Yes, I believe we will get two more full seasons from him, and who knows after that? By then I'm hoping that one of our academy lads has progressed enough to take over, after a season as an understudy, learning some of the tricks of the trade so to speak. I think he stopped enjoying his football under José, and it looks like he might have started to enjoy it again. Think we will need to manage him carefully over the next couple of weeks. We have four matches in 10 days, including Chelsea semi, so Matic will need to have his games planned ahead. I would leave him out for today's game, play him against Villa, out v Southampton, in v Palace, and out v Chelsea as I could see us with Fred and McTominay together in that game.
The disrespect of Nemanja Matic
- Thread starter Schmeichel's Cartwheel
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik and Imran hold a long overdue conversation about United's awful league form with 1 win in 7. They discuss a disappointing draw at Bournemouth, a not so disappointing draw against Liverpool and a crushing defeat at Chelsea - Is time nearly over for Erik Ten Hag?
Then in a special second half of the pod, Nik welcomes Natalie ( https://twitter.com/natalie_17) to discuss the fortunes of Manchester United Women as they booked a place in the FA Cup Final after a historic first ever win vs. Chelsea.
Some could say that not being bothered to track your runners is also disrespectful, nevermind the comments in that other thread.
Matic can be an excellent player, but he’s gone through periods where has has been atrocious and looked like the world was passing him by.
the break was well timed, and shows he’s still a class act, but his playing time needs to be managed. Some players can still get by when they are below par, but he can’t.
We have enough players in the middle of the park that we can manage him. Previously he’s been overplayed when hindsight says he clearly needed a rest.
When Matic is on form and 100% fit he’s a wonderful player to have in the team.
the break was well timed, and shows he’s still a class act, but his playing time needs to be managed. Some players can still get by when they are below par, but he can’t.
We have enough players in the middle of the park that we can manage him. Previously he’s been overplayed when hindsight says he clearly needed a rest.
When Matic is on form and 100% fit he’s a wonderful player to have in the team.
I have criticised him endlessly earlier on under Jose. He has changed and I have to see that with him in the team we looked a class act. He always had the ability to make a brilliant pass and now our attacking midfield and forwards are making those runs too. I still prefer to play with Fred along with Pogba and Bruno when we play a stronger team. Drop a forward for that.
I never got why he got such scathing criticism on here. I’m a fan of his for his time at Chelsea and I was delighted when Jose signed him because he is a legitimately good player. I believe he started his career as an attacking mid then transitioned into a more deeper role, and you can tell with his ability to play passes and having that instinct to set up counters. I don’t think he’s ever stood out to me as noticeably bad performance-wise. He looked off for periods of time but flashes of brilliance came through.
Players like him don’t come around often, and he really seems to have clicked with Bruno and Pogba. Those three in midfield is as good as any midfield in Europe.
Players like him don’t come around often, and he really seems to have clicked with Bruno and Pogba. Those three in midfield is as good as any midfield in Europe.
I thought he looked a bit dodgy in the first half, when Bournemouth were taking advantage of our mistakes and putting pressure on us. So I think Bruno and Pogba are key to his resurgence in form because it puts teams on the back foot and less pressure on him, and he's at his best when given some space.
3 great games and people forget his bad/average last 2 years here. He is a good player, but he has lost consistency and can't carry us to reach the next level. Need upgrade.
Playing like for most of the time he has been at United. When he has been performing well he gets the praise. If it's down to stamina, he better get to work on that.
I don't think it has anything to do with work. If the coaches felt he wasn't applying himself in training he would be dropped. His legs have just gone a bit which was the case even at Chelsea though he wasn't that old. Happens to some players.
Many Chelsea fans told us that prior to signing. It Matic is overplayed he runs out of steam 2nd half of the season. Exactly the same thing happened his first season here. Great start to the season but Mou kept playing him and playing him then eventually his form crashed.
This season he missed a lot due to injury but when he came back was fresh and played great. Then another rest due to Corona and again has come back playing great, Not a coincidence and its good to see Fred come on and play well yesterday. He will be needed.
Practically no fan thinks he is a long term solution. However that is due to age not ability. Provided his work load is managed well he is a great asset. And he has been better than excellent for the majority of games he has played this season and thats what is relevant right now.
IMO we should be actively looking to find a holding mid with similar attributes as a play maker. He will most likely be retired in 2 years and there is no time like the present to search for alternatives.
He didn't look as sharp. His back pass stitched Baily. Even if Baily should've been careful.
