Jamie Redknapp Urges Juan Mata to Leave Manchester United

Redknapp has urged Juan Mata to move on from Manchester United after the midfielder was omitted from Louis van Gaal's starting XI and is being used as an impact substitute.

The former Chelsea man came off the bench to score against Crystal Palace as the Red Devils scraped a 1-0 win over the relegation battlers at Old Trafford. Mata was signed under David Moyes, but the acquisition of Angel di Maria and Radamel Falcao has forced Van Gaal to move Wayne Rooney to the Spaniard's position, which has severely restricted his game time.

Redknapp believes that Mata is too good to be playing under the shadow of Rooney especially after leaving Chelsea for a similar reason. The Spaniard revealed that he had fallen out of favour with Jose Mourinho as he was shunned to the bench and starved of playing time.

United are currently two points behind West Ham in the race for a top four spot but Van Gaal has to use his vast resources properly in order to recover from their torrid start to the season and return to Champions League football.

"It is easy to pick on Juan Mata. He is not blessed with pace, he's not a big player and he comes across as a quiet, humble guy. But you cannot argue with what he produces on the pitch," Redknapp said in his column with the Daily Mail.

"He came off the bench to save Manchester United against Crystal Palace and he must be wondering what more he has to do to play regular football at Old Trafford.

"There is no doubting his quality — this is a player with a World Cup and European Championship to his name. But he found himself surplus to requirements at Chelsea and now seems to be in a similar position at Manchester United.

"You have to credit him because he never causes a fuss or has a bad word to say. But make no mistake. He wants to play football.

"He is too good to be a super sub at United and if he doesn't get some more action, I could see him moving on or maybe even back to Spain," he concluded.