Is Matic ruffling Ole's feathers | Starting counter-attacks like a boss

el3mel

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I'm pretty sure everyone at the club would love to go out and purchase a couple of top quality midfielders. Unfortunately, the reality is that we have a bloated wage budget on mediocre to poor squad players who are contributing nothing to team. Players realistically obtainable to us are either - good options but likely will never be the quality to take us up a level or prospects that we'd have to develop to top level. We can't afford to continually do bad business when we have so many duds aboard. An exit of Matic does afford us a measure of leniency to take a punt on a midfielder who otherwise wouldn't be a top 5 candidate in a regular summer window.
So getting rid of Fellaini and Herrera wasn't enough to relief this "bloated wage budget". We need to get rid of another one too, God knows why.

I bet after getting rid of Matic and not replacing him, the next in line will be: "We'll first need to offload Fred and Periera to be able to buy more players".
 

Maticmaker

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I am a self confessed Matic fan (even when he played for Chelsea) and as someone who has monitored his career I was delighted, although very surprised when he came to United. His first season for us was nothing short of fantastic, he made the difference and helped us to finish where we did. Then he had that back operation last year and he hasn't been the same since. His mobility is now almost perpetually in second gear, however his mind set is still very positive and with a couple of younger legs either side of him in a three man midfield, he can still perform a service for us, if only for another season.

It was clear now why Chelsea let him go, his back problem was looming and they knew he had only 1-3 seasons left. Still it helped us out at the time and as I say with the right people around him he can do a job for us, but he is now definitely one on the 'let go' list, which is a pity, but there you go!
 

Tom Cato

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So getting rid of Fellaini and Herrera wasn't enough to relief this "bloated wage budget". We need to get rid of another one too, God knows why.

I bet after getting rid of Matic and not replacing him, the next in line will be: "We'll first need to offload Fred and Periera to be able to buy more players".
Matic doesn't need replacing, in the sense that he's not even worthy of the bench currently unless we have injuries. All he adds right now is depth.

What we need to add is a creative midfielder that can take Freds role, unless Fred suddenly becomes PSG Fred on the regular.
 

el3mel

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Matic doesn't need replacing, in the sense that he's not even worthy of the bench currently unless we have injuries. All he adds right now is depth.

What we need to add is a creative midfielder that can take Freds role, unless Fred suddenly becomes PSG Fred on the regular.
He does needs replacing. One injury to Scott and we are pretty much fecked in midfield.
 

Craig Ward

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This was a bad deal by Jose, he thought Matic could come in and play with Pogba in a two. Matic never had the legs to adequately cover Pogba, and while at times we did look better with Herrera in there. It meant, we had 2 defensive mids in a mid 3. While defensively it was better, although far, far from perfect, it meant we were completely devoid of creativity if Pogba was shut down or having a poor game
Matic and Pogba was a disaster, but I wouldn't entirely blame Matic for that.

Pogba was so defensively naïve, Matic was left covering the whole of CM and DM alone, which made him look worse.

Switching to a 3 also didn't work as well as it should have.

My view on Matic is a bit unlike the majority of haters.

He was a proven P/L player, a P/L winner and integral for Chelsea, it was a bit of a coup signing that calibre of player. He done well and ultimately form has dipped. Matic was always going to provide a solid base for 2 seasons max, with the intention I believe of better recruitment to share game time/ultimately replace.

With Jose's sacking, and Woodwards failings in the transfer market, somehow this is still yet to happen.

I wouldn't say i'd be happy to see him go, but if a player has no value or feature he should be sold rather than kept around. That's been an issue for 6 seasons or so.

If he can go in Jan, so be it.

He offers the squad basically nothing so why keep?
 

Lee565

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There must be a player there still for conte to be interested, considering how good inter's midfield looks under conte why would he want to bring him to inter?

Look at matic's time at United, he had a good first season but was maybe played too much by Mourinho to the point he looked a bit burnt out at the back end of the season.

the second season wasn't so good but how do you expect any players to perform great when your being managed by Mourinho whilst he's in full meltdown mode and then managed by Solskjear who looks pretty hopeless with his past achievements to back up him being out of his depth. If matic was underwhelming under an actual good manager than fair enough but under a mediocre manager like Solskjear it's hard to gauge if he is done or just a victim of woeful coaching and team tactics.
 

C'est Moi Cantona

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Beef with Ole aside, there is no way he worse than Fred and Pereira, so until a couple of viable replacements are brought in then he needs to stay.
 