You keeping making excuses for a player who was at peak age and still should be. He was dropped for a youth team player for a reason, he was not performing. When a player has stamina issues at this age, then clearly he is not taking care of himself. We cannot afford first-team players to only be playing half a season unless they're injured. We need them performing at optimal level for the entire season. When he has played well he has gotten credit for that like right now, when he has been playing crap, he has deserved the criticism.
Ok I am not sure what we are debating now so I might bow out. I agree if he plays badly he should be criticised and plays well he should be praised. If he plays a significant number of games in a row and him form starts diving..... well that is a complex issue. You and I don't know the specifics. Did he stay fit enough? Is it an age related decline? Should management change his fitness regimen or alternatively tailor his workload/appearances. He seems to play better with fewer games but its obviously up to management to figure out the reasons why and both team/individual strategy.
Can we as you say afford that? Well if we have a two players to rotate (Matic/Fred) then yes we obviously can. Not much of a problem to solve.
I think the reason for his dip in form was dissatisfaction with the team. Same with Pogba. I’m confident now with Bruno in and showing everyone that we are again a top team, Matic will be back to his consistent best for years to come
Depends when we are specifically talking about. No doubt at the end of Mou's tenure a lot of things were falling apart and morale in general was rock bottom. Then Ole is appointed and a lot of uncertainty remains at the club because quite frankly Ole was a huge risk. However looking at 2017-18 Matic got off to a great start before his form started to decline quite rapidly post Christmas. In total he played 49 games that season which was 10 more than he played the prior season at Chelsea.
Since Ole's arrival we haven't seen much of him due to injury and perhaps also Ole also giving a greater focus to more dynamic players. However on the whole this season he has been great when available and selected and its been a huge boost. Another season of this contribution for 30 games is a great return. Fred can also do well with Pogba and Bruno with him. Mctominay has to display how he fits in to the current set up. But moving forwards another younger player similar to Matic would be a great addition for us.
If true, it's great news. Doesn't stop us from getting a top DM to take over and let Matic come in, that is quality sqaud depth.
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Feck me, why 3 years tho? 2 would have been enough. Still think we need to go after Partey.
Probably our usual option for another year contract, so a 2+1 years.
1 year of first team football, 1 year of back up, 1 year of player coach...fair enough.
By then he will be 34...surely if class is permanent he can still sign another year like Carrick.
Hope it is this.
Disrespect to what exactly? Manchester United is a top club and players are expected to perform at high standard throughout the entire season. If there's a dip of form then the fans deserve to point that out. If that dip of form persist then the player should be shown the door.
The trouble with this club is that it respects his players too much. Lingard hasn't given us anything for the past 2 years and he's still here. Jones hasn't given us anything in the past half a decade and he's on his road to a testimonial. We are too forgiving and we're quick in giving long contracts to players who aren't performing on a week in week out basis.
The trouble with this club is that it respects his players too much. Lingard hasn't given us anything for the past 2 years and he's still here. Jones hasn't given us anything in the past half a decade and he's on his road to a testimonial. We are too forgiving and we're quick in giving long contracts to players who aren't performing on a week in week out basis.
Carrick's last year was pure theft. Now I might accept (not understand) that there's a policy at United were we give club legends an extra 12 month pay for doing nothing. After all we did the same with so many players from Robson to Keane right to Gaz and Giggs. However Matic is a Chelsea legend not ours.
Chelsea was never a family oriented club, that might change with Lampard, but we always have that identity of making our players a part of the club. It all depends on trophies, if Matic brings us trophies, automatically he will be our legend/icon as well.
Spent just 3 years at Chelsea as a first team player.
If he helps us to titles over the next couple of seasons he’ll be much more a United hero than a Chelsea one.
After all, Matic gained his fame now because of United, he will realize how big United is compared to Chelsea.
I have disrespected him I admit, he is a much better player than he has shown at times and should never have been ousted like he was earlier in the season. He has proven that he is a better option that both McT and Fred, despite that I think we should go and buy a starting CDM this transfer window.
The fact that we have to manage him carefully (i.e not playing him 3 matches in a row in a span of 7-10 days) and plan his matches could actually be a blessing.
We can play either Fred or Scott and scrutinise if they are disciplined and good enough to play that third (DM) position. Plus, if you are a midfield player, wouldn't you want to play with Pogba and Bruno too? Although you will have to cover a lot of ground for the guys behind (Maguire, Lindelof and De Gea).
I am pretty sure the contract is a 2+1 year as we always seem to do a +1(optional) for all contracts with the player regardless of it being a new signing or an extension.
