MATA’S OFF TO A FLYER FOR UNITED
IT TOOK six minutes. Six minutes for Juan Mata to demonstrate his worth to Manchester United, six minutes for him to link, albeit circuitously, with Robin van Persie and conjure a goal at Old Trafford.
This being the David Moyes edition of the champions, however, it was not until close to an hour later that they could begin to feel safe against the Premier League’s bottom club, thanks to a cracking goal by Ashley Young.
Even so, baby steps, baby steps. By the time Mata began tiring late in the gameg — the odd mistimed tackle here, a rare misplaced pass there, replaced by Adnan Januzaj after 85 minutes — few were in any doubt that they had seen the debut of a future United great. Mind you, they have been starved of the usual good news around here of late.
Mata was not brilliant but he was most definitely an upgrade, and better than expected, having played no football for close to a month. He needs to be in top gear by the time of the visit to Arsenal on February 12, but the pass which set up United’s first goal will earn him considerable credit in these parts.
Mata collected the ball from the defence, deeper than a conventional No 10, but immediately dem- onstrated a counter- attacking instinct that fits in perfectly with the ethos of his new club. A perfect crossfield pass to Patrice Evra and United were away.
Evra’s cross was headed against the bar by Luis Antonio Valencia and the ball ricocheted around the area as United scrambled to convert. Out it came and was followed up by Van Persie, whose effort was saved by David Marshall; out it came and it was followed up by Van Persie, whose header, second time, gave the goalkeeper no chance.
So it wasn’t an assist, or even the assist for an assist, but had Mata not applied his singular vision to the build-up, United would not have been able to play with a safety net for so long; and those little securities are important these days.
This is a team with the jitters, but Mata is a cool customer and on the ball he did the simple things well. Another deep cross could have advanced the gap in the 19th minute but Young failed to get the necessary touch at the far post.
He is better from distance, it would seem. In the 59th minute, Young ensured Cardiff would end the night where they began with a goal that banished the memory of some insipid performances and dubious falls this season.
He received the ball on the left, cut inside, kept going with purpose and finally unleashed a shot across Marshall that flew in at the bottom corner from 25 yards.
It could have been three 15 min- utes later, but Marshall tipped the ball on to the far post after Valencia tried to curl one past him from inside the penalty area. In injury time, first Januzaj and then Wayne Rooney went close.
The problem for Mata, obviously, is that he is the first. There will be improvements, a transformation most likely, and United will be better than this. Until then, there will be spells — as there were last night in the first half — when they are being pegged back by Cardiff City and the new man is left to wonder how soon it will be before he again belongs to a team who just brush inferiors aside.
It does not help that, for all his improvement season on season, David de Gea is still a goalkeeper vulnerable to an old-fashioned up and under — and Cardiff, being Welsh, are not averse to that.
De Gea made a very intuitive save with his feet from a Mark Hudson header after Peter Whittingham’s 24th-minute corner, but it is worth noting that the visitors would not have had such a chance at all had De Gea come for a cross that looped up by his far post.
Perhaps his reluctance was explained soon after when he did attempt to deal with a similar effort at his near post, only to fumble the ball over the byline. This uncertainty, however, means United are never allowed to feel comfortable with a single-goal lead, mindful that it might only take one halfchance against the run of play to equalise. De Gea as good as cost United a place in the Capital One Cup final in his last game, remember. Injuries have played havoc with Moyes’s bestlaid plans this season, but even so seeing Ryan Giggs and Phil Jones in the heart of midfeld was an indication of the improvement required in the depth of this squad. Giggs is defying nature to continue as a Premier League footballer at 40, while Jones is in most minds a centre half out of position. He may yet make this role his own, but he needs to have a run in the team, not a succession of emergency turns.
Certainly there is work to be done strengthening United’s trunk, as was demonstrated when Jordon Mutch strode through the middle without hassle before releasing the ball to Craig Noone, who moved inside but shot wastefully over.
Plucky resistance is no use to Cardiff as the weeks pass, though. They began this game rooted to the bottom and the appointment of
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has done little to reverse their fortunes. His return has gone down well with the United fans, though, and it was noticeable that his name was sung by the home crowd more forcefully than those of Moyes, Rooney, Van Persie and even, yes, Mata. He got more name checks than he did at the Cardiff end too.
Yet no manager has ever survived on the love of the common people and it is plain Cardiff have an uphill task to remain in the league without an obvious cutting edge. They had good possession without greatly troubling United, and most teams can give them at least the odd scare these days. At least they looked like Cardiff — their shirts a vivid deep blue due to a clash of the red that owner Vincent Tan appears to find so uniquely lucky.
‘We’re Cardiff City, we’ll always be blue,’ sang the visitors — a statement that will most certainly be true if, come the end of the season, Solskjaer is still a bigger hero at Old Trafford than he is in South Wales.