In Louis van Gaal, Juan Mata may have found a coach who can get the best out of him, writes Ben Lyttleton.
It says something about Juan Mata’s career in England that in just over four years, he has played under seven different coaches. He was named Chelsea’s player of the year for the first two of those seasons and since the Chelsea days ofAndre Villas Boas, Roberto di Matteo, Rafa Benitez and JoseMourinho, has played under David Moyes, Ryan Giggs and Louis van Gaal at current Premier League leadersManchester United.
Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal, assistant manager Ryan Giggs and Juan Mata celebrate after the game - Reuters
Only one of those coaches was never totally won over by the engaging Spaniard: Mourinho. It was his decision to sell Mata six months into his second spell at the club, even if no-one could quite believe it. The feeling seemed mutual when United, struggling in the early stages of the David Moyes era, spent £37.1m on him.
There was no doubt that Mata, already a World Cup and Euro 2012 winner with Spain (and a Champions League winner with Chelsea, despite missing the first penalty in the Blues’ shootout win over Bayern Munich), had the talent to succeed at Old Trafford. The question was where best to play him.
“I’m left footed and can play either side of midfield or behind the striker,” Mata told So Foot magazine just before he moved to Manchester. “I like having the ball at my feet, making the match more fluid; assists are my job, but I also like scoring goals as that's the best thing in football.” Those were thin on the ground for much of his spell under Moyes, although when he played in a number ten position, his scoring improved.
The six goals he scored in the final six games of 2013-14 pointed at a promising future – despite misgivings from the likes of Gary Neville, who had claimed that Mata wasn’t “dynamic enough”. It was noticeable that Mata, who is just as down-to-earth and humble as he comes across in interviews and his own blog, was one of the only United players to publicly support Moyes during the Scot’s painful final weeks.
Manchester United's Juan Mata and David Moyes (Reuters) - Reuters
The challenge for Van Gaal was similar: how to fit one of your most technical players into the side that he wanted to build. It took him much of last season to work it out, but he finally was able to replicate the Blind/Fellaini/Young interplay on the left with Valencia/Herrera/Mata on the right. “I think Juan Mata is always one of my better players,” said Van Gaal last year. “Always. Now he is playing as a false right-winger and the combination with Herrera and Valencia gives him more opportunities. I was looking for balance and now I have found a position for him.”
While the players around Mata may have changed this season (Matteo Darmian has replaced Valencia at right-back), his place in the team, and indeed his position, has not. When United tried to sign Pedro, it felt that Mata’s days on the right might be numbered. When Anthony Martialarrived, there was speculation that he would bring the pace that Mata lacks on the right. Not so: Van Gaal may like pace and the 4-3-3 but he also loves technique. And his two most technically-gifted players are Blind and Mata, who combined so smartly for United’s opener in Saturday’s 3-0 win overSunderland. ‘False right-winger’ is the perfect term for the player who starts on the right but naturally cuts inside and has more touches in the more traditional number ten position.
Since coming to England, only David Silva, his former Valencia team-mate, has racked up more Premier League assists – 43 to 38. So maybe it’s a Spanish thing? “We [Spaniards] play differently,” Mata told France Football magazine. “We offer something different from what people expect from English football, which is very physical box-to-box.”
Manchester City's Spanish midfielder David Silva jumps for the ball - AFP
Mata added a goal late on against Sunderland and this was significant too – and not just because his technique in killing the ball dead before firing it in was stunning. Four of his last six goals for United have come in the last half-hour of games, when defenders are tired and things are stretched. “After 60 minutes, the matches become crazy, there is more going on in midfield,” he said. “And if you are a player of quality, you can choose the right option pass, dribble, shoot. And you have more space in England and elsewhere. Not early in the game, but when teams begin to tire.”
The briefing on Mata from the Mourinho camp was that he was not strong enough defensively for the Portuguese boss, who needed to sell players in order to sign Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa. “Juan has to learn how to play in the way I want to play,” said Mourinho. “He has to be more consistent and participate more when the team lose the ball. It is not his fault, it is just a consequence of the way he has played in the last years.”
Van Gaal has him playing the way he wants: even though numbers run can be misleading, no United player covered more ground per match than Mata last season. He ran an average of 11.3 kilometres, with Herrera and Fellaini not far behind.
The table below compares Mata’s performances under each of his last three coaches (excluding Giggs’s brief caretaker reign). He has fewer ball touches per 90 minutes under Van Gaal, while under Mourinho, his chances created and tackles won were highest – possibly because he played in a central position. Assists and goals were highest under Moyes but it’s significant that interceptions, a key metric for measuring defensive contribution, are highest under Van Gaal.
“He said when he arrived it was going to be difficult, especially at the beginning,” Mata said of the Dutch coach last week. “But I think it is about time and getting used to his technical way of working – the number of meetings, the training and the games. But this is our second year with him so it’s normal and logical that we’re understanding each other better; not just with him, but as a team on the pitch.”
While the pressure on captain Wayne Rooney never lets up, and the spotlight on big-money young signings Martial and Memphis continues, Mata quietly goes about his business, never showy, but always classy. Mata’s quality was never in doubt; it seems that now he has a coach who can get the best out of him. For anyone who can appreciate the technical brilliance of a player, that has to be a good thing
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