So, all in all, it is a good extension.
This gives ample opportunities for other midfield players (specially Fred and Scott) to prove themselves and also enough time to the Club to seek out a proper DM player otherwise.
Nailed it!!!!
Matic has been great for the entirety of 2020. But don't let facts cloud your opinion.
He spent 6 years at Chelsea and he came with us when he was no longer wanted and in clear decline. Football is a team game and there are very few players who can claim that they dragged their team to success. We certainly use words like heroes and legends quite loosely.
I disagree for 2 things
a- football is a team game. A player can become a legend even though he barely ever won anything for the club. Take Le Tissier at Southampton, Totti at Roma, Signori at Lazio, Batistuta at Fiorentina or Shearer at Newcastle as an example.
b- Matic came to United when Chelsea didn't want him again and he was clearly in decline. He had good games and bad games. I doubt he'll ever be WC here let alone be able to give us those years of top quality football which is necessary to turn a committed player into a legend/icon. We use those titles too loosely at this club.
Wow @devilish, everything about this post is off.
First off: "No longer wanted"
Second: "in clear decline"
Played 35 PL games in 2016-2017 before joining United and won the league.
Third: "6 years at Chelsea"
You know full well he spent 4 seasons as a first team player after rejoining from Benfica. He's made just 154 appearances for Chelsea. He's already made 114 for United.
I am kind of in this camp. For a number of years he hasn't been a reliable option for a whole season and Ole wasn't picking him earlier this season. He is also unlikely to improve being 32 since so we should be looking at his replacement as a matter of urgency. He is a good stop gap for now
I'm starting to think he'll be ok for us next year. After that who knows, but he's done very well in every facet of that deep lying midfield role since the restart. Are you advocating a change right now or before the start of next season?
• First year he was generally very good.
• Second year with Maureen he started off utterly shite, as did pretty much our entire squad.
• Was superb and pretty much ever-present in the run that got Ole the job, then got injured.
• Started this season injured and then on the bench, since he came back in late December he's been superb.
This kind of "sticking to your guns argument" would be like me claiming Ole is still a bit crap because we're only 5th in the league despite the growing evidence to the contrary. Why is it so hard for some posters to just hold their hands up and say "yup, seems to be proving me wrong here".?
When we swooped in, Matic was a surplus at Chelsea. If he was a clear first teamer then he wouldn't have considered joining us and Chelsea wouldn't have sold him to us either. I admit that he did very well during his first season and this season after a dip in form he recovered nicely earning his first team place back. Having said that he's now 31, he did nothing spectacular to be considered as a legend with us and tbh he is nowhere near to Carrick's talent let alone Keane's or Robson's. I can't see him ever be WC for us let alone becoming a legend/icon. The sentimentalism surrounding this club is killing it
Oh behave.
He's got more defensive responsibilities here than at Chelsea but he does everything Carrick did only at a higher tempo and without being the focal point of the midfield.
When did Carrick ever do this on the regular each season:
He got one or more of those per season. He was in the penultimate year of his contract IIRC and starting with Kante, they lessened his game time when it was clear he wasn't going to sign a new contract.
Few good matches and another 3 years at the club, when I thought club is learning from their previous mistakes we have to see this stuff again.....We never learn you know.
Now you will see he is going back to his average form from next week.
Whats the need for 3 years and whats the need to renew it now when he still got another year and not too many will come for him at this time
another year extension until 2022 would be the best thing but we always play well into players easy wages here, same happened with Mata (when we got a perfect change to offload his wages we gave him 2 years extension)
Now you will see he is going back to his average form from next week.
Whats the need for 3 years and whats the need to renew it now when he still got another year and not too many will come for him at this time
another year extension until 2022 would be the best thing but we always play well into players easy wages here, same happened with Mata (when we got a perfect change to offload his wages we gave him 2 years extension)
He does have periods where he can’t keep up as much and that’s why we need a younger defensive midfield player. Matic 5 years ago would boost any teams chance of winning the league tenfold but now he’s a little on the older side.
Good decision, especially if it’s the usual 2+1 years.
We don’t exactly have a backup for him, hence it makes sense to extend his contract. If managed well, we should be able to get 2-3 years out of him. Hopefully this year or next, we’ll buy a decent backup who will get adequate time and guidance to adjust.
We don’t exactly have a backup for him, hence it makes sense to extend his contract. If managed well, we should be able to get 2-3 years out of him. Hopefully this year or next, we’ll buy a decent backup who will get adequate time and guidance to adjust.