Manchester United's midfield woes: Is Juan Mata the answer?

Juan Mata: Is he the solution?

£37.1 million is what Manchester United paid for Juan Manuel Mata García. The little wizard, the man with the golden touch, the assist machine of the Premier League over the last 2 seasons joined the Red Devils on a permanent basis in January penning a 4.5 year deal. There was a lot of talk about United’s attack not having enough penetration to go through even the least resistant defenses- and so they signed the most efficient of attacking midfielders in the league. Having said that though, United haven’t experienced too great a change at all.

Juan Mata is a great player, nobody doubts that; his figures over the last 2 years are almost astonishing considering the quality of the EPL and Chelsea’s less than spectacular finishing position on the table. The little man has an almost unparalleled first touch in the league and brilliant vision to spot a teammate running into space; combine that with his supreme passing ability and one begins to see why Mata has been doing as well as he has been over the past 24 months.

But is he really what Man United needed?

Is he the one to solve the problems that the current champions of England are facing?

The simple answer is no. What they needed was a Central Midfielder; one who could do his job well in defense and contribute just as much at the other end of the pitch. Let’s face it, United have been functioning without a good midfield for years now, it was probably because Sir Alex Ferguson knew the team so well he could hide everyone’s deficiencies and concentrate on emphasizing their strengths. The harsh truth however, remains that David Moyes is no Alex Ferguson. Not only is he just not as good a coach as the veteran but he doesn’t know the team and every player that well either!

Manchester United’s main problem this year has been lack of midfield control. They have not been able to dominate the centre of the park like they should be doing even against smaller teams; let alone teams of Manchester City and Chelsea’s qualities. The defense has been leaking goals and this is partially because there is nobody on the team to help in transition defense. What they needed was someone who could read the game precisely from a deep position and quickly move the ball ahead into the attacking players.

Juan Mata fell out of favor from Mourinho’s squad precisely because of this reason. He is a massive attacking force (well, metaphorically at least) but offers next to nothing in defense. As aware of his own team as he is in possession of the ball, he seems to be incapable of using the same focus to watch the other team when not in possession. This means that he gets caught ball-watching very often and is seldom in a position to help the deeper players relieve the pressure.

Micheal Carrick, as good as he is, isn’t really a premier deep lying play maker. His abilities in transition are lacklustre and he seldom attempts the more difficult pass that might launch a direct counter.

What United needed was a midfielder in the mould of Kevin Strootman, Xabi Alonso, Daniele Di Rossi or even Nemanja Matic; someone who could break up the opposition plays and function as a deep distributor to put United on the front foot. The reason for not going after such a player is almost baffling given that it would have almost halved their problems immediately.

It seems that the pressure of bad results and fans screaming out for a marquee signing after the (unfortunate) disaster that was Marouane Fellaini got Moyes to go after Juan Mata. The Spaniard might eventually prove a good signing from an attacking point of view; but he was never going to be the answer that turned around United’s season in the short term.