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

Sylar

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I think saying 6 months of good from him, is being very kind.

There were a lot of times when it looked like he was just jogging and letting people go past him. Maybe he was injured? Maybe he was done? I do think 3 man midfield suited him more though (as seen when we had 3 when Ole first came in).
 

SATA

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We need players for the squad, not selling them off in January and then moaning the club keeps selling players and not replacing them. Keep him until next May at least
 

Alfie092

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More like 2 months.

He faded fast.
I felt his was good till at least around January until Mourinho burnt him out as he was playing him every game. After that I thought he didn't show the same consistency but did have some good games.
 

el3mel

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He was great in his first season and was vital to us in finishing high up in the table whatever people like him or not, as hating him is now the trend. Unfortunately his performance dropped in his second one along with the rest of the team but couldn't bring it back unlike some others. Probably done for now. Still his pairing with Herrera and Pogba in early Ole days were a great sight to watch and our most competitive midfield post SAF.
 

FerociousCorgis

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I mean he was done pretty early in his united career, it seemed to be pretty clear by the halfway mark of that season he was fading. Think though with the world cup in which he outshone the hell out of SMS in that midfield that maybe he can raise his level for a short burst. Nothing more than that though.
 

AltiUn

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I'm not arsed if we get rid, I am arsed if we don't sign a replacement though.
 
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I can't help but feeling this is a bit harsh. I think his performance in his first season alone justified at least 75% of that transfer fee, and even though he's not playing at the moment , you have to hope that his name and previous performance level carries some weight around a dressing room that contains plenty of young players who could learn a thing or two from what Matic was like at his best.


This was his debut, and it wasn't sensationalism to say afterwards that he had immediately plugged a hole we had been desperate to fill for a while at that time.
He was good for us for at the start of the season then faded later on that same season. We paid £40mil and didn't even get 2 full seasons out of him. That's awful business imo.
 

VivaObertan

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He was great in his first season and was vital to us in finishing high up in the table whatever people like him or not, as hating him is now the trend. Unfortunately his performance dropped in his second one along with the rest of the team but couldn't bring it back unlike some others. Probably done for now. Still his pairing with Herrera and Pogba in early Ole days were a great sight to watch and our most competitive midfield post SAF.
This. People rewriting history on here making out he's always been poor for us etc.
 

mu4c_20le

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I don't remember Matic ever being good for Ole, think he was done by the time Ole arrived. Matic was pretty good for about 2 months when he first signed, he provided positional discipline sitting in front of the back four and some decent passes with his left foot, and then declined hard and was never the same again. He's basically Mourinho's Darmian, and was one of a handful of players that even Ole's new manager bounce could not lift, including Sanchez and Fred.
 

Handré1990

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He was good for us for at the start of the season then faded later on that same season. We paid £40mil and didn't even get 2 full seasons out of him. That's awful business imo.
Agreed. He was really good for a couple of months, OK for a couple more and then...he was gone.
 

Ranchero

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As posted in his player thread:



Followed by this from skysports today:

"The coach must opt for the team that will fight for the title and if he does not win, he bears the responsibility..

In the first two or three games he picked the team without me,"
Matic added. "I work as hard as I can. We respect the decision, it's up to me to show him that he was wrong and to bring me back to where I belong.

"There is no problem. I told him I disagreed with him but that he had to decide the team."


So does he have a case? Reminds me of when Valencia "accidently" liked an insta post against Jose and was dropped until he exited the club last season. I don't think Ole can afford to be so ruthless.
No case. He has been poor for some time
 

DoomSlayer

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I'm sorry but a £40 million signing on huge wages should give us way more than barely being consistently good for the first 6 months. One of the worse transfers we have ever made, considering the current value and contributions of Matic.
 

elmo

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I felt his was good till at least around January until Mourinho burnt him out as he was playing him every game. After that I thought he didn't show the same consistency but did have some good games.
He was one of our best players in the first 2 months before slowing down and people said he was just overplayed and would get better once he's rotated. Was average amongst the other players from Jan onwards and one of our worst players once the next season started was how I remembered it.
 

bond19821982

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Not sure about that, he was horrendous under Jose last season too. Legs have gone completely
Whole team was down under Jose though. Think we will get to see in coming months I guess.
 
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I'm sorry but a £40 million signing on huge wages should give us way more than barely being consistently good for the first 6 months. One of the worse transfers we have ever made, considering the current value and contributions of Matic.
Unfortunately there are many worse signings than Matic. Sanchez. Lukuku, Di-Maria, Falcao, Schneiderlain, Schweinsteiger and Fred in recent memory.
 

M Bison

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Would rather give the game time to garner, despite him not looking quite ready yet.

More minutes he gets the quicker he’ll be ready, and he really won’t do any worse a job than Matic does so why not...
 

