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29th Oct 2016

Numbers show Juan Mata did everything right against Burnley…but still went off

What a performance

Darragh Murphy

Juan Mata is far too nice a fella to kick a water bottle in the direction of the dugout, but surely even he must have been a little bit pissed off when he saw the number 8 flash up on the fourth official’s board on Saturday.

With roughly 20 minutes to play and Burnley firmly under the cosh, Jose Mourinho made the decision to remove Mata from the fray.

On in his place came the elbowy big man known as Marouane Fellaini, who was presumably introduced to complement a change in tactics after Ander Herrera was sent off.

But when you take a look at Mata’s statistics from the game, it makes Mourinho’s call to withdraw him all the more baffling.

Seemingly, Mata had been enjoying the perfect game and hadn’t put a foot wrong for the 70 minutes.

He was quite literally the focal point of everything good about United’s play but it wasn’t enough for ‘The Special One’ who felt the need to change things up.

It’s safe to say that Fellaini didn’t enjoy as flawless a game as Mata because the Spaniard’s numbers were almost unbeatable.

And the strange call did not go unnoticed by United supporters who were rolling their eyes at the most recent sighting of the ginger afro.

https://twitter.com/El_Abdullah88/status/792449477873459200

https://twitter.com/tonysmevs/status/792440791218155521

https://twitter.com/MarkHanna2/status/792438766027870208

https://twitter.com/Carlos_Pulido11/status/792416850718011392

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