Juan Mata has been in much better form since Wayne Rooney
got injured and Louis van Gaal was freed
from whatever Faustian pact he
had made to play his captain every game. While Rooney managed a flurry
of form for the several weeks before he got crocked, for most of the
season he and Mata have both laboured, Rooney as a centre-forward in
name only or a No. 10 in number only, and Mata as a “false right-winger”
in a system crying out for a real one.
“He’s rubbish” cry the haters, full of their hate, “people
only like him because he signs off his blogs with ‘Hugs’” they claim.
While Mata’s endearing off-pitch personality may lack the edge some fans
look for in football, this position ignores the fact that plenty of
people like him because when he plays well he plays with a poise and
ability that makes football much better to watch.
In the dying embers of United’s hilarious and emotionally
uplifting win against Arsenal, Mata, Adnan Januzaj and Memphis Depay
found themselves together in the corner of the pitch. When the ball made
its way to Mata he pulled off a quick change of feet, flicking the ball
behind his right left with his left foot and breaking into space. It
retained possession and allowed United to see out valuable minutes and
contributed to the collective aesthetic value of the human experience.
In the not-quite dying embers of United’s spawny home win
over Watford, Mata’s free-kick both won the three points which
practically kept the Red Devils’ season alive, and was the kind of goal
which makes watching football so very enjoyable. There is little better
than a goal from a direct free-kick. Football is such a mobile, fluid
sport, that there is something incredibly pleasing about the tableau
created by a direct free-kick, wherein the players are more static than
usual, lined up in a wall, jumping slightly as the ball whizzes over
them and past the ‘keeper. Again, Mata helped his team and made the
world a little more beautiful.
As with so much of what has gone right under Van Gaal,
moving United’s No. 8 inside has happened in spite of the manager, not
because of him. United’s recent improved form has been forced upon Van
Gaal as his relentless effort to slow down the ball and deaden the joy
of watching United has been undermined by injuries to Rooney, Marouane
Fellaini and Bastian Schweinsteiger. He has been forced to select
United’s best midfield partnership—the physical and defensive-minded
Morgan Schneiderlin and the rambunctious, tigerish, attack-minded Ander
Herrera. He has been forced to play an actual winger on the right, or at
the very least a quick and creative attacker.
And Mata has been able to move to No. 10. His position. His
really, really obvious, totally tailored to his skill-set, most
effective, best-suited position. With speed on the flanks and ahead of
him, his speed of thought and range of passing is able to overcome his
lack of physical speed. United haven’t been universally brilliant since
Mata moved inside—far from it—but they have almost always been better to
watch. When Rooney is back, Van Gaal will probably shift Mata out of
the way again, such is the Spain international’s lot at United. But he
shouldn’t, because United are better, and more beautiful, with Mata at
No. 10.
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