Its simple. He thought Matic too I mobile for his preferred football and counted Bakayoko an upgrade. The vast majority of Chelsea's fans agreed with him too and counted Matic as expendable and no longer top class....He was even set to be shipped off to Juve if he hadn't appealed to Abramovich....
Nemanja Matić - Manchester United player
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) was joined by comedian Ali Woods to look back at the best and worst moments of a rollercoaster season with the annual United Hour Awards.
Has Ten Hag been sacked yet? We're not sure and we hope not, but it's looking more likely as the days pass.
Who should replace him and why is it taking so long to make a decision?
We might need a Chelski appreciation thread at some point.
Chelsea fans must be out of their mind if they thought Matic was past it.I still can't understand how come Chelsea were willing to sell Matic to another clubs.
Still can't believe they sold him to us.
Those people who preferred Dier over him! A defender playing in centre mid, or a super silky, all tackling, heading, dribbling, smooth passer!
I am pretty shocked at how good Matic is. I mean....I thought he was good but he seems even better than expected. Hopefully he can keep his level up
Lets be honest, I don't think anyone thought he would be this good.
Yeah. But I definitely wanted him. Although I preferred Fabinho due to his age and versatility to play RB.
We shall see if he can continue to play this well. I mean he is basically playing like a one man CM.
It probably shows I really know Jack shit about coaching and assessing players but I never paid much attention to Matic individually - he was just one piece of a pretty well oiled Chelski machine. Now that I get to watch him more "closely" I am well amazed at how lucky we are to have gotten him. Today I quite literally was on the edge of my seat every time he got the ball just to see what he d do with it. Watching him should be enough to make anyone fall in love with footie - and I like to think that's one of the nicest compliments I can make about a player.
He was my man of the match today, because of how he kept us in the game and remained a solid platform throughout. Individually he did his job effectively for 90 minutes. A goal or an assist can add too much gloss to attacking players, so players like Matic can end up being ignored. But not today, not for me.
He can't. Matic with us will never play with a Partner as defensively inept as Fabregas is.
You wish. I for one was certain he'd be ace. A few others did too
I hope Chelsea finish second, I really do. Good lads.
Bullshit mate. Don't believe that for one second. I'm sure you would've thought he'd be a very good player but Matic is playing at a level and with skills that exceeds anything I saw over the last 2 years at Chelsea.
Yeah, you probably watched him 4 times over those two years.
Probably 4 more than you.
A response so stupefying that I don't know what to say.
I have to admit I always thought he was good but I did not know that he was world class. That being said he was bought to complement Pogba.
He is the reason we have won how we have won to date, that's how fecking good he is.
Didn't pay much attention to him at Chelski but my god he is a fecking beast, our best CM by far and it's just a shame we didn't get him earlier in his career!
Didn't pay much attention to him at Chelski but my god he is a fecking beast, our best CM by far and it's just a shame we didn't get him earlier in his career!
You imagine that is possible because you never paid any real attention to Matic as a player when he was at Chelsea. Especially last year and his previous title winning year. Which is your problem alone.
The bollock-licking of Kante made Matic look less valuable to Chelsea. But he absolutely was a key player for Jose and Conte in the two title winning seasons.
He's certainly playing like he's been given a new lease of life, but it's nothing new. He is playing at a level he's shown before.
I think he's proving to be the perfect transition from Carrick that we needed. It's feeling like a 12/13 sort of season, great start, lot of control in the middle.
He's certainly playing like he's been given a new lease of life, but it's nothing new. He is playing at a level he's shown before.
I think he's proving to be the perfect transition from Carrick that we needed. It's feeling like a 12/13 sort of season, great start, lot of control in the middle.
Agree. Personally I always thought Matic would be someone I wanted at United and was stoked when we were properly linked with him.
Bullshit. Quite a few of us rated him very highly I even said he's better than peak Carrick.
Just because you couldn't see something doesn't mean nobody else could. It's also not difficult to find out that what The Chief says here is not bullshit, but I'll help you out - https://www.redcafe.net/search/66004411/
I really like people appreciating what Matic does. These few years of struggling in midfield has opened our eyes (it has atleast opened my eyes) to how an elite midfielder looks like. Mostly he is sitting deep and assisting Pogba but you can clearly see how much quality he adds.
