Ahead of Manchester United’s Champions League quarter final clash against Barcelona, Marca sat down with Juan Mata to talk about the Red Devils.
Trying to understand what has changed behind the scenes at Old Trafford since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replaced José Mourinho, the Spanish newspaper were very inquisitive about what the Norwegian’s approach.
Mata was more than happy to open up about it all and was full of praise for the Norwegian manager.
He said: “The truth is that results have been really good with the new boss, except a couple of games the past few weeks. That’s mostly down to him, especially in the manner in which he arrived, his way of communicating with players, with the media, his way of understanding the club.
“We can’t forget that he is a team legend because of goals like the one in the final at the Camp Nou. Of course, he understands what Manchester United’s DNA is. In the small amount of time we’ve worked together, he seems to be a good person and I think that’s important when it comes to leading a group.”
As well as showering his manager with nice words, the Spaniard discussed Manchester United as a team when asked how he could describe the team’s approach around going into games.
Explaining how Solskjaer has got the team to ‘adapt’ well to facing different styles of football, Mata believes the Red Devils are able to defend ‘well’ against possession based football, sitting back before counter-attacking and quickly punishing the opponents.
However, there’s something else.
He said: “First and foremost, I’d say we’re very keen, a mix of experience and young players, that we come out with a lot of desire, with that pride of wearing the Manchester United shirt, a team that never gives up.”
After the miracle in Paris, the general belief is that Solskjaer and co. might need another one in the next two weeks if they want to see off the La Liga leaders to make the competition’s semi-final.
He already did it all those years ago when he was at Chelsea under Roberto di Matteo, so Mata has every reason to believe his current team can also pull it off.
