Van Gaal was appointed, the rumours began almost immediately than Van Gaal didn’t fancy him. With the wave of new signings this summer, the assumption was than Mata would be the man to miss out. That he played on Sunday, and in his preferred position as a central creator, felt significant - he is at least being given a chance, even if the sense remains that when Falcao is fit and settled he could drop out with Wane Rooney taking on his role. Or Adnan Januzaj could be a straight swap. Or Angel Di Maria could take a more central berth.

That said, it is, clearly, a point in his favour that he escaped the summer cull: it may, given his position and if sales were made logically, have come down to a straight choice between he and Shinji Kagawa (then again, maybe it was just less embarrassing to sell Kagawa, who had at least been at the club more than a matter of months and for whom there was an immediate buyer in his former club Borussia Dortmund).

Perhaps Van Gaal has never been sceptical about Mata, but even if that is true, there’s something revealing in the fact that the stories about his doubts existed and were believed by so many: what is it that makes people lack belief in the Spaniard. It surely can’t just be that he looks like he should be wearing a brightly coloured rucksack and blocking the pavement outside the language schools in Holborn.

Yet Mata’s stats are highly impressive and extremely consistent over the past five seasons, in which time he has scored 43 league goals and registered an extraordinary 47 assists. The only time his performances really fell off was during the first half of last season before he left Chelsea, when he was fairly clearly unwanted and was being used in a role that didn’t suit him.

And, while he may not be as quick or as robust as Willian or Andre Schürrle, it’s not as though Mata is lazy or some sort of dilettante. In each of the past five seasons before this one, he has made at least 0.7 tackles per game and, while at Chelsea and Valencia, at least 0.6 interceptions. 

His interceptions per game went down to 0.3 at United last season – indicative perhaps (although the sample size is small) of a changing role, and that has continued this season, the four league games so far producing 0.3 tackles and 0.3 interceptions per game.

Maybe it is simply a matter of physical size (aerial duels won have tended to be around 0.1 per game), or of demeanour – the assumption his “We’ve still got time to see Westminster Abbey” mien can’t possibly go hand in hand with a ferocious competitive spirit – but the fact is that Mata, for all the doubts, has been one of the Premier League’s most consistent creators since he arrived.

Why do you think Mata has fallen out of favour? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below