Well in vintage United form, we both wrote him off and extended his contract. We have done the same with Mata and Bailly, and I honestly still wouldn't be surprised if we were trying to get Lingard to sign an extension. It's baffling.
Matic is the best player we have
- Thread starter PeteManic
- Start date
DM is must have for any sensible club. We seem to be trying to reinvent football. Don't know much about him, Matheus is the guy that is caught my eye at Sporting but plays a different position.
We are bunny boilers, just don't know how to move forward.
Today I watched the Roma game in the Europa league.
Matic played like his prime self.
My god what an absolute monster!
Amazing interceptions, great positioning, adept at tactical fouls, bullies opponents with his strength. Smooth as butter on the ball; genuinely better on the ball than many of the "playmakers" today. Shows immense maturity and leadership(the opposite of Pogba). No wonder Jose loves him.
How anyone can underrate Matic, I'll never know. The perfect DM.
Matic played like his prime self.
My god what an absolute monster!
Amazing interceptions, great positioning, adept at tactical fouls, bullies opponents with his strength. Smooth as butter on the ball; genuinely better on the ball than many of the "playmakers" today. Shows immense maturity and leadership(the opposite of Pogba). No wonder Jose loves him.
How anyone can underrate Matic, I'll never know. The perfect DM.
He arrived too late, but a class player. And it showed when his minutes were properly managed and he played in the right position. Happy for him to be doing well there.
He's so good to watch when he's on song.
His close control in tight spaces and dribbling skills are insane for such a big guy. So press resistant and such an effortless passer.
Today he was pulling off all sorts of passes throughout including tough lobbed balls and chip passes to bypass the press.
He’d still be our best midfielder today
Jesus how far have we fallen in the space of 6 months 
We’re so much worse off than the Rangnick era.Jesus how far have we fallen in the space of 6 months
And dan James would be our best winger after Garnacho and he's currently in the Championship.
No he wouldn't ffs
my god some of ye are really clutching at straws!I love how any nuance or thoughtful discussion disappears from this forum entirely when we lose a game get a grip people.
get a grip people.No he wouldn't.
No we're not.
I love how any nuance or thoughtful discussion disappears from this forum entirely when we lose a game
I think some posters come here to basically process their grief. It's like the guys on AFTV who used to rant to Robbie.
How could I not agree
He was the best we have had since Carrick, in terms of age and experience combined, admittedly after his back operation in his second season with us he did lose some mobility, but his presence in thought and movement and his insight for through balls was top notch. I would have loved to see Garner get one full season alongside Matic, but it was not to be.
The only issue was his loss of legs. Technical wise and positional sense wise he was a top player, one of the few post Carrick who could give us some control of games. A 25 year old Matic would be ideal to replace Eriksen
He really wasn’t. His legs were totally gone after the first season with a resurgence during lockdown.. he was slow and cumbersome and sat back making a back 5 and played easy passes 99% of the time. Bought in to hold Pogbas hand. He wasn’t a great tackler either despite his frame (Looking at you McT) Yet we still managed to flog that dead horse for years. Our midfield used to get schooled repeatedly by average players with above average energy and physicality. Remember a very young Tielemans and Dendonker giving them the absolute runaround in the EL?
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Nah.
The best midfield we had in the last 8 years was during the lockdown period - Matic Pogba Bruno. Lasted 3 months and we had so many good performances where we were creating chances left and right. Bruno was at his best then, and I do think a lot of that was to do with Matic
Nah, we only really looked good for the first month of that. The rest of the time we were getting results while not actually playing all that well, and we also had a very easy fixture list (almost every team was either fighting relegation or had come back from lockdown in near-relegation form). Our best actual midfield performance in the last 6-7 weeks of the season was the Europa final where we dropped Matic and bought in Fred, where our midfield was comfortably on top against a good team but our attack let us down.
The 18/19 period after Ole came in where we had Matic-Herrera-Pogba was the best midfield we've had since Fergie, and it wasn't even close. That period plus a few other random games here and there that that combo played previously was miles ahead of any other combo we've used in that time. They drew and lost their first two games they played together, then never lost again (17 wins and 1 draw). Literally title-winning form, but after Herrera got injured then left we went back to trying to shoe-horn Pogba into the deeper role instead of trying to recreate that combination with similar players.
On the occasions that he was playing well he was very good and important to the team. But that could be said for plenty of others as well (Pogba, Bruno, Herrera, Fred), and I'd say all of them were good more often than Matic was.
Matic started his career here brilliantly, but by the second half of his first season his form was already dropping off quite badly. Then he was atrocious for the beginning of his second season until after Mourinho got fired, when he was great for about two months before dropping off again. Was poor most of his third season until another month or two after lockdown. Then spent his last two years struggling badly and only having the occasional good match here and there (and even then it was normally only for 60 minutes).