[Jig1234]

Matic is one of Mourinho's favourite players and signings. Only fitting if he is the reason he end up getting sacked. His blindspot over Matic is going to cost him his job at some point.

He keeps banging on about the CB he never got but it's his midfield that is costing us. Matic never releases the ball forward. Doesn't track runners. He is hopelessly in decline. And some of you wanted us to sign Willian too. Aging players that are only going to get worse. Two seasons in and we already need to replace Matic. Great business.

I don't like a lot of things about Woodward or the club. But the policy to sign young players for big money that have resale value is just common sense. That's why Mourinho's signings got blocked. But they also got blocked because he didn't prove he could actually improve anyone he has already signed. Had he been getting a tune out of half the player he bought in, the club might have said fair enough, but he hasn't. We look uncoached. Anyone who thinks one CB fixes this team is frankly deluded.

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Fred, £52m summer recruit: on bench throughout, despite Pogba injury. Bailly: nowhere to be seen. Sanchez: bench. I could go on. Bailly/Lindelof starts together at CB in 18 months? TWO!!!

 

[flappyjay]

Juventus have done pretty well goind down that road. It's not about that - it's about buying players that fit into your squad. With Schweinsteiger, it was obvious that he had left his best days behind. With Matic, we got one good season out of him, but even at Chelsea, it was clear that he was no longer at his best, and he was still in his twenties by then. Sanchez just doesn't seem to suit us. We have bought plenty of younger players that didn't pan out - Mikhi, Depay, Darmian, Schneiderlin, Bailly, Lindelöf.

Truth be told, we are just rubbish at finding the right fit, be it older or younger players. Buying an established player at 29 should give you 3-4 years of good service, if a good fit. Matic is too static alongside Pogba and Fellaini. Play either Matic and two runners or Pogba and two runners. Schweinsteiger was just over the top - probably felt he had done enough and came back slightly overweight, which has little to do with age, but more to do with attitude.

As for Matic - he has been rubbish for far too long. Yesterday was actually not his worst game, imo, which says a lot.

Mkhi, Memphis and Schneiderlin we recouped a fair amount of what was spent on them. We would be lucky to get half of what we spent on Matic

 

[Springfield WildCats]

After yesterday’s abysmal performance, who on here thinks we should bring Carrick out of retirement, probably still has a much mobility as Matic but at least his passing is 10 times better and he may find a forward player once or twice a game.

 

[Rossa]

Mkhi, Memphis and Schneiderlin we recouped a fair amount of what was spent on them. We would be lucky to get half of what we spent on Matic

United have plenty of money. They flopped because they didn't contribute enough.

 

[Cutch]

From Juve game. not sure if its been posted before

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[amolbhatia50k]

From Juve game. not sure if its been posted before

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What sort of defending is that? We're sacrificing a lot of dynamism going forward to play him, and he's ambling around like a pensioner.

 

[Sylar]

Avg rating of 4.8 is quite generous for him

Surprised the thread hasnt been renamed Nemanja Static. Hes done well to display Carricks 10 year career within 12 months.

 

[Rajma]

Juventus have done pretty well goind down that road. It's not about that - it's about buying players that fit into your squad.

Mate, there’s huge difference between getting players at that age on a free transfer (which is what Juve kept doing up until now mostly to get where they currently are) and splashing 50-70mil as Jose’s plan is. Toby at 10-20? Yes please. Willian at same price? Yes please. We don’t have a bottomless pit to simply continue taking the sunk cost after sunk cost for that strategy to be successful where we spend mega bucks only for player to irreversibly (due to age) decline the next season.

 

[AR87]

From Juve game. not sure if its been posted before

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I mentioned this on the pod last week. Matic is just bad at tracking runners. He loses track of where they are or doesn't move with an urgency to stay with them. Right now he needs to be dropped from the side and we need to give Fred an opportunity along with Herrera (who was fantastic against Juve but horrible against City imo).

Matic played 40 matches in his last season with Chelsea, 49 in his first season with us, went to the World Cup and has immediately slotted back into the side after an injury this season. It is entirely possible Matic is just shot and not a good player anymore, but there's also a chance he needs an extended period of rest after being overworked over the last few seasons.

We have depth in midfield so there's no excuse not to do it. Jose simply has to have some faith in his squad. Herrera, Fred and Pereira all have ability to play at a high level. His reliance on Matic has gone on for far too long this season.

 

[SAFMUTD]

He is in a terrible form and having the “undropable status” doesnt do any good, he is clearly Jose’s favorite.

Only imagine if the last mistakes he made were from Pereira, Jones, Bailly, Pogba. Jose would have trown them under the bus the first chance.

