• Andy Hunter: five talking points from Anfield
During his early days at Chelsea Juan Mata was nicknamed Johnny Kills, a literal translation of his name into English but also a nice fit with his sniper-ish skills as a creative No10. Mata is in essence a beautifully simple cutting edge as he showed again at Anfield during Manchester United’s 2-1 defeat of Liverpool. By the end of which Mata had produced the outstanding individual turn of United’s best team game of the season; and for the winning goal summoned up a moment of sublime, inventive finishing that won’t be bettered in the Premier League this year.
There are of course two slight oddities about Mata’s performance. Firstly, it came pretty much out of nowhere. Before the victory against Tottenham the previous week Mata had played 36 minutes of Premier League football in three months and had not had a shot on target in the Premier League since 20 December. And secondly, for all that, Mata’s brilliance will have come as no surprise to anybody watching, a simple function of his undiminished brilliance as a passer, finisher and manipulator of the ball. As Michael Carrick accepted afterwards Mata has evolved into something of a paradox in recent times: universally prized, unarguably A-list and yet still required to operate from the fringes with Chelsea, United and Spain, a delightful decoration.
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via Football | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1CRlG7K
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