Ander Herrera and Juan Mata at crossroads - even after winning over Jose Mourinho

Utilised at his best, there is no reason Mata can’t be what David Silva is to Manchester City – a player who keeps possession with ease and finds his fellow attackers with aplomb. Indeed, around four years ago most observers would have considered Mata the superior player – an indictment of his managers at United in the time since, and possibly his own decision to join the club.

The knock on Mata has usually been his defensive effort, but he’s made great strides to improve the latter, a change in his game apparent since his early days under Louis van Gaal at United.

Meanwhile, Herrera has also suffered from Mourinho’s selection policy, even after establishing himself as one of United’s best midfielders during the Portuguese’s first season at Old Trafford.

United fans were fond of finding stats during the 2016/17 campaign that showed that the Spaniard was on par with Chelsea’s N’Golo Kante, who swept the year awards that season after a title-winning campaign.

The argument was based as much on partisanship as it was on actual stats, of course, but it underscored a point about Herrera.

After two seasons in which Van Gaal struggled to figure out where to play the former Athletic Bilbao player, Mourinho seemed to have figured it out. Give Herrera the Kante role, a sort of defensive free roamer who can gamble on cutting off passes, run back and forth from attack and defence all game long, make crunching tackles, and pick out simple passes to start attacks, and he’ll thrive.

As a bonus, Herrera can also be diligent enough to man-mark a player, as Eden Hazard discovered to his frustration in a 2-0 United win two seasons ago. The Spaniard also scored and got an assist in that game. It should have been the performance that cemented his status as an automatic starter.

But that summer, Mourinho brought in Nemanja Matic, and Marouane Fellaini jumped Herrera in the pecking order for no particular reason apart from the manager’s preference for bruising, powerful midfielders. It’s a problem that has since seen players like Fred and Andreas Pereira get relegated to the bench.

It’s not that Mourinho doesn’t see the value of a more technically gifted player – after all, he sanctioned the £52million purchase of Fred – but there’s still a lack of trust there. It’s unfortunate, because the only thing that separates Herrera from Matic and Fellaini in the physicality department is his size. He’s arguably a more uncompromising defensive player than either, but he’s not a member of the over-six-feet-tall brigade that is Mourinho’s default.

Yet Mourinho still values Herrera enough to insist on a contract extension for him, just like Mata.

In their own way the two are actually perfect Mourinho players. Mata may be one of the nicest guys in football, but he also guarantees a level of commitment that many United players often struggle to meet.

And though Herrera is an affable player off the pitch, it’s his unwavering commitment on it that has made him a darling of the Old Trafford faithful.

But there’s still a sense that they’re both odd fits at Old Trafford. So where now for these two Spaniards?