Having a new player slot right in, without needing half a year to settle has helped us a lot. Suddenly, we look like we are rather loaded in midfield. Having Pogba and Matic open games and bringing on Fellaini and Herrera later on makes us very solid.
Having a new player slot right in, without needing half a year to settle has helped us a lot. Suddenly, we look like we are rather loaded in midfield. Having Pogba and Matic open games and bringing on Fellaini and Herrera later on makes us very solid.
Worth pointing out that just as his presence is clearly bringing the best out of Pogba, the surprisingly high level Matic is already showing probably has something to do with Pogba bringing the best out of him. Chelsea had a good midfield last season but no superstar like Pogba to draw all the marking and pressure - their stars were higher up the pitch: Hazard, Costa etc. Pogba is our danger man and the opposition knows it, which gives Matic more space and time to impose himself.
When watching opposition teams we don't generally focus on individual players or performances like we do our own teams players. I was very neutral when United signed Matic but in just a couple of games, he's changed my mind. Seems like a masterstroke from Jose.
Massive blunder from Chelsea it appears.
Can't believe they sold to a PL rival.
Can't believe they sold to a PL rival.
Most people on this forum are.
When Jose was chasing Matic, many people on here thought that they knew better than Jose and that we should not be getting Matic.
Apparently Matic was a cast-off.
Out of interest, has anybody checked over at a Chelsea forum to see if their fans wanted rid of Matic (during the Summer)?
Did their fans rate Matic highly?
Were they happy/sad to see Matic leave?
Did their fans rate Matic highly?
Were they happy/sad to see Matic leave?
The shed end chat and the shed end forum mostly wanted him gone but a number of posters just didn't want him going to us. Even now you see posts that start with "matic was slow and ponderous bla bla for us but we shouldn't have sold him to united because he is exactly what they lacked in their system" type of posts.
Tldr; most wanted him sold,not to us.
Some of us did. I even think we have not seen anything yet. I am amazed that people have easily forgotten that he was comfortably one of the top three DMs in the world and that was not too long ago. Matic was a beast for Benfica and Chelsea. He was compared to Sergio Busquet at the peak of his game a few seasons ago. Do players like that just turn bad in one or two seasons?
It's like people writing off Pirlo after his last season in Milan or Falcao after his bad spell in England. When great players have bad spells, there is always a good chance that given the right environment, they can bounce back. Even in Matic's so called bad season, he was benching Cesc Fabregas at Chelsea and he played about 90% of the games for the title winners. How would he have been a bad signing?
Hahaha.
Chelsea fans can be very fickle.
Gallas was a traitor.
Ashley Cole was suddenly the greatest.
Jose is no longer a top manager.
They dodged a bullet by not signing Lukaku.
Matic will soon return to his poor form.
Etc.
I wouldn't bother about their take on Matic.
José did.
And all this talk about exhaustion and yet José works with the players every day and will know their fitness levels etc. You think a coach at his level won't know a players fitness level. It just goes to show most of us armchair coaches are really clueless.
From what I've seen, Mouringo is evolving. Last season he tried his trusted formula of trying to use the same players throughout however after the injuries started showing he had to change. I know Sir Alex has said he has kept away from the dressing room however there's no reason Sir Alex might not have a helping word with Mourinho from time to time over a glass of wine. Wouldn't be surprised to hear Sir Alex regale Mourinho on his dealings with rotation and injuries in the squad and how he should maybe trust the lads from time to time.
But then again, maybe Mourinho has just evolved on his own. Who knows. We certainly don't.
Thank you Chelsea, it's very kind of them to have sold us this beast of a Serb.
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Interesting piece. Some nice tidbits about other players too:
Contrary to what some fans like to think, it seems Sir Alex Ferguson wasn't exagerrating about Rooney's desire to leave.
On face value it is a stupid thing for them to do, but after watching Chelsea yesterday they may have stumbled across the solution, David Luiz, he is a liability at CB, but although I'm loathed to say it, a very good player, certainly better on yesterday's performance of that Bakayoko fella.
I seem to remember the exact being said about Luiz during his first stint at Chelsea and that didn't end to well.
I like that. Well played, Ed.
Man I was wrong about Matic. I figured Chelsea would only sell him to us if they knew he was past it. The guy has been phenomenal.