By Ewah Chika.

One Manchester United player that might be cursing his luck following the appointment of Jose Mourinho is no one else but Juan Mata who was sold by the same manager while in Chelsea in 2014 for £37 million .

"Oscar is my No.10. I have to prove to the fans that I am good. Now Mata must do the same," were the words of Jose Mourinho which explains why he sold the Spaniard to Manchester United in the winter of 2014. Mata on his part, hit back at the Portuguese saying, "If a luxury player is a player who scored and assists and has good stats-then I'm happy to be a luxury player. I've scored as any goals for Manchester United in the Premier League as for Chelsea, but in something like 30 games less."

Mata at the moment might not be the same indispensable player he was at Chelsea winning the Player's Player of the Year award in his two years at the club and also the FA Cup, Europa League and the Champions League. The player hasn't replicated his Chelsea form at Manchester United though he isn't the only one to under-perform as David Moyes and then Louis Van Gaal share most of the blame for the below par performance of the North West club. Last season, the former Valencia player played every league game for Manchester United starting 34, scoring six goals and providing five assists. Though this might be good for an average player, this is poor considering the standard the Madrid born player has already set during his time in England. In total Mata has scored 21 goals in 86 games for Manchester which is better than his 18 in 82 games for Chelsea all in the Premier League but like always it is not his stat that is the problem but the manner of decline In his ability to dictate the pace and dominate games that is the issue at hand. At his peak in Chelsea, Mata played in the central midfield attacking position and caused havoc for defenders with his dribble, vision, ability to control the game and moments of brilliance in key games which was unrivalled in the Premiership. Although this has not been replicated in Manchester United, one of the key reason is the set-up of his previous coaches who gave him more defensive duty than both Andre Villas Boas and Roberto Di Matteo in Chelsea. Mata is a player who is best In the centre of midfield and who is devastating when given a free role with less defensive duty to do with emphasis on his attacking talents . The Spaniard shares some similarities with Arsenal's Mesut Ozil and Manchester City's David Silva. At 28, he sure has a lot of active years in him and is entering his peak period in football and must get constant game time in order to get back to his best.

This is surely not going to come in Manchester United given the record signing of Paul Pogba for €120 million from Juventus and also the abundance of talent at the club with Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Anthony Martial set to partner Pogba in attacking midfield with Zlatan Ibrahimovic in attack in a typical 4-2-3-1 Jose Mourinho formation next season. This will only complicate issues for the midfielder who was overlooked by Vincent Del Bosque when naming his 23 man squad for the Euro's in France this summer. Also to be noted is the availability of the likes of Wayne Rooney who can play in the attacking central midfield and Jesse Lingaard who can play on the wings which could push the Spaniard further down the pecking order at the club.

Mata must swallow his pride and leave Manchester to a club where he will not only see game time in his favourite position but also be the focal point and attacking chief, even if this might mean playing in a less glamorous club. Be it loan or permanent move out of Manchester United, Juan Mata's best career decision should be centred along that line of thought. Jose Mourinho hasn't changed his defensive and counter attacking football philosophy and this will not happen over night, Mata's days in Manchester United is clearly over.

Source

http://mailtelegraph..co.ke/2016/07/juan-mata-must-leave-manchester-united.html?m=1