I think Mourinho has the dressing room pending on a cliff and Matic is one of his stronger supporters. Thats the only reason I see why we keep playing him.

I know the team set up against City was doomed to fail from the beginning but we didnt even lost with our head up fighting it was a walk in the park for City.

 

[Lowkey]

Do not want anywhere near the first team. He offers nothing. Shambolic performance

 

[Annihilate Now!]

He is in a terrible form and having the “undropable status” doesnt do any good, he is clearly Jose’s favorite.

Only imagine if the last mistakes he made were from Pereira, Jones, Bailly, Pogba. Jose would have trown them under the bus the first chance.

I think Mourinho has the dressing room pending on a cliff and Matic is one of his stronger supporters. Thats the only reason I see why we keep playing him.

I know the team set up against City was doomed to fail from the beginning but we didnt even lost with our head up fighting it was a walk in the park for City.

That's what pisses me off - any other player makes just one of the catalogue of big mistakes he's made recently, they'd be out of the first XI in a heartbeat.

 

[Greck]

He is in a terrible form and having the “undropable status” doesnt do any good, he is clearly Jose’s favorite.

Only imagine if the last mistakes he made were from Pereira, Jones, Bailly, Pogba. Jose would have trown them under the bus the first chance.

I think Mourinho has the dressing room pending on a cliff and Matic is one of his stronger supporters. Thats the only reason I see why we keep playing him.

I know the team set up against City was doomed to fail from the beginning but we didnt even lost with our head up fighting it was a walk in the park for City.

The most problematic cliques in Jose's clubs are the ones he creates. How can a manager make certain players above the law because of politics

 

[settembrini]

Idk if is considered reliable or not but Paul Hirst has done a piece for the Times today saying that Mourinho's refusal to drop Matic is causing unrest in the squad.

 

[rotherham_red]

The perfect embodiment Jose's footballing philosophy: a tactical coward.

 

[BusbyMalone]

Despite the fact that Fernandinho gets on my tits as he constantly gets away with everything, he did show Matic how it's done yesterday. Completely dominated that centre circle and the midfield.

 

[reddevil702]

His mistake vs City is even worse because you can clearly see Lindelof pointing out Gundogan, Matic looks at him and yet still doesn't mark him.

 

[Schmeichel's Cartwheel]

What I'd give to get this cnut out of our club...

A shite coward. At least Fellaini & Herrera have some balls, while being shite. This cnut is the worst.

 

[OzKangarooney]

Why? Because he played well for a sum total of two months?

He was solid longer then that imo and even just 2 months is more then Falcao, Memphis, Di Maria, Sanchez (so far), Schweinsteiger, Darmian and Schneiderlin, who we were hoping would play the role Matic is but was pretty non existent every game

 

[UncleBob]

Idk if is considered reliable or not but Paul Hirst has done a piece for the Times today saying that Mourinho's refusal to drop Matic is causing unrest in the squad.

Well, it would hardly be a surprise if other players are unhappy that Matic is basically untouchable. Since returning from injury he's played the full 90 mins in all matches, which is hardly justified given his performances. It's difficult not to agree with the notion that there's very few players under Mourinho that would get away with these type of performances, yet Matic plays the full 90 mins and starts the next match, rinse repeat, while others can barely get two consecutive starts.

Sooner or later it's going to start having a negative effect on the mentality in the squad.

 

[UncleBob]

He was solid longer then that imo and even just 2 months is more then Falcao, Memphis, Di Maria, Sanchez (so far), Schweinsteiger, Darmian and Schneiderlin, who we were hoping would play the role Matic is but was pretty non existent every game

It's hardly much of an argument that other players have failed.

 

[Adam-Utd]

Glad there is finally some press noise on this.

Matic has had an easy ride for far too long. For a defensive player he sure does a pretty bad job. No surprise that every team attacks down the left channel.

 

[VP89]

What I'd give to get this cnut out of our club...

A shite coward. At least Fellaini & Herrera have some balls, while being shite. This cnut is the worst.

Calm down

 

[Adisa]

Think his performances last season have been exaggerated.
Apart from the first two/three months, he was ordinary.

 

[Trizy]

Ah well, at least we got a good 6 months out of him last year .

I'd honestly play Fred, Herrera and Pogba every game. Couldn't be worse as Matic now offers nothing defensively or attacking.

 

[settembrini]

Think his performances last season have been exaggerated.
Apart from the first two/three months, he was ordinary.

They 100% were.

