3 ways Manchester United can get the best out of Juan Mata

Manchester United’s Juan Mata and David Moyes

Juan Mata cut a forlorn figure following Manchester United’s 0-0 draw with Arsenal. Though a key player as the main, central creator at Chelsea, David Moyes has placed him out on the wing. Assuming he continues to play wide what else needs to change to bring out the Spaniard’s best?

Juan Mata was Chelsea’s best performer last season while playing in the hole according to Squawka.

Make United more fluid

Compared to the football played under Ferguson, so far there has been a major reduction in the amount of short-passing play in and around the box under Moyes. Players stick to their roles and positions on the pitch as the new manager’s training methods begin to tell.

Moyes is fond of segmenting the field when it comes to drills used to teach his players how he wants them to play, with specific demands on the lateral positions he wants them to take up within games. Add this to his desire to form up into two banks of four to keep shape whenever the ball is lost and it’s clear how and why United have become more rigid than was the case in previous seasons, and less able to blend together the different components of their team going forward.

In the eyes of many fans, the arrival of Mata promised a return to the heady days of the 2008 Champions League winning side and the earlier, highly fluid teams of the 90?s. It was assumed that the stellar quartet of Adnan Januzaj, Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney and the former Chelsea playmaker would be allowed to roam free, switch positions and combine together just like Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Rooney did six years ago.

Rooney Action Areas vs Levekusen – CL 2013/14

Unfortunately, as things stand Moyes has preferred to deploy these players in the more orthodox and restrained roles of a largely traditional 4-4-2 or 4-4-1-1 formation, denying them the opportunity to confuse opponents by playing with no set reference point in attack. This disinclination to allow such fluid football is particularly odd considering how effective it was against Bayer Leverkusen earlier in the season, when Van Persie wandered wide, Rooney roamed back into the midfield and the team looked far more dangerous.

For Mata to add more imagination to United’s game, the team must begin to be harder to predict with more movement between their lines. Until then, he’ll be stuck flinging crosses in from deep.

Moderate Moyes’ forward urges

While it’s true that the fear factor that once led United’s opponents to drop deep, batten down the hatches and hope for the best has somewhat dissipated of late, this season the team have shown an overeagerness to get forward, which has caused problems of its own in attack.

The rigid and repetitive manner in which Moyes’ tactics have often tasked his players with hurrying themselves and the ball into the opponent’s half has created congestion and limited space for the likes of Mata to work in. It’s not enough to cite the time spent by the likes of Barcelona and Bayern Munich in the final third as evidence that piling up into the other side’s territory is universally effective. After all, it’s the method by which they swarm the opposition that dictates their success rather than the purely numbers in which they amass.

There’s a lot to be said for drawing your opponents out to create gaps and channels, either by holding the ball slightly deeper in midfield before setting off on another wave of attacks, or allowing attackers to drop back to blur the lines. In the past, United have regularly shown the benefits of relaxing into their own half in order to create space behind an opponent’s back line as they respond to the low defensive line, only to then strike at speed into the newly created holes.

Rather than demand his players surge forward and wide at every given opportunity, to hit the byline and fire in a cross, Moyes should let his players better manage the game by teasing their opponents into playing more openly. As demonstrated by Barcelona during their Champions League semi-final ties against Chelsea in 2012, even the Catalans can struggle when they back opponents into a corner. What’s needed instead is a willingness to withdraw and make space for Mata & Co. to take a moment, assess the situation and add some composure and sense to United’s otherwise manic, wing-centric attacks.

Stop playing with two out-and-out strikers

Watching both Rooney and Van Persie queue up to receive crosses into the box against Fulham, standing static in wait without any supporting runs in the box or clever off-the-ball movement, summarised the stagnant nature of the team’s attacking play at present.

However, what else can you expect from two players asked to perform the duties of an out-and-out goalscorer? Something’s got to give, and in order to encourage more craft and a greater degree of fluid movement, Rooney must take a step back into becoming a player between midfield and attack rather than a wholly focussed forward.

Rooney vs van Persie Goals (above) & Shots Inside the Area – PL 2013/14

This will allow Mata to then play off his new team-mate with some clever one-twos and build-up play rather than lining up separate from the players he needs to combine with. If, due to the set formation and tactics, United’s creative players struggle to come to aid of the strikers, the strikers must come to them.

Ultimately, the Spaniard should continuing doing what he is doing. With three assists in his first four games he’s succeeding in the role he was purchased for and will only further blossom should the team begin to play to his strengths. However, what’s good for Mata would also be good for the other leading names in United’s squad. Moyes may be trying to go back to basics to turn things around, it is negligent of him to waste the talent of the personnel available to him by denying them the freedom and space to make things happen.