Juan Mata backs teammates to fill void left by Paul Pogba's absence in Manchester derby

London, Dec 8: Juan Mata has conceded that Manchester United will surely miss a player like Paul Pogba in Sunday's high voltage derby, however, insisted that they have the squad to cover him.

Since his arrival at the Old Trafford, the French midfielder has been pivotal to United's success. The 24-year-old was United's best player in the Europa league, he also made his mark in the domestic league as well.

However, this season, the former Juventus player is seemed to have improved leaps and bound and his performance itself spoke every time in the field.

He was sorely missed during his injury time in September where United struggled to get past opponents and drew once and even lost to minnows like Huddersfield Town in the league.

But since his return two weeks ago, the midfielder has again started to show his worth from the midfield and already assisted thrice and scored once in his two appearances in the league.

However, sadly the midfielder got his marching orders in is last game in the league against Arsenal when he stamped defender Bellerin and now will serve a three-match ban with the first of those matches coming at crucial Manchester City.

While talking about the circumstances, attacker Juan Mata now has lamented the fact that they will miss one of their important section of attacking options from the squad, however, claimed he is certain that somebody will make up in his place in the match.

"Yeah, big miss," Mata said after Tuesday's victory. "He's a fantastic player."

"He did a fantastic assist [on Tuesday night]," the Spaniard stated. "He's a very complete midfielder, he can do all things."

"He will be a big miss but another player will play and try his best," Mata proclaimed. "I think we have a good squad and have good players to replace any other player. Hopefully, we can win for him."

United still trail eight points at the top of the Premier League table to Manchester City and the first and second place fight at Old Trafford this end of the week as of now looks crucial to United's title hope.

United will go into the derby at Old Trafford in great form having won their last four matches in the league, including an exciting 3-1 victory against top-four rivals Arsenal on Saturday and the Red Devils supporters will now be hoping an unexpected and hugely important win in the context of the title race.