Luke Shaw was the Man of the Match for Manchester United
#4 Juan Mata
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Manchester United v Watford FC - Premier League
The Spaniard started the game from the right and looked lost for the opening 15 minutes. Mata rarely got on the ball and was largely isolated because United were overrun in the midfield. When Solskjaer shifted him to the false 9 role, the Spaniard found his footing and helped United get a grip on the game.
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His positioning in the middle helped United nullify Watford's advantage in the middle of the park. With Pogba having an off day, Mata took responsibility and started putting together passes that helped United get back into the game. Watford had no answer for his clever movements, which caused the defense and midfield all sorts of trouble.
The Spaniard started operating in the space left open by the away side in between defense and midfield. From here, Mata threaded passes to Rashford and Martial. He brought Pogba into the game and switched play with ease. Ultimately, United rode the momentum gained from his passes to win the game.
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About the author
Deepungsu Pandit
Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over six years at Sportskeeda. He has written over 8500 articles for the website, and has garnered over 19.5Million reads.
Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.
Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.
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