Renegade

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Mourinho’s transfer legacy. 40m for one okay season. It’s scary how much money we’ve pissed away.
 

mariachi-19

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Matic will leave (good) and we will not replace him in January (bad). That's my guess. More wage-saving and clearing of deadwood is great but not when nobody better is coming in.
We're currently managing without him so if the right player isn't available in january, its not the end of the world to wait until next season even if we offload him in jan
 

mariachi-19

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Beef with Ole aside, there is no way he worse than Fred and Pereira, so until a couple of viable replacements are brought in then he needs to stay.
Mate, he's a pile of dog shit covered in petrol with a lit match mere milimeters away. He's a complete liabilty every time he plays where as the other two have had good games this season.

He's finished and has been for 12 months.
 

Sterling Archer

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Mourinho’s transfer legacy. 40m for one okay season. It’s scary how much money we’ve pissed away.
I wonder how our transfers would have fared had we a DOF or Sporting Director in place. Definitely a lot better financially. I bet Jose would have been more successful himself.
 

Sterling Archer

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Mate, he's a pile of dog shit covered in petrol with a lit match mere milimeters away. He's a complete liabilty every time he plays where as the other two have had good games this season.

He's finished and has been for 12 months.
I think saying he's old and past it would have sufficed.
 

thepolice123

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There must be a player there still for conte to be interested, considering how good inter's midfield looks under conte why would he want to bring him to inter?

Look at matic's time at United, he had a good first season but was maybe played too much by Mourinho to the point he looked a bit burnt out at the back end of the season.

the second season wasn't so good but how do you expect any players to perform great when your being managed by Mourinho whilst he's in full meltdown mode and then managed by Solskjear who looks pretty hopeless with his past achievements to back up him being out of his depth. If matic was underwhelming under an actual good manager than fair enough but under a mediocre manager like Solskjear it's hard to gauge if he is done or just a victim of woeful coaching and team tactics.
Inter could do well to have a player like him in DM. I watched a lot of Inter this season and while Brozovic is a good player, he is not suited to play in that anchoring role.
 

WR10

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He must feel like an alien in that young locker room. Who would he even be talking to? Of course he'd be causing a headache for Ole. Ole is trying to form a single unit culture at the club - hence ditching Lukaku and Sanchez. Lukaku's toxic personality got him disconnected and Sanchez barely was even physically at the club.
 

RedTiger

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This was a bad deal by Jose, he thought Matic could come in and play with Pogba in a two. Matic never had the legs to adequately cover Pogba, and while at times we did look better with Herrera in there. It meant, we had 2 defensive mids in a mid 3. While defensively it was better, although far, far from perfect, it meant we were completely devoid of creativity if Pogba was shut down or having a poor game
This pretty much.
 

UNITED ACADEMY

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This was a bad deal by Jose, he thought Matic could come in and play with Pogba in a two. Matic never had the legs to adequately cover Pogba, and while at times we did look better with Herrera in there. It meant, we had 2 defensive mids in a mid 3. While defensively it was better, although far, far from perfect, it meant we were completely devoid of creativity if Pogba was shut down or having a poor game
It was very bad. We really got ripped apart by Chelsea here. Should have kept Herrera & Pogba partnership. Or with the same amount of fees or less we could take Gueye from Everton. Playing Pogba in pair of two would be better having a player like Kante, Gueye or Herrera who can cover a lot of ground than a player who often ball watching like Matic.

I wonder how our transfers would have fared had we a DOF or Sporting Director in place. Definitely a lot better financially. I bet Jose would have been more successful himself.
Let's be real for Matic's transfer. Matic is likely a Jose's signing & his own midfield signing recommendation. If we have DOF may be we would say no to this signing and if we don't get Matic Jose would have been moaning again saying that United didn't get the player he wanted.
 

C'est Moi Cantona

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Mate, he's a pile of dog shit covered in petrol with a lit match mere milimeters away. He's a complete liabilty every time he plays where as the other two have had good games this season.

He's finished and has been for 12 months.
Harsh, but even if true I'd rather we keep him for eternity than let him leave without a replacement (as some have said).

As we have found out with Lukaku, and is blatantly obvious, this is of absolutely no gain to anyone other than the people trying to save money for our owners.
 

davidmichael

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Matic is completely finished as far as playing for us is concerned, if we can con someone into taking him off our hands that’ll be great.

The fact Pereira is trusted more than he is and he’s also behind Pogba, McTominay, Fred and Garner as well says everything needed.

