During his early days at Chelsea, Juan Mata was nicknamed Johnny Kills, a literal translation of his name into English but also a nice fit with his sniperish skills as a creative No10. Mata is in essence a beautifully simple cutting edge as he showed again at Anfield during Manchester United’s 2-1 defeat of Liverpool, by the end of which he had produced the outstanding individual turn of United’s best team game of the season; and for the winning goal he summoned up a moment of sublime, inventive finishing that won’t be bettered in the Premier League this year.

There are of course two slight oddities about Mata’s performance. Firstly, it came pretty much out of nowhere. Before the victory against Tottenham the previous week Mata had played 36 minutes of Premier League football in three months and had not had a shot on target in the league since 20 December. And secondly, for all that, Mata’s brilliance will have come as no surprise to anybody watching, a simple function of his undiminished quality as a passer, finisher and manipulator of the ball. As Michael Carrick accepted afterwards, Mata has evolved into something of a paradox in recent times: universally prized, unarguably A-list and yet still required to operate from the fringes with Chelsea, United and Spain, a delightful decoration.

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“He is just so clever,” Carrick said after United’s win. “He moves the ball, takes up good positions, he is dangerous and he is just so intelligent. He has such a slight frame so he is not going to have a physical presence. But he more than makes up for that with his general ability and how he plays the game. He is just a joy to watch.”

In the past three years the qualms about Mata’s physical strength and defensive rigour have come to define the trajectory of his elite-level career. Indeed as a player he embodies better than any other the retreat from the idea that small, wispy playmakers are football’s new gold standard, to the notion that in fact powerful, technically adroit all-purpose all-rounders are the currency of the future: the transition from Barcelona 2011 to Bayern Munich 2013, from Mata to Paul Pogba at Juventus.

At Anfield, Louis van Gaal talked happily and at some length about Mata’s reinvention as a “false right-winger”. And certainly in victory United did find a way of integrating their most talented ball-player while avoiding two of the greatest anti-Mata snipes: first, that he demands an entire team be built around him; and second that as a wide player he exposes his flank defensively.

Starting from a narrow right-side position, supported closely by Ander Herrera and with rugby league’s gift to football, Antonio Valencia, a barging defensive block behind, Mata was superbly waspish and precise. Over 90 minutes he had more touches, completed more passes, made more crosses and – of course – scored more goals than any other player on the pitch. Rather than a dangerous adornment, Mata simply looked the best, most influential player out there.

Significantly so perhaps. United’s manager is nothing if not competitive with his peers. Perhaps in attempting to recalibrate a player whom it has become fashionable to downgrade a little, Van Gaal might see a flattering kind of challenge. Just as there are some who feel José Mourinho almost took against Mata at Chelsea on a point of principle, a stick with which to flail at his predecessor, Rafael Benítez.

Certainly for a player who a little under two years ago was a world, European, Champions League, Europa League and FA Cup champion, Mata has very quickly become a “swipe left” kind of footballer. Mourinho, who at times gives the impression he would gladly clap every unfettered creative midfielder in the world in leg-irons if the possibility presented itself, kicked off the trend by dropping him, theatrically, after two seasons as Chelsea’s player of the year.

At United, Mata was for a while hoist as an emblem of the failings of Moyesism, bundled together with Marouane Fellaini as an example of disconnected over-spending, his attributes constantly overlooked in favour of his failings (one TV pundit declared that Mata could only ever succeed on “tight grounds” and would be physically unable to conquer the “wide open spaces” at United: Old Trafford’s surface is a whole two yards wider and three yards longer than the pitch at Stamford Bridge).

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Under Van Gaal, Mata looked at first a good fit for a manager less concerned about foot speed and more with his players’ technical qualities. Mata started well but was a casualty of the tinkerings of autumn. Taken off at half-time against Queens Park Rangers in January, having looked lost in a bizarre 3-3-2-2 formation, he was relegated to the fringes, with some reports from Spain that he might even be sold in January.

Perhaps it is simply time the wheel turned once again for Mata. Certainly during the past three months it has been possible to question the Mourinho-ish vogue for insisting the one quality attacking midfielders must have above all others is defensive discipline. For one thing Mata’s defensive frailties are perhaps overplayed. He will never be a tackler but under Van Gaal he has made more interceptions per game than Cesc Fàbregas, Oscar, David Silva and Mesut Özil. Willian has made marginally more tackles (by 0.2 per game) and been dribbled past 0.3 times fewer. Against that, Mata’s passing accuracy is better and despite playing less than Willian he has been directly involved in twice as many goals. At which point you start to wonder exactly which of these two attacking midfielders is failing to do some vital part of his job.

Of course the real challenge with a player of Mata’s gifts is simply to find a balance within which he can operate, as United did at Anfield. With this in mind Van Gaal’s sudden pet enthusiasm for the idea of the false right-winger is perhaps significant. History suggests breathtaking creative skill never really goes out of fashion for long. Perhaps at the sharp end of the season the slight but significant transition from Johnny Kills to Johnny Also Intercepts and Johnny Really Can Be Trusted Simply To Win A Game From The Front might yet begin in earnest.