Mata privileged to play with Wayne Juan Mata has described playing alongside Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney as “a privilege”. Rooney was in inspirational form in the Reds’ 3-1 Boxing Day win over Newcastle, scoring two and making the other for Robin van Persie, and claiming the Man of the Match award in the process with 74 per cent of the vote. The striker worked his magic from a deeper midfield role which he has played on occasion this season and Mata believes it’s a position Rooney can continue to thrive in. “I think he can play there, yes,” declared Mata in a post-match interview with MUTV. “He can defend, he can attack, he can pass and he can score goals arriving into the box. “For us, he is a very important player and I feel privileged to play with such a player as Wazza.” Like Rooney, Mata was involved in all three of United’s goals with the duo linking brilliantly at times during the 90 minutes with Radamel Falcao and Robin van Persie, who netted the Reds’ third. The Spaniard spoke afterwards of his admiration for his fellow attackers and hopes the Reds can continue the recent good form at Tottenham on Sunday. “I really enjoy playing with all players like that [Rooney, Falcao, van Persie]. As strikers, they offer you a lot of movement so you can pass the ball to them,” he explained. “We just want to keep playing well. Physically it’s difficult [to be ready for Sunday’s game] but mentally we are ready. We now recover today and tomorrow and try to be the fittest we can for Tottenham.” #JMK
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 19:30:08 +0000
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