🇪🇸 Juan Mata

[Rubber bullets 1,183]

Lampard is there to pass from defence into attack. If Van Ginkel didnt get hurt I am sure Lampard would see the bench more, but as of now hes the only player who can really do it for us there.

Ivanovic is a defender. The fact that he is viewed to start of our attacks is a flaw in the system.

Schurrle should start over Hazard, but Hazard is the type of player who can turn a match at any time.

Mazacar was terrible.

What about Mikel, Ake, Essien?Considering how poor Lampard has been you might as well give them a try and see what happens. But they hardly get a run of games but Lampard is constantly picked.

And considering that we lack width and rely on our full back for it. Then Ivanovic must do better in attack. But evertime he gets the ball are attack stops dead. We have a fantastic RB who does that in Azpi and if Ivanovic can't do it then he should be put at CB where he is actually suited for.

We are being very inconstant on who should be picked and why they should continuously keep getting picked no matter what their performances are like.

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,920]

What about Mikel, Ake, Essien?Considering how poor Lampard has been you might as well give them a try and see what happens. But they hardly get a run of games but Lampard is constantly picked.

And considering that we lack width and rely on our full back for it. Then Ivanovic must do better in attack. But evertime he gets the ball are attack stops dead. We have a fantastic RB who does that in Azpi and if Ivanovic can't do it then he should be put at CB where he is actually suited for.

We are being very inconstant on who should be picked and why they should continuously keep getting picked no matter what their performances are like.

I think something may be up with Essien as for reasons hes not playing in the league.

I dont think Mikel can link attack and defense with passes. He seems content to use Mikel as a destroyer and game closer. Ake was a benitez prospect.

I agree with you though that Azpilicueta should be on the right. Hopefully we can secure a left back in the next 2 windows so that Azpilicueta can be in his best spot, and Ivanovic can be back in the middle.

[chelseathebest 150]

But why can Oscar have 2 bad games and still play while mata has to play amazing just to get a few mins?

Why can Hazard have a lot of bad games and still be selected?

Why can Lamps be shit and still be selected? same goes for Iva...

Clearly Mourinho favours some players over others...

We desperately need Mata's creativity. We've become so predictable. No one is talking about Mata on the RW, Mata is a 10 and he should play there.

I know he is the man to give us some magic, something Oscar can't.

Mourinho just needs to give him a run of games and Mata will do the rest.

[Barbara 15,149]

why I'm not surprised the only thing discussed here is Oscar vs Mata when both have been useless for us in the last few games?

Now it's the moment a lot of fans have been waiting and I dare say wishing for - Oscar isn't playing well enough, so their man can have a chance and take back his position.

I do hope your plans included Mata killing the games for us because right now the only thing it warranted was both being useless. Mata had chances and never made good use of them and all sort of excuses have been given to him. Even Hazard is being brought to the conversation now because bring only Oscar isn't enough. Why don't you bring Willian too?

I said it before the match, I'll say it again, right now our AM selection should be Willian + 2. All other guys deserve stick for their presentations and can we for the love of gosh stop with 'he needs to start matches' bullshit? Do you know how Willian guaranteed two consecutive starts? By doing something out of the 10-20 minutes he was getting in October and in matches like the one against Newcastle. And that's a guy who had no match rhythm, had to adapt to a very physical league and arrived way after everyone else in the group. He had much more reason to struggle than Mata does and still he made better use of those few minutes at the end of the matches to show he can be useful. He isn't close to his best, he isn't close to Mata's best, but he showed us that you can use those few minutes to turn around a situation. Mata didn't and I can't understand why he's given all sort of excuses in the world. Most matches he played with Oscar he spent around 60% of the time playing as the CAM while Oscar was in the LW (way to destroy our best player's momentum then, but no word is going to be said about it). I even did a measurement about that in one of their matches... it's there with all the data to back it up. So not only Mata did nothing as a CAM to regain his position, but Oscar was moved to the wing, lost his momentum and now we have two out of shape players. Well done.

Now I'll go to Oscar's thread criticize him because that's where he should be criticized, not at the expense of Mata - who's got nothing on his corner except past glorious days, and reading all those posts that's all I can conclude from that. Because Bale - who I don't think is anywhere as good as Mata - just went throught the same thing at RM playing minutes, dealing with an injury (in addition to adapting to a new team and league) and he found a way to capitalize it, and is now winning matches for Madrid, assisting and scoring. But those normal situations in football teams don't apply to Mata when it comes to Chelsea fans because people think he should be assured starting at all matches because he's been POY twice, because he's creative and smart even if didn't deliver anything this season. The same example with Bale could be said about many others... just look at Arsenal, but Mata can't. He's special. He's the really Special One here...

And before I get a bunch of posts about defending Oscar, etc... go to his thread in 10 minutes when I'm done talking about him.

[Mouri_Matic 560]

As the day goes on, it looks like either Mata or Mourinho will have to leave the club. Looking like Mata atm but if we continue our horrible form then Jose should be worried

[Sheva. 5,373]

I said it on another page before but, before Mata joined the club we had a clear problem with creating chances, it's why we went out and spent 23m on him. And since then while the issue hasn't been completely eradicated - because you still need something from DM and on the wings.

Mata has more than done his fair share of creating chances for others, and when Torres wasn't scoring, he added goals to his game and had a quite ridiculous season - stats wise - last year. 20 goals and 30+ assists.

In tough games against the likes of Stoke, West ham and West brom at home in previous seasons, Mata has almost always had an assist and helped us open the door.

Mourinho needs to make him an important part of the team again, because he still has a major role to play for us. He can be a liability in big games when you need people working hard and defending, but that's why we have all those other AM's.

