Peace, I think that you have made a Championship player out of Mata, and I can't agree with everything you wrote. Mata has no dribbling skills? This is absolutely ridiculous! He is an exceptional dribbler and he probably was, at the time, the second best after Hazard in our team. Apart from that, I remember a quite large amount of very physical games in which Mata excelled and it's just impossible to say that about a player that was just so good playing at the EPL. I do agree with you though that he is not a player that can dictate the pace of the game and he does need too much time and too much free space to act. Fabregas is different to Mata and I don't really know why Mourinho prefered him, but my guess will be that it was because Fabregas is a much better defensive player, he is more physical and maybe, just maybe, he can control the ball better than Mata with both feet. IMO, these two criterions that I mentioned before and the fact that he is very very poor defensively, were the main reasons because of which he departed Chelsea. But still, Juan Mata is one of the best playmakers around and there is no need to downgrade him just to make a point. I think he can do great things at Man U. even though he is different than Cesc Fabregas.
