Why Juan Mata Should Be Dropped From United’s Starting XI

Manchester United had a game to forget against Brighton yesterday as they were hammered 2-3 by a relatively small team. After a promising start against Leicester City last week, United were handed a reality check this weekend.

The repercussions of their weak and inefficient transfer business were quite visible against Brighton yesterday. Without Alexis Sanchez, there was no spark in the attack and hence the wingers looked quite lacklustre.

The midfield consisting of Pereira, Pogba, and Fred were extremely sloppy in distribution and couldn’t tread passes to the strikers. They were all over the place during Brighton’s attacks and gave away possession too easily in dangerous areas.

The central defence consisting of Lindelof and Bailly was reactive instead of being proactive and hence allowed Murray to run behind them.

Lindelof was responsible for the first goal as he couldn’t mark Murray strongly in order to stop him from tapping the ball into the net. On the other hand, Bailly reckless challenge inside the box helped Brighton from the penalty spot to extend their lead to 3-1.

Hence, a serious introspection is needed from the players and the manager in order to not repeat the same mistakes again. Let us have a look at why Juan Mata should be dropped from the Red Devils’ starting line-up.

Juan Mata gave one of his most horrible displays in the game yesterday. Being played as a right winger, he looked extremely out of position due to lack of pace and the inability to help out the defence.

He was completely lacklustre while attacking, gave away possession too cheaply, couldn’t create any chances for the attackers and hence was hardly visible on the pitch when his team was on the offensive.

Due to lack of pace, he was unable to take on the left-back, his playmaking ability was easily thwarted by the opposition defence and was extremely ineffective yesterday.

Mata also abdicated his defensive responsibilities as he was slow in coming back, gave too much pace for Brighton’s left-back to run on the wing and hence was responsible for Brighton’s first goal as he didn’t press the left-back and allowed him the freedom to give a easy pass to the winger who easily crossed the ball into the Manchester United penalty area for Murray to tap in.

Hence, Mata was rightly substituted by Mourinho at half-time. The Manchester United manager should either give Mata a central role in the next game or drop him.

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