I concur with your points, but some of them are exactly why I make the suggestion of bringing in Malouda to keep Mata central. As you said, Mata's tracking back isn't what it could be, so therefore it makes sense to ease him of that responsibility which is where I think Malouda comes in use. It's no secret his attacking abilities are dire, but he gives Cole a great deal of support when we're defending he did it with Bosingwa v. United. Like you said, again, it's the fact he drifts from that wing (when he's deployed there in a sense) into the middle which does create a type of problem on that wing. Now I wouldn't vouch for Malouda in an attacking sense, but in the case of using the three of Malouda - Mata - Sturridge means Mata can drift as much as he wants and we know someone will be covering that left-flank. It somewhat makes sense why André targeted Perreira in June.