[Red Dreams]

just coming back from injury.
He plays best with the busy Herrera alongside.

 

[Ace of Spades]

He needs Herrera to cover for him, or else it is too easy to get past him.

 

[Svartzonker]

I think he has been a disaster for quite some time now. He is slow, is not good at man marking and does not provide anything special going forward. We maybe have to replace him in the summer.

I do hope he can turn it around. A true professional. Come on, Nemanja!

 

[Harry190]

Same as Pogba today. Not at the races.

 

[settembrini]

Can't wait to see the back of him if I'm being honest

Mourinho loves him and has signed him at his last two jobs. Fingers crossed he takes him to his next club because I'm sick of seeing him jog around hoping everyone else does his job for him.

 

[ivaldo]

Matic can bring the ball out of the defence, Mctominay can't / doesn't. Don't know what his physical condition is but he has to come in if he is fit.

Matic doesn’t bring the ball out of defence though. There was times DDG had the ball, the CBs had split and Matic was in acres of space, and instead of moving toward the ball he moved away, effectively placing himself in a position where he was no longer an option.

 

[el3mel]

He has become one of our easiest scapegoats for some. Back from injury into such big game. He shouldn't have started at all actually. Scott should have kept the spot and we should have introduced him gradually.

Otherwise he has been pretty good ever since Ole got the job.

 

[Canagel]

He is very slow and lets people go by too easily. We need more mobility in DM. But its hard game to come back into.

 

[Sylar]

Shouldn't have started. Was really poor at staying with ozil and allowed him too much time and space

 

[Patrick08]

He has become one of our easiest scapegoats for some. Back from injury into such big game. He shouldn't have started at all actually. Scott should have kept the spot and we should have introduced him gradually.

Otherwise he has been pretty good ever since Ole got the job.

I'd have played Scott and him both and pogba ahead of them in a triangle.

 

[Mcking]

The first half passed him by, but he improved a bit in the second half. A poor performance though.

 

[Adnan]

We need someone in his position to provide legs in high octane games. He struggles in these types of games due to not having the legs.

 

[ivaldo]

He has become one of our easiest scapegoats for some. Back from injury into such big game. He shouldn't have started at all actually. Scott should have kept the spot and we should have introduced him gradually.

Otherwise he has been pretty good ever since Ole got the job.

It wasn't a surprise though. Whenever we play a team that likes to work through midfield he gets exposed. It's happening time and time again.

 

[Devil may care]

He has become one of our easiest scapegoats for some. Back from injury into such big game. He shouldn't have started at all actually. Scott should have kept the spot and we should have introduced him gradually.

Otherwise he has been pretty good ever since Ole got the job.

Words scapegoat and cliche are often used to discredit opinion and distract from a factual pattern. Matic's lack of mobility is an ongoing issue with him, he has some qualities but some major weaknesses that hamper the team at times, especially against mobile teams that play through midfield.

 

[el3mel]

Words scapegoat and cliche are often used to discredit opinion and distract from a factual pattern. Matic's lack of mobility is an ongoing issue with him, he has some qualities but some major weaknesses that hamper the team at times, especially against mobile teams that play through midfield.

Not discredit but there's no sense coming here to see things like "can't wait to see the back of him" when he's just back from injury straight to a big game that needs lots of work. He was rushed and Ole shouldn't have started him at all. Otherwise he played in other big games under Ole and looked pretty well.

 

[MadMike]

He got caught up in possession a few times and the build up from him is very very slow. It's fine when we want to slow down the tempo but when we need urgency it's not the best really.

Not a good game from him

 

[Devil may care]

Not discredit but there's no sense coming here to see things like "can't wait to see the back of him" when he's just back from injury straight to a big game that needs lots of work. He was rushed and Ole shouldn't have started him at all. Otherwise he played in other big games under Ole and looked pretty well.

There's nothing to suggest he was rushed back, why would we? We went to PSG without him and Ander and got the job done, and it's not like he's been out for months, he's been out about 3 weeks, hardly enough time for rust to settle in, Smalling was out much longer and has barely missed a beat. The truth is Matic's "resurgence" under Ole has always been overblown, yes he started to be more progressive with the ball but his lack of mobility and speed across the ground has remained the same problem it was under Mourinho when faced with any kid of mobile, pressing team, and that's all we saw today, the same old issues and Fred doesn't have the nous to cover him the way Ander does in these situations.