We’re linked with Saul Niguez and Rice constantly and I think if we brought those two in (I’d imagine Pogba would be gone too) as well as Maddison then that’s a brand new midfield right there.
 

Alabaster Codify7

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I don't mind relying on him for games like last night, Colchester, and perhaps as a substitute in less important league games (if there are any). But he is clearly finished as a top-level footballer.
 

Johan07

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Matic is completely finished as far as playing for us is concerned, if we can con someone into taking him off our hands that’ll be great.

The fact Pereira is trusted more than he is and he’s also behind Pogba, McTominay, Fred and Garner as well says everything needed.

We’re linked with Saul Niguez and Rice constantly and I think if we brought those two in (I’d imagine Pogba would be gone too) as well as Maddison then that’s a brand new midfield right there.
Matic has been injured for two months. It was his first game back yday. There is no way Pereira is "trusted"more than him at DM. Or Garner for that matter.
Pereira cant play at DM and even a crocked Matic is better than Pereira nxt to Pogba, Fred or McT. That said Matic is done after this season. We should not sell him in January if we dont have a replacement ready though. The prospect of Pereira getting anymore minutes at DM the rest of the season scares the hell out of me.
Saul and Maddison in the summer would be great. Rice is overrated.
 

Adam-Utd

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I don't mind relying on him for games like last night, Colchester, and perhaps as a substitute in less important league games (if there are any). But he is clearly finished as a top-level footballer.
Yep at this rate he's just a body that's able to play at a pretty basic level. Honestly even Carrick could probably come on and do the same sort of job Matic managed last night.

Anyway, it's fair to say if we go into next season and Matic is still making the team/bench then we're in trouble. Somebody like Soumare from Lille would make a huge difference.
 

AltiUn

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Matic is completely finished as far as playing for us is concerned, if we can con someone into taking him off our hands that’ll be great.

The fact Pereira is trusted more than he is and he’s also behind Pogba, McTominay, Fred and Garner as well says everything needed.

We’re linked with Saul Niguez and Rice constantly and I think if we brought those two in (I’d imagine Pogba would be gone too) as well as Maddison then that’s a brand new midfield right there.
We don't need a brand new midfield though, McTominay and Fred have shown themselves plenty capable of going up against anyone. We do need depth though as if one of those two are injured we're screwed.
 

VP89

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He's fine for these cup games like Phil Jones is. But unlike Phil he's just not happy here and wants to play more. No clue who'd buy him though, maybe he would be attractive for Conte.
 

Alabaster Codify7

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Yep at this rate he's just a body that's able to play at a pretty basic level. Honestly even Carrick could probably come on and do the same sort of job Matic managed last night.

Anyway, it's fair to say if we go into next season and Matic is still making the team/bench then we're in trouble. Somebody like Soumare from Lille would make a huge difference.

Definitely, and a bargain addition too.
 

Lynty

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He'd get game time at a newly promoted team. But he'd have to sacrifice wages.

Leeds or Baggies for example.
 

Offside

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Adequate squad player. Was pretty good for us when he first joined. Always a short term signing though.
 

Gator Nate

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I don't mind relying on him for games like last night, Colchester, and perhaps as a substitute in less important league games (if there are any). But he is clearly finished as a top-level footballer.
He's fine for these cup games like Phil Jones is. But unlike Phil he's just not happy here and wants to play more. No clue who'd buy him though, maybe he would be attractive for Conte.
The only problem with that is you're only talking about the first half of the season. After Christmas, even the Cup games get serious. We're facing (or should be) real 'A' squads after (assuming) we get past Colchester. So even there, Matic will be of limited use. Having any player as a backup to the backups for half the year is expensive on his wages.

And I'd trust both Garner ahead of Matic. Comparing Pereira to Matic isn't fair, because of different skill sets - they shouldn't be playing the same position.
 

simplyared

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I honestly believe he gets a lot of unjustified stick on here. I don't think he's finished at this level at all. A player who keeps it simple but is at the same time very effective. Yes I'm a fan and writing him off is crazy!
 

NewGlory

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Matic will be sold in Jan and replaced I think. The only reason he is still at the club is that we have no other option.
He has been utter crap for 18 months and also doesn't have the mobility to fit Oles style, he isn't being selected in the 11 because he is rubbish
This 100%
 

Random Task

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I honestly believe he gets a lot of unjustified stick on here. I don't think he's finished at this level at all. A player who keeps it simple but is at the same time very effective. Yes I'm a fan and writing him off is crazy!
Effective how?