Juan Mata

sdrcfc · January 25, 2014

The importance Mata has been to Chelsea has shown through the last couple of pages in this thread, how Juan man can cause this much of an uproar speaks wonders of his ability, as well as his personality.

didierforever · January 25, 2014

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY8dq0Bn6Kg

his full first interview for THOSE guys!!! poor quality though.

BlueLyon · January 25, 2014

When describing his talks with De Gea; when are you coming, how will you arrive? with a helicopter? With a bicycle? Haha that made me laugh in this shit times...what a great guy we lost...

The more I think he is United player, the less I imagine it...he just doesnt fit in...like Messi in Real team...I mean WTF? Even some ManU fans think this is wrong, that he is great player, but he is Chelsea bound and should never wear red kit...

Zola's Flick · January 25, 2014

Got to be honest guys, I am absolutely devastated by the news of Mata going to Manchester United. It is arguably Mourinho's most unjustifiable decision ever, to phase him out to the point of no return and, thus, a move to a rival of ours.

I simply cannot get over it, as much as I tell myself to do so. He was a joy to watch for us, our best player in his time here as backed up by his awards at the club, and the trophies we won in the process.

Whatever you do, don't blame Mata. He has been forced out. It is a World Cup year, and he needs to be playing. Man Utd can clearly offer him that, but so should we, because as well as Willian has done lately, he is no Mata.

So sad

Styles · January 25, 2014

What a lovely message from a classy guy. Mata :tophat:

LAB · January 26, 2014

This is so depressing... I keep telling myself "deal with it".

BTW This new colour doesn't suit him at all.

sdrcfc · January 26, 2014

I never thought on Christmas day our Mata would be gone in a month.

The Mak · January 26, 2014

From Juan's YouTube channel a few weeks ago. His 2013:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHKOP5GPC0g&feature=c4-overview&list=UU_WoyWJ6cx9LEhGohfPi-3g

The Mak · January 26, 2014

Chelsea fans grieve for Juan Mata, their Spanish Zola
Another (emotional) piece on Mata, this one in the Telegraph. :cry:

Shit, I've reached my limit for this month so I can't see it.

Any chance you could paste it in here for us mate?

sk21 · January 26, 2014

Whatever you do, don't blame Mata. He has been forced out. It is a World Cup year, and he needs to be playing. Man Utd can clearly offer him that, but so should we, because as well as Willian has done lately, he is no Mata.
So sad

well thats some wrong information you have got there. mourinho made it extremely clear that he wanted to keep mata but mata forced an exit.

Tomo · January 26, 2014

I dont know why its widely assumed Mata and Jose dont get on, Jose has only ever praised his attitude and individual quality while Mata has took to his blog to thank Jose.

It was the same at Inter, he let Ibra and Vieira go (and the latter got his game time significantly reduced under Mou) yet both wax lyricals every time they talk about Jose.

Off the pitch im sure they got on fine but its like he said on football focus once the players accept the club comes first, then everything is good.

Cech's helmet · January 26, 2014

Mata is probably the nicest guy in football after Zola. the last 6 months, he was miserable. I think if we look at this deal in a humane way, the lad deserves to be happy again. he didn't want to leave but he had no choice. it's ridiculous how Jose treated him, he didn't deserve being left out all of a sudden. I don't blame him for leaving, I blame Jose; because like it or not, he destroyed his career here. fingers should be pointed at him when Mata does well with united. he obviously didn't want to leave, we forced him out.

Superblue · January 26, 2014

You were always going to be a better team with or without Mata. You can't really use that as reasoning to justify the Mata situation. Mourinoho is a top manager - there was a place in your team for Mata if he really wanted to keep him. We all know it. Why lie to yourself. He's been given chances you say? After being frozen out for long periods, and made to know that Jose doesn't want him around? It's a bit hard to become a world beater under those circumstances.
I see where you are coming from with his style of play - yes we have a problem with him and Rooney, IF we play wingers. We could go for an interchanging 3. Even if Mata is put out on a wing, he is more than capable of playing as an inside forward. He won't be running down th wing and crossing. He'll be effective there. We aren't Chelsea either, we won't need to rely only on Mata. Rooney and RvP are more than capable of doing deadly damage alone. So building the team around Mata really isn't necessary for us.

We don't rely on Mata otherwise he would be playing and we wouldn't have sold him. Unless you're talking about last season?

