“It would have been an enormous shock for Juan Mata last summer, when he realised he had been deemed unsuitable for the strategy of the incoming Chelsea manager, Jose Mourinho. Not only had Mata been consistently exceptional throughout his first two seasons in English football, he’d also thrived under three different managers — and, arguably, in four very different systems. The first system was under Andre Villas-Boas, an ideologue who refused to compromise his major beliefs during his period at Chelsea. This involved a high defensive line, and transferring the ball quickly into attack. Mata had a huge responsibility — he arrived as the main playmaker for a club who’d been without a player of his creative potential for years, arguably since Gianfranco Zola in the pre-Abramovich days.” ESPN – Michael Cox (Video)