Jose Mourinho vs Juan Mata: How They Fared In The Community Shield Match Against Leicester City.

Jose Mourinho substituted Juan Mata for Henrikh Mkhitaryan at stoppage time just a few minutes after the player went in as a substitute for Jesse Lingard (63 minutes) in the second half of the Community Shield game last night, and the Spaniard isn’t happy with that “slap in the face”.

Image: File Photo

The match against Leicester City once again, has triggered reactions from Manchester United fans who are yet to forget the events at Chelsea that forced the Mata out to Old Trafford.

Jose [Chelsea manager at the time] sold Mata to United in January 2014 for reasons speculated to be “personal”, without expecting that fate would bring them together again.

While the midfielder enjoyed a short-lived playing time at Old Trafford before the Portuguese coach was hired as coach for the club side, recent events bring fears that Mata’s future is now in doubt.

Before Mourinho sold Mata from Stamford Bridge to Old Trafford, the player had previously been considered Chelsea’s player of the season and it was widely speculated that the sale had a personal edge although both parties claimed “it was a mutual decision with no hard feelings”.

With Man U’s high profile summer acquisitions — Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Paul Pogba expected, there may be no space left for Mata to hang on except among the reserves. Last night’s game against The Foxes proved this speculation right.

Granted, Mourinho may have other reasons rather than personal, for subbing Mata when he did but anyone could read the relationship gap between a coach and his player.

Juan Mata did not looked impressed at being subbed having only come on 27mins earlier. Consoled by #mufc staff but not Jose Mourinho

— Laurie Whitwell (@lauriewhitwell) August 7, 2016

Juan Mata, who only came on as a sub, very, very unhappy at being substituted…

— Jason Burt (@JBurtTelegraph) August 7, 2016

With Mata heading off the pitch, several fans spotted the Manchester United coaching staff intervening to console the player, with images showing a brief conversation with the manager as well, Telegraph wrote.

I’d have changed Juan Mata too if I were in Mourinho’s shoes. He was defending a result. Mata isn’t strong enough

— David Mc-lean (@ingdavidmclean) August 7, 2016

Juan Mata trying to make it at #MUFC under Mourinho pic.twitter.com/sInOsFO34X

— Hashtager ®™ (@ODMendel) August 7, 2016

Juan Mata did not looked impressed at being subbed having only come on 27mins earlier. Consoled by #mufc staff but not Jose Mourinho

— Laurie Whitwell (@lauriewhitwell) August 7, 2016

Juan Mata was not happy with being subbed there. Looked to be some sort of reaction to Mourinho. Don’t think he’s going to be staying. #MUFC

— Luke Gardener (@LukeGardener82) August 7, 2016

Mata has scored 26 goals in 104 appearances in his two-and-a-half years at Old Trafford, though his place in an often-struggling United side has not always been assured, the report added.

Mourinho was quoted as saying after the encounter that his decision to substitute Mata in the game was “tactical”.