Juan Mata makes winning debut amazing
Man Utd's new costly 'weapon' Juan Mata has shown his ability by making a stunning debut.
The £37m signing played 85 minutes at Old Trafford, but despite a lively debut from the Spaniard, he was unable to mask United's mediocrity.
No-one imagined that Juan Mata would solve all Manchester United's problems, but for tonight just one would do for David Moyes.
That was quite simply that United needed to stop losing games and their victory over Cardiff City, at least took the club out of the tailspin that defeat to Chelsea, and Capital One Cup elimination to Sunderland have placed them in. It was a long way from being the revolution that Moyes has promised but it was at least a start.
January has been tough on the United manager. His team has been beaten in four games out of seven and one of the three they won, against Sunderland in the semi-final second leg, prefaced that calamitous penalty shoot-out defeat. This was undoubtedly an improvement on those dark days and helped immeasurably by the return of Robin Van Persie and Wayne Rooney as well as Mata's debut.
The £37m signing played 85 minutes at Old Trafford, but despite a lively debut from the Spaniard, he was unable to mask United's mediocrity.
No-one imagined that Juan Mata would solve all Manchester United's problems, but for tonight just one would do for David Moyes.
That was quite simply that United needed to stop losing games and their victory over Cardiff City, at least took the club out of the tailspin that defeat to Chelsea, and Capital One Cup elimination to Sunderland have placed them in. It was a long way from being the revolution that Moyes has promised but it was at least a start.
January has been tough on the United manager. His team has been beaten in four games out of seven and one of the three they won, against Sunderland in the semi-final second leg, prefaced that calamitous penalty shoot-out defeat. This was undoubtedly an improvement on those dark days and helped immeasurably by the return of Robin Van Persie and Wayne Rooney as well as Mata's debut.
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| Juan Mata (left side) fighting for the ball © nydailynews.com |
That said, the lead given to United by Van Persie in the sixth minute did not turn out to be the prelude to United demolishing Cardiff City, who were on their first visit to Old Trafford since March 1975. Instead United laboured to find any real fluency until a brilliant strike by Ashley Young just before the hour took the pressure out of the situation.
Until then, the best United managed for most of the game was a level of mediocrity, and at times it was worse than that. David De Gea flapped at the ball on a couple of occasions and while Cardiff never created a good chance they looked far from intimidated. Intimidation is not what United do these days at Old Trafford, certainly not for the time being.
Mata started behind Van Persie in a 4-4-1-1 formation with Ryan Giggs and Phil Jones the latest central midfield partnership that Moyes hoped would shore up that area of the pitch. Once again, it was there that United looked overwhelmed at times, with the five-men of Cardiff's midfield proving a good deal more effective.
It was for that reason one suspected that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer declared himself pleased with the performance and confident about the future, not least with those crucial league games coming up against Norwich, Swansea, Aston Villa and Hull. “This was a bit of what I wanted the players to do, come out and express themselves at a place like this,” Solskjaer said. “In the last third we just lacked the oomph”.
As a manager of the team at the bottom of the table, he will have few defeats better than this when he was lauded by the home support from start to finish. There are few former players who are as popular as Solskjaer is at United and the home fans sang his name for long periods of the game - although the mood was helped considerably by the fact that they were winning for most of it.
Decked out in gloves and considerably slighter than the man who previously occupied the No 8 shirt at United, Mata was playing in a position that suited him - even if the team around him never looked quite right. It was notable afterwards that Moyes said he may try the Spaniard on the left wing and/or the right wing, “so I don't have to break up the partnership of Wayne and Robin”.
How would Mata change United? “I hope we will play better,” Moyes shot back, “that would be the biggest thing”.
- independent.co.uk
Until then, the best United managed for most of the game was a level of mediocrity, and at times it was worse than that. David De Gea flapped at the ball on a couple of occasions and while Cardiff never created a good chance they looked far from intimidated. Intimidation is not what United do these days at Old Trafford, certainly not for the time being.
Mata started behind Van Persie in a 4-4-1-1 formation with Ryan Giggs and Phil Jones the latest central midfield partnership that Moyes hoped would shore up that area of the pitch. Once again, it was there that United looked overwhelmed at times, with the five-men of Cardiff's midfield proving a good deal more effective.
It was for that reason one suspected that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer declared himself pleased with the performance and confident about the future, not least with those crucial league games coming up against Norwich, Swansea, Aston Villa and Hull. “This was a bit of what I wanted the players to do, come out and express themselves at a place like this,” Solskjaer said. “In the last third we just lacked the oomph”.
As a manager of the team at the bottom of the table, he will have few defeats better than this when he was lauded by the home support from start to finish. There are few former players who are as popular as Solskjaer is at United and the home fans sang his name for long periods of the game - although the mood was helped considerably by the fact that they were winning for most of it.
Decked out in gloves and considerably slighter than the man who previously occupied the No 8 shirt at United, Mata was playing in a position that suited him - even if the team around him never looked quite right. It was notable afterwards that Moyes said he may try the Spaniard on the left wing and/or the right wing, “so I don't have to break up the partnership of Wayne and Robin”.
How would Mata change United? “I hope we will play better,” Moyes shot back, “that would be the biggest thing”.
- independent.co.uk
