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But, under Mourinho’s reign, Mata finds himself ostracised, with many feeling that Mourinho has frozen out the diminutive Spaniard without so much as giving him a fair chance. This does carry some weight to it as Mata has rarely featured for the Blues from West London this season.
Mourinho’s claim is that Mata isn’t as capable of filling the number 10 spot as Oscar, on current showing. But experts believe that it is Mata’s perceived lack of work-rate, in comparison with the Brazilian, that has led to him being dropped to second-choice.
A case for Mourinho
Is Mourinho right on his part?
It seems that the ‘Happy One’ hasn’t been too happy with what he has seen of the Spanish playmaker in his second stint with Chelsea. Tasked by Roman Abramovich with turning Chelsea into a team that not only wins, but does so in style, the Portuguese manager has been quick to stamp his authority on the squad.
He’s brought in André Schürrle and Willian from Bayer Leverkusen 04 and Anzhi Makhachkala, respectively. Armed now with seven players who could play in three available spots in the starting line up, it was obvious that there were going to be casualties; and the first of which was Victor Moses, being farmed out on loan to Liverpool for the season.
In a month since the start of the season though, the other casualty has become evident; that of Mata. Oscar, Hazard, Schürrle, Willian, and even young Kevin de Bruyne have found first team opportunities aplenty, but the same cannot be said of Mata.
Mourinho has called for Mata to improve his game, to make it suit the football he expects his team to play. By that, of course, Mourinho means that Mata will have to bring in more defensive discipline to his game, and be willing to drop deeper to assist the defence and collect the ball.
This isn’t the first time that Mourinho has demanded this of a player. When Mourinho took over at Chelsea in 2004, Joe Cole had already been at the club for a year. Mourinho immediately set about trying to “improve” Cole’s game. After he was through with him, Cole’s game had changed, but opinions were split right down the middle as to whether the change was an improvement or not.
When a young Cole erupted onto the scene with West Ham, he was seen as a pacy and direct winger possessing good crossing ability and the habit of beating the full-back; the not-so-typical English winger, who was supposed to be more about beating the full-back rather than hugging the touchline and putting in crosses.
Mourinho reshaped Cole’s game, making him more defensively aware and willing to make the extra run to cover the overlapping full-back. But there was a price: Cole lost that element of unpredictability about him that put opposition full-backs on edge, his X-factor, if you may. While some applauded Cole’s new found defensive acumen, others still bemoaned the loss of a spontaneously effervescent winger.
It is akin to what Mourinho is attempting with Mata. If Mata does change his game to suit the needs of Mourinho, the question must be asked: what will we see the gifted player lose in order to achieve that?
