Hey all,

What do chelsea fans or interested people think about mata's situation under jose? I feel so uncomfortable watching chelsea play with juan on the bench, he has been sooo great bossing our attack for the past 2 year especially last year (nothing new) .. But we all have to agree that oscar is having a world class season and it would not be fair to bench him since he is great every watch he plays. Oscar has been great but most of chelsea fans think that chelsea's best game this season was the arsenal win 0-2, where mata was leading the attack mid at the n10 role. So what?

In my opinion, mourinho should give oscar a go in a more defensive role, like in the 2 of his 4231 system. Oscar has a great engine and could run for days, he is amazing at chasing back and can be aggresive. This role can allowing him to bounce forward during counter attacks like he is doing this year. Then it would liberate the n10 place for mata, who can unlock defenses that park the bus.

The holding midfield pair could be oscar/ramires (but maybe a bit to offensive) or oscar/mikel or why not oscar/luiz (luiz is too messy to play cb in my opinion, but has a great vision and is a great winning balls tackler)

Mata defenitly needs play time, and no one in chelsea stands wants him to go boss another' team midfield.

So yeah, whats are your thoughts?

There is not much to say about this, Mourinho has done this before with players in all the teams he has been in probably with the same purpose, to show who is THE BOSS and to establish that no player, as good as he can possibly be, and as crucial for the team as he may be, can be above the coach and also that no player would not be assured a safe spot on the team starting XI.

The thing now is that, as it happened with the other players and teams, the team learns eventually to play without that key figure and Mourinho builds the team without taking that player into consideration so the team really ends up not needing him as badly.

If Chelsea keeps winning and when Mata plays they lose then Mourinho's stupid decision is somehow justified.

Putting Oscar in DM is tactically wrong. Oscar is neither built as a ball winner, nor as a box-to-box player.

Yes, he has a fantastic engine, but I strongly feel that his asset lies in his playmaking and creativity. He is best used as a #10, but too good for the bench. I would say that using him as LW would be a great idea, but then where would Hazard go? Too many problems there.

Putting him in RW wouldn't be bad either, but Schurrle adds the more traditional winger width and can probably perform better as a WINGER than Oscar.

My view of this situation is that, it's either one or the other for Chelsea. You can't have both Mata and Oscar in a 4-2-3-1 formation. There is the possibility of fitting them both in perfectly in a 4-3-3, but Chelsea would need a strong DM in that formation (sort of like the Javi Martinez type), and they don't have one at the moment.

As I said on the Chelsea vs Southampton preview: PLAY MATA OR LET HIM LEAVE, BUT DON'T RUIN A TALENTED PLAYER'S CAREER! -.-

It's simple:

Mata is a fantastic playmaker and attacker. But can he defend? The answer is definitely a big no. In fact, he is the worst defender in the large group of wingers/playmakers we have, and we all know how Mourinho desires nothing more than rock solid defending from every player. Now, can Oscar defend? Hell yes. The man is like @Dynastian said, an engine. He just keeps fighting until the final whistle, tracks back, tackles, intercept and defends really well. He also has the potential to surpass Mata in just 1 to 3 seasons.

So what's the better option here?

Play a brilliant playmaker in Mata who can't defend whatsoever but is without a doubt one of the top 5 playmakers in the world right now. Or play Oscar, another playmaker who is most likely just one stage below Mata in playmaking abilities but has the potential to go far beyond Mata's abilities, and also defends well.

The clear choice is Oscar. Mourinho really wants to play Mata, he stated it in an interview, but he also stated there's no room for him if he doesn't improve. If Mata wants to start for us again, he needs to sharpen his defending. If he doesn't do that and what's to start for another team then so be it.

I don't get it. Mourinho has a habit of sidelining players to show them who is boss, but Mata has never shown any arrogance as to being Chelsea's best player last season. So does he deserve it? In my opinion it would be selfish to keep him in the squad but not give him playing time. He is too good to be a backup of Oscar who atm is also brilliant. This also hurts his international place. If he doesn't have enough playing time at club level Spain will sideline him much like Casillas. So either find a way to give him a regular first team spot or let him leave so that such a brilliant talent isn't extinguished rotting on the benches. But that being said it's all up to Mourinho to decide who plays and who doesn't

Feel free to shunt him along to WHL. Tell you what: we'll even give you the 30m we thankfully didn't blow on Willian for him.