In that case we did rely on Mata because we built the team around him. He was given a free role basically to be our creative hub and when Benitez was in charge, he even played higher up the pitch effectively as a shadow striker to Torres. His stats last season were phenomenal.

However his first season was nowhere near as good as this. Hazard statistically had a better first season than Mata. This will partly be down to his first season in England but it is also important to consider in his first season he played predominantly on the wing. I think his first season was also a little overrated by us as Chelsea fans because we were pathetic that season finishing sixth and he can't help but stand out alongside the likes of Malouda and Kalou! Even winning the Champions League, with the exception of the corner for Drogba's goal in the final, he made almost no impact whatsoever during our run.

Mata is a superb player - the closest thing we've had to Zola. However Jose is making the right decision for the club. To be consistently successful I don't think we can have a team built around to accommodate Mata within it. In fact, there are very few teams at the very top of European football who have their team built around a classic 'no 10' playmaker anymore, such as Kaka, Deco and Zidane. Most of the top teams nowadays look to use pace, particularly out wide.

If you want to get the most out of Mata (i.e. his stats from last season) he must play centrally behind the striker and the team built around him to play to his strengths. If so, what happens to Rooney? If you're planning to play Mata out wide, you lose a lot of his output immediately, lose width, lose defensive support for that side of the pitch, and basically will have paid £37m to play a central playmaker out on the fucking wing. If that is Moyes' plan he might as well have brought Salah!

sdrcfc · January 26, 2014

Shit, I've reached my limit for this month so I can't see it.
Any chance you could paste it in here for us mate?

For the many inconsolable Chelsea supporters, Juan Mata was not just an employee of their football club. Mata was an emblem of how footballers should be, playing with flair and behaving with dignity. There were no tattoos or tantrums with Mata, no bling or sulking. Just goals, assists, trophies, smiles and now memories.

Chelsea fans trust Jose Mourinho’s judgment, and listen intently to all the tactical talk of Oscar’s greater all-round effectiveness, but sadness flows across the stands of Stamford Bridge that Mata has been sold toManchester United.

He was twice the club’s player of the year, influential in winning the FA Cup, Champions League and Europa League during his 30 months in SW6. He was a role model for younger players, a man with a thirst for knowledge and degree course, a gifted, unostentatious footballer respected by away fans. Juan Mata was Gianfranco Zola with a Spanish passport.

Chelsea fans liked that Mata loved their city, exploring it, marvelling at the Seven Dials pillar on the cusp of Covent Garden, browsing through the markets of Camden and Portobello. He took the Tube around town and a car to Cobham, eventually working out the roundabouts.

Those whose second home is the Matthew Harding Upper and Lower, the Shed and all rows in between will miss the way Mata always wanted to share a goal celebration with them, seeking them out away from home, leaping up and doing that airborne punch as when scoring with a low strike against Tottenham Hotspur. Some already denigrate his name, calling him a traitor, particularly with the pictures of his arriving at United, but the majority simply wish him well and thanks for the memories.

They will miss his professionalism. Mata’s desire to get on the pitch, doing what he loves most, making a ball dance and giving value for his weekly wages, acquired added urgency with the imminent World Cup yet he never complained at being overlooked by Mourinho. In interviews, he carefully avoided any comment that could be interpreted as criticism of the head coach, the boss. Supporters felt for him, holding up placards reading “Jose, Mata belongs on the field, not on the bench”, although they knew Mourinho had won the debate.

Oscar was the Special One’s chosen one, his real “No 10” whatever number Mata wore on his back, playing with such conviction in that central role. Eden Hazard, strong and lightning quick, was even in better form out wide. Willian had gradually absorbed the tactical commands of Mourinho. All three contributed far more defensively than Mata.

For Mourinho, Mata did not press relentlessly or directly enough. He did not tackle like Oscar, who looks frail but piles in for the ball.

“Many are saddened that Jose couldn’t find a role for Juan,” David Johnstone, editor of the fanzine cfcuk, said. “He desperately wanted to stay. But with Eden, Oscar and Willian in such fine form it was almost inevitable he would be the one left in the wilderness.’’

A keen backpacker, this is still not the type of wilderness Mata enjoys. He had to leave. The fee – £37 million – has been questioned in certain quarters, slightly bizarrely as United are obtaining a fabulous footballer and a faultless ambassador for the club.

This is a footballer who speaks frequently of his “duty”, who invariably obliged fans’ requests at Chelsea. “I once asked Juan for one of his match-worn shirts for my godsons,” Johnstone said.