But there are games for players like Mata, and yesterday was one of them.

[Jase 43,479]

[Milan 17,956]

[Rmpr 8,977]

I think he deserves more playing time, our other AM's arent exactly lighting the world on fire right now, so it is not more than fair to give him a real chance!

[Jase 43,479]

I think he deserves more playing time, our other AM's arent exactly lighting the world on fire right now, so it is not more than fair to give him a real chance!

A real chance that includes a run of games in the starting XI and arguably in the No.10 position...

[Jase 43,479]

The Fantasy Football Club: Chelsea's Juan Mata picks #One2Eleven

[Rmpr 8,977]

A real chance that includes a run of games in the starting XI and arguably in the No.10 position...

At the start of the season, Oscar was playing really well and was giving no chance nor reason for Mourinho to play Mata. However, he has now had a big drop in quality (like many of our players) and Juan deserves a real chance, no doubt.

However, we have way too many players in that position, so Mata wont have that much of a room to prove himself. I mean, he wont have 3-4 games to convince Jose, he will have 2 at the most...

Personally, I would start him in both the West Ham and Steaua games, but if he doesnt respond well to it, then it is game over!

[Jase 43,479]

At the start of the season, Oscar was playing really well and was giving no chance nor reason for Mourinho to play Mata. However, he has now had a big drop in quality (like many of our players) and Juan deserves a real chance, no doubt.

If Mata has the same defensive workrate and tenacity off the ball (he has definitely improved on these aspects this season) as Oscar, I doubt the latter would be the prefered choice right now given the former offers so much more offensively, and even more than the other AMs.

However, we have way too many players in that position, so Mata wont have that much of a room to prove himself. I mean, he wont have 3-4 games to convince Jose, he will have 2 at the most...

And yet despite that, some players being given way too opportunity even if they are not playing well and some others being cast aside.

Personally, I would start him in both the West Ham and Steaua games, but if he doesnt respond well to it, then it is game over!

And that's the issue, isn't it? Because of the preference Mourinho has on some players, those not exactly favored are being put so much under pressure that if they don't turn up for one game, they go back to the bench while the preferred ones get 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 etc games in a row to prove and play themselves into form. Moreover, those 2 games you mentioned there are like 4 games apart rather than giving a run of games to Mata like I was saying.

[Barbara 15,149]

Mata had a few chances in October and he didn't shine in any of the matches... I'm all for him receiving more chances, but it's not like he capitalized the chances he did receive and created tons of chances (real chances) for the team.

So it's not down to only the work-rate - his is still poor, even if he tries a lot (and he does try). He would have put more doubts in José's mind if he had been at least a shadow of his best days... he wasn't for one this season imo.

Many players in many teams, grab their chances and capitalize them and never leave the team... he's had enough chances, he didn't capitalize. I'm not against continuing to give them, quite the opposite, we should give him more chances, but if he doesn't capitalize them you can't blame José... if others can capitalize without having many of them, why Mata can't?

He has a great chance to win back his position because Oscar is playing average at best. hopefully he'll make better use of the matches he starts or the matches he comes in and do something with them.

[The only place to be 11,313]

He's had chances, and he hasn't quite impressed but he does seem to have tried to change his game slightly and for that he should be commended. It won't happen overnight, but he should get there and find himself getting more chances.

But there's this constant gripe about him not getting the chances other players are getting and that ignores the competition in his spot. I assume people are moaning about Cole and Lampard in particular, but they simply didn't have someone like Oscar pushing for a starting spot ahead of them. Okay, now Azpi seems to be something of an alternative choice at left-back but it's not the same as having Oscar, Willian and even De Bruyne snapping at your heels.

The thing with Mata is that of all the players we have who play in that number 10 spot, he seems like the odd one out. I'm even including Boga and Traore in that because they have a certain physicality that Mata just doesn't seem to. Maybe I'm being unfair and judging him by that constantly knackered aura he seems to have, but I'm just not sure if he'll be hear at the start of next season.

[Sir Mikel OBE 4,920]

Chelsea Stats. ‏@BluessCFC2h

PSG are preparing €48million offer for Chelsea's Juan Mata in the January transfer window. (Le 10 Sport) #CFC

We'd have to take that if its true.

With that kind of money we could really get a good pivot player.

[Mustafa 885]

Man.... I think losing him in January would make me sadder than losing anyone else in the squad. Simply because of the circumstances.

[Jase 43,479]

Man.... I think losing him in January would make me sadder than losing anyone else in the squad. Simply because of the circumstances.

If De Bruyne goes out on loan in January, there will be no chance of Mata leaving then. Will be next summer at the earliest.

[Mouri_Matic 560]

If De Bruyne goes out on loan in January, there will be no chance of Mata leaving then. Will be next summer at the earliest.

Not if the report is true imo, LOL 48m for a player Jose won't even need, he WILL TRY EVEYTHING in his power for the club to accept this if ti is true. Probably same will be applied to David Luiz if Barca/anyone else come in and bid £35m+ again.

While Mata is a great player 48m is probably a bit too much for him, he is probably worth around 30-35m max atm. We just simply have to take it because it won't ever rise again.

[remains of the day 564]

It's never that simple, but ideally the club really should have just sold him if he wasn't going to be in the manager's plans. Why let a player that can bring in an excess of 30-40 mill in today's market waste away on the bench when you can use those funds and reinvest in other areas? That money could have gone towards signing a top class striker or central midfielder. Juan Mata sitting on the bench serves absolutely no purpose - to him or to us. This isn't some young talent, this is a player at his peak coming off of an excellent season and is valued at around 30 mil. To have him rot away on the bench when there are at least two key areas that needs strengthening is just such a waste. Just don't get this club sometimes.