Lentwood

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He was good for us for at the start of the season then faded later on that same season. We paid £40mil and didn't even get 2 full seasons out of him. That's awful business imo.
I agree with this and I think this kind of short-termism from Jose ultimately contributed to his sacking

You can’t be bringing in players at 29 for £40m to plug a gap for one/two seasons unless you’ve a strong squad of 17/18 great players and it’s a “final piece of the jigsaw” type signing
 

thepolice123

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I agree with this and I think this kind of short-termism from Jose ultimately contributed to his sacking

You can’t be bringing in players at 29 for £40m to plug a gap for one/two seasons unless you’ve a strong squad of 17/18 great players and it’s a “final piece of the jigsaw” type signing
Tbf at that time we had a big squad with several expensive signings who were world class or expected to be world class. Matic was supposed to be the final piece after we played the most of the previous season without a pure DM. We managed to win the Europa cup and the squad was expected to go on to greater heights in the next season.

Ibra, Sanchez, Lukaku, Pogba, Mikhi, Bailly

Nobody expected them to either flop so badly or get injured the whole season.
 

flappyjay

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He isn't frozen out but injured. Even if Ole wanted to freeze him out he couldn't based on how thin we are in midfield. We are injury away from starting Garner in midfield or worse pulling back Andreas in cm and throwing in Lingard at number 10.
 

settembrini

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I'd much rather see Pereira or even Garner start in midfield than Matic again. He's finished. If someone makes an offer in January we should bite their hand off.
 

cyril C

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Matic has been shit for 90% of the time since he joined the club. So no, he doesn't have a point. He played like shit so got dropped.
Matic was good on his 1st season. He was poor in Mourinho's last season and was 1 of the culprit of his sacking, and he never recover from his dip.
 

Gopher Brown

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We need players for the squad, not selling them off in January and then moaning the club keeps selling players and not replacing them. Keep him until next May at least
I’d be inclined to agree with you, but this season is a write off as far as I’m concerned and if we can get a good fee in Jan, why wait til the summer?
 

POF

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Matic is definitely on his way out. He certainly looks finished and his legs have gone but the biggest issue for me is that he's not the right type of character.

He's such a stoic character and just doesn't have much about him. As a senior player, he should be a leader on the pitch but he doesn't have it in him.
 

Ikon

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He was good for us for at the start of the season then faded later on that same season. We paid £40mil and didn't even get 2 full seasons out of him. That's awful business imo.
I remember at the time of signing Matic, that many of us were wary, saying that his best days were behind him, and even if he did perform well, it would only be for a limited period of time as he was in decline.

This is the trouble when you sign players of 28/29 based upon their reputation, and the performances that they produced 2 or 3 years previously.
Whilst 28 is not old, and some players can still perform to a high standard well into their 30s, the key is being able to identify when a player is just edging beyond his prime, and either selling them on, or refusing to sign them.

In most cases, you only have to listen to the opinions of the fans of his current team, and all of the Chelsea fans I knew were saying that Matic was finished and not the player that he once was.
 

TrustInOle

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Goodbye
Bye. Emphasises Mourinho's time here and the slow, boring football. Get rid of Rojo, Baily, Mata and Lingard and we have a squad that looks like it's starting to have some identity and character with plenty of potential to improve on, and space for signings that will make a difference.
 

Irwin99

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Was not a good transfer at all. I know that bashing him became a bit of a trend with United fans and the criticism was excessive but I also really feel his first season for us was a bit overrated. The first two or three months were good but the season as a whole for him was ok and nothing more. He was important in our finishing second that year but that was mostly due to the horrendous quality of football we were playing that suited him.

Another good but short spell when Ole first came in with Pogba and Herrera but again it didn’t last long.

A failed transfer :(
 

AltiUn

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So we're not going to sign a midfielder unless we offload Matic despite the fact we need 2 already? I hope that's not the fecking case :lol: our squad management is appalling.
 

El Zoido

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So we're not going to sign a midfielder unless we offload Matic despite the fact we need 2 already? I hope that's not the fecking case :lol: our squad management is appalling.
People need to realise this. It’s why sacking Ole is pointless, managers can’t effectively operate at this club. It takes Woodward 2 months to close a deal and he can only work on one at a time. The strategy we need in the market is impossible to accomplish under this regime. So Ole may be the worst manager in the league, but whoever we get in is going to have problems fixing the squad.
 

TheRedDevil'sAdvocate

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Bye. Emphasises Mourinho's time here and the slow, boring football. Get rid of Rojo, Baily, Mata and Lingard and we have a squad that looks like it's starting to have some identity and character with plenty of potential to improve on, and space for signings that will make a difference.
Good luck with that. Mata was given a new deal by our current manager and according to the same rumours that were saying that the club will offer Lindelof a better deal, Lingard is the next in line for a contract extension. Mata was offered a new deal for his "character" and Lingard is allowed to stay here because of his local player-academy product status. So, here's "identity and character" for you right there. With Solskjaer's stamp.
 

Lynty

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So we're not going to sign a midfielder unless we offload Matic despite the fact we need 2 already? I hope that's not the fecking case :lol: our squad management is appalling.
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.
 

Alabaster Codify7

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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.
 

poleglass red

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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