“He happily said ‘yes’ and the next time I saw him after a game at Stamford Bridge, he gave me a shirt with his signature on the number on the back.’’ Mata had not forgotten. “The shirt has pride of place in the two boys’ collection of Chelsea memorabilia.” Many other Chelsea fans will tell similar stories of Mata’s kindness.

Typical Mata. Being polite. Being respectful to others. He knows what it is like to ask for shirts. During his time as a youth player at Real Madrid, Mata was ordered by his sister, an admirer of David Beckham, to ask the Englishman for his shirt. Being a similarly generous character, Beckham duly obliged.

Mata also watched how Xavi, Andrés Iniesta and Xabi Alonso conducted themselves around the Spanish camp, admiring their class as people as well as players.

Their humility also defines Mata. With Thiago Alcantara and Javi Martinez, Mata was the heartbeat of the Spanish Under-21 side that triumphed in the juniors’ 2011 euros. A year earlier, Mata took possession of a World Cup winner’s medal yet he willingly dropped down to the Under-21s, calling it “an important part of my development”. Such a sensible, career-minded stance contrasts with the arrogance of certain young English players.

Players respect Mata. When he faced his old Valencia team-mates in the Champions League in 2011, the midfielder Tino Costa remarked that “the whole squad feel affection for Juan”.

Cobham staged some emotional farewells last week from players who took to Mata the moment he launched himself into the “Macarena” as part of his initiation in 2011. He also gained their respect when recovering determinedly from a brutal introduction to English football, being stamped on by Sunderland’s Phil Bardsley in his second game. Even when Mourinho arrived, and Mata was benched, his popularity in the dressing room never took a back seat.

United have bought a special talent. Analysis of his full seasons at Chelsea show he scored in big moments, in his first season (2011-12) against Bayer Leverkusen, against Arsenal, in the west London derbies against Fulham and Queens Park Rangers, in away games at Napoli and Spurs. He delivered the corner from which Didier Drogba forced extra time in the Champions League final in Munich, although a surprisingly poor kick in the shoot-out was saved by Manuel Neuer.

The following season, 2012-13, Mata continued to score important goals, against Arsenal, at Spurs, against United, at Upton Park, at the Stadium of Light, against Arsenal again, against United again; 13 of his 20 goals were scored away from the Bridge fortress. In the final of the Europa League, Mata curled in the corner from which Branislav Ivanovic scored. As Ivanovic celebrated, kneeling and arms aloft, a beaming Mata ran to embrace him. Few smiled as broadly as Mata.

With dead-ball and moving, Mata is a menace. Although David de Gea pulled off an amazing one-handed save from Mata’s 25-yard free kick at the Bridge in February 2012, United’s keeper will be relieved not to be facing his fellow countryman on match-days again.

Mata sent an unstoppable volley from an impossibly tight angle past De Gea (in that 3-3 Bridge thriller in February 2012) and also succeeded with a curling free kick (in a 3-2 defeat eight months later). All of these strikes were left-footed, but he has worked on his right as Arsenal’s Lukasz Fabianski discovered to his cost last October.

Mata’s anticipation and acceleration can give him a start on markers, beating William Gallas to score at Spurs in October 2012, a two-goal display dubbed the Juan Mata Show. Throughout his time at Chelsea, the bearded wonder provided assist after assist, including a perfectly-judged pass to send Hazard through against Norwich City and a cross to Fernando Torres against Rubin Kazan. His Premier League record to date shows 27 assists and 18 goals from 82 games. The numbers highlight his class as a player.

The last word on Mata has to go to a Chelsea fan. “Juan was one of the nicest amongst a bunch of Chelsea footballers who are, on the whole, very nice guys,” Johnstone said. “He was articulate, intelligent and thoughtful. He always had time for those who followed Chelsea. Over the years, we’ve seen many of our idols leave Stamford Bridge for pastures new. But Juan is one of only a few who’ve departed leaving us with a feeling of despair and thoughts of ‘what might have been’ had he stayed.’’

The Mak · January 26, 2014

Cheers mate!

didierforever · January 26, 2014

Shit, I've reached my limit for this month so I can't see it.
Any chance you could paste it in here for us mate?

Chelsea fans grieve for Juan Mata, their Spanish Zola While most Chelsea fans will not question Jose Mourinho, they are sorry to see Juan Mata join Manchester United

Club man: Manchester United signing Juan Mata will be missed by Chelsea fans