EPL: Jose's well in control of this Mata

Jose Mourinho has been roundly criticised for giving Juan Mata the cold shoulder.

The Chelsea manager has taken brickbats from the likes of Ruud Gullit and Jamie Redknapp, to name a few pundits, who think he's wrong to outcast the Spanish playmaker.

But I think Mourinho's right. What is happening now has got nothing to do with Mata's ability.

I'm a huge fan of the Spaniard and I think, on the ball, he is as good as anyone in the Chelsea squad. The 20 goals he scored last term, and the fact he was named in the Premier League's team of the season, underscores what a talent he is.

Off the ball, though, he's a different story. The lad just doesn't chase back.

Mata was brilliant for Chelsea in the past two seasons but that was because the team were centred around him and he had free rein to do whatever he wanted on the pitch.

I've watched Mata from when he was playing for the Spain Under-21 team and he really doesn't do a lot of defending without the ball.

It's not entirely his fault he's not used to doing the dirty work, since at his previous teams he was never asked to chase back and tackle.

I reckon, from the age of 10, he has been singled out as a special player because of his talent and players around him have been made to graft. Skilful players falling out of favour with managers is nothing new.

Look at Glenn Hoddle.

He was a star at Tottenham Hotspur but did not play anywhere near as many games as he should have for England - he only made 53 international appearances.

That's because the England managers at the time, Ron Greenwood and Bobby Robson, knew he couldn't do the ugly things well.

Anyone who knows Mourinho knows he's all about the team as a unit and having a collective work ethic. He doesn't like taking chances.

He knows that in the Premier League, if you have slackers in your team, you can be found out.

That's why the Special One seems to favour the likes of Oscar, Eden Hazard, Kevin de Bruyne and Andre Schurrle.

These are players who mix flair with industry. Look at Oscar's performance in the 2-0 win over Fulham last Saturday. He did a lot of things on the ball, but without it, he worked as hard as anyone on that pitch in closing people down and harrying opponents off the ball. He even popped up with a goal.

The fact the Brazilian ran a remarkable 11.2km in last week's Champions League game against Basel shows why he's Mourinho's golden boy at the moment, and publicly singled out as the manager's ideal "No. 10" at Chelsea.

Debate

Some argue that Mata is still a better player than the likes of de Bruyne and Schurrle, and that the Spaniard should start games ahead of them. But I think they've got a little bit more pace and fitness than Mata, and unlike him, they're used to grafting at their previous teams.

So can the playmaker adapt and learn to play the way his manager wants? I think he can.

Listen, sharpening the defensive side of your game is a lot easier than trying to make a player a brilliant attacker.

You can't just give a player great footballing ability, but you can make him run a bit more. It's not like you're trying to get John Obi Mikel to cross like David Beckham or dribble like Lionel Messi.

And I think Mata will have plenty of time to learn to play how Mourinho wants him to.

The manager would be loath to sell him, despite there already being rumours Atletico Madrid are hovering and ready to swoop and bring Mata back to Spain in January. He won't want a quality player like Mata coming back to hurt Chelsea while playing for another top Premier League or European team.

I'm not surprised how ruthless the Portuguese has been in casting aside the likes of Mata and defender David Luiz, players whom he thinks don't have the DNA of what an ideal Chelsea player should be.

Strength

He wants to stamp his authority, and that's why he's been critical of how Chelsea have played in the last two years.

Some say he is talking too much, and it's affecting the team on the pitch.

They point to how, before the Fulham game, Chelsea had made their worst start to a season for 10 years.

But 10 points from five games is not too bad, is it?

It even helped them top the table, albeit for just 24 hours.

Sure, they've not really been too impressive but Chelsea have never been that way.

They've never wowed me with Barcelonastyle football, but they know when to pass, when to shoot, when to attack and when to defend.

They know how to win.

And lest we forget, it was a certain Jose Mourinho who first taught them how to do it.

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