Just compare his contributions in 17/18 vs the player he replaced in the team (Herrera in 16/17) and it's a joke. Herrera was making more tackles, Herrera was making more interceptions, Herrera was creating more chances, Herrera was losing the ball less. We spent £40m on a worse player than the one we already had and that's based on his 'good' season. Now it's even worse. His stats this season are brutal. A defensive midfielder like Matic should be winning the ball from the opposition far more than he losses it to them. That's just common sense and it's backed up by looking at the stats from actually good DMs. Herrera in 16/17 for example was making 2.7 tackles per game and being disposed 0.6 times per game. Matic this season is down to just 1.4 tackles per game but is being disposed 1.2 times per game. That's so unbelievably bad that I would assume the stats were wrong if I wasn't watching him every week.

 

[Patrick08]

That's what pisses me off - any other player makes just one of the catalogue of big mistakes he's made recently, they'd be out of the first XI in a heartbeat.

And Jose and united is paying the price for it.

 

[flappyjay]

It would be better if he offered something Defensively he is awful even on set pieces for a big guy. Same thing offensively. If we was breaking down the opponents attacks without doing anything special on the ball you could make a case for his accommodation. Same if he was contributing in an offensive way a case could be made. But he contributes nothing on each side. He is hopeless at this point

 

[Canagel]

This man actually got outmuscled by bernardo silva. Let that sink in

 

[kouroux]

Think his performances last season have been exaggerated.
Apart from the first two/three months, he was ordinary.

Yup and logically so because the guy was never subbed and played almost every game. It was bound to happen, if Mourinho loves him and I believe he does, why doesn't he take better care of him ? He's destroying him

I mentioned this on the pod last week. Matic is just bad at tracking runners. He loses track of where they are or doesn't move with an urgency to stay with them. Right now he needs to be dropped from the side and we need to give Fred an opportunity along with Herrera (who was fantastic against Juve but horrible against City imo).

Matic played 40 matches in his last season with Chelsea, 49 in his first season with us, went to the World Cup and has immediately slotted back into the side after an injury this season. It is entirely possible Matic is just shot and not a good player anymore, but there's also a chance he needs an extended period of rest after being overworked over the last few seasons.

We have depth in midfield so there's no excuse not to do it. Jose simply has to have some faith in his squad. Herrera, Fred and Pereira all have ability to play at a high level. His reliance on Matic has gone on for far too long this season.

Spot on.
What pains me is that there is no journalists who has the intelligence to ask questions like this. They adress pointless shit

 

[TwoSheds]

We didn't lose that game because of Nemanja Matic, we lost it because the defence is wank and De Gea has been poor by his standards this year.

 

[OldTrevil]

This man actually got outmuscled by bernardo silva. Let that sink in

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It's like he doesn't give a shit about the team. He plays as if he's on holiday but gets rewarded with with a fat sum every week.

 

[Wednesday at Stoke]

His legs are gone, a more sane manager would realize that and ship him off to a lower level side. The dinosaur we have will play him twice a week and then complain about the defense when the defensive midfielder is a passenger.

 

[Canagel]

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It's like he doesn't give a shit about the team. He plays as if he's on holiday but gets rewarded with with a fat sum every week.

Spineless player he's become. I've calmed down after the defeat but his performance still anger me. Fellaini is twice the player.

 

[yfoFC]

If Matic is getting stick, Hererra should be getting just as much. He stank the place out again yesterday. Neither are good enough for a team that presumably wants to win the league. Just not good enough. If we’d realise that and see the likes of Rashford, Hererra, Matic, Lingard etc as such, we’d be a hell of a lot better off. It’s killing us just as much as anything else is.

The standards of the support base sum everything up IMO. There’s a number of players in that team you’ll get absolutely nowhere with in your best 11 and I’m being told to “stick with them”. We’ve stuck with some of them for years, under two, three managers and they’re no better and no more consistent than they were years ago.

Herrera was actually quite decent without the ball, his on the ball play was really crap no question about it

Matic though was poor on both fronts and has been for quite sometime... that's why people like myself will focus more on matic and hope Herrera is given a chance to redeem himself, that's only fair

 

[ToToMarshall]

Kind of feel sorry for Matic to be honest.

After a long season where we probably overplayed and overworked him, and then a World Cup campaign with Serbia, he had quite serious surgery in the summer, so had no pre-season and was then rushed back in to our first XI and has barely had a break since bar the suspension. No wonder he’s been crap.

 

[Adisa]

Matic starts again. Disgraceful.

 

[FootyGirl88]

Matic starts again. Disgraceful.

Jose has made his choice - this is the hill he wants to die on

 

[Devil77]

Why not even try Fred, Perreira och Herrera? Matic really must have a lot of qualities that the TV camera doesn’t pick up.

 

[Ekeke]

Why not even try Fred, Perreira och Herrera? Matic really must have a lot of qualities that the TV camera doesn’t pick up.

Its one that the tv camera cant help but pick up. He's tall