 

[el3mel]

There's nothing to suggest he was rushed back, why would we? We went to PSG without him and Ander and got the job done, and it's not like he's been out for months, he's been out about 3 weeks, hardly enough time for rust to settle in, Smalling was out much longer and has barely missed a beat. The truth is Matic's "resurgence" under Ole has always been overblown, yes he started to be more progressive with the ball but his lack of mobility and speed across the ground has remained the same problem it was under Mourinho when faced with any kid of mobile, pressing team, and that's all we saw today, the same old issues and Fred doesn't have the nous to cover him the way Ander does in these situations.

3 weeks without training is pretty much enough to get rusty especially coming into a an away big game which needs lots of work and energy. Things would have been different if he's coming back against weak opposition, but not a big game away from home!

He has been great/very good since Ole took the job. We defeated Spurs, Arssnal and Chelsea all away with him playing. The fact that once he played a poor game coming back from injury we started seeing posts like "can't wait to see the back of him" etc is ridiculous and the very definition of scapegoating. As if some couldn't wait for him to have his first poor game to say this nonsense.

 

[Devil may care]

3 weeks without training is pretty much enough to get rusty especially coming into a an away big game which needs lots of work and energy. Things would have been different if he's coming back against weak opposition, but not a big game away from home!

He has been great/very good since Ole took the job. We defeated Spurs, Arssnal and Chelsea all away with him playing. The fact that once he played a poor game coming back from injury we started seeing posts like "can't wait to see the back of him" etc is ridiculous and the very definition of scapegoating. As if some couldn't wait for him to have his first poor game to say this nonsense.

That's a weak excuse for a seasoned professional, like I say Smalling came straight back in and never looked like he'd been gone, and lets not pretend like this kind of performance is a one off for Matic.

I disagree, I don't think he's been that good since Ole took over and neither did the person you were quoting, she has felt the same about Matic as I have, take a look back, my opinion didn't flip flop like others just because Ole took over, it's like Lukaku has been on a good run of goal scoring which has seen his fanboys coming out of the woodwork but his performances outside of the 18 yard area have still been littered with the same issues as before, oddly today it was the other way around. With Matic I've been saying the entire time under Ole that defensively he is still a liability and that Ander is having to do a lot of running for him to cover the spaces he leaves, today he had Fred with him who just isn't at the same level as Ander in this regard.

 

[tentan]

Looked way off the mark. Poor decision from Ole to start him in a big game right after coming back from his injury. Mctominay should've started.

 

[Ekeke]

He's never going to look that good without Ander doing half his job

 

[KennyBurner]

That's a weak excuse for a seasoned professional, like I say Smalling came straight back in and never looked like he'd been gone, and lets not pretend like this kind of performance is a one off for Matic.

I disagree, I don't think he's been that good since Ole took over and neither did the person you were quoting, she has felt the same about Matic as I have, take a look back, my opinion didn't flip flop like others just because Ole took over, it's like Lukaku has been on a good run of goal scoring which has seen his fanboys coming out of the woodwork but his performances outside of the 18 yard area have still been littered with the same issues as before, oddly today it was the other way around. With Matic I've been saying the entire time under Ole that defensively he is still a liability and that Ander is having to do a lot of running for him to cover the spaces he leaves, today he had Fred with him who just isn't at the same level as Ander in this regard.

This is a terrible take. Matic has been one of the best midfielders under Ole. Let’s not rewrite history and only credit Herrera and pogba. Matic has just been as invaluable as the two. You guys love to discredit him because of his immobility.

Let’s talk about today though. The lack of a midlfield had nothing to do with his “immobility” but much more a tactical deficiency by Ole. We also know that pogba who is also part of the midfield that was supposedly empty does feck all when it’s time to build out the back and would rather run to his favorite position the far left wing to wait for the ball. Why don’t we ever talk about this burden left on matic to always cover pogba’s responsibilities? It’s because he is a fan favorite I’m guessing?

You guys need to stop placing ALL the blame on matic when our midfield fails to perform. He isn’t the only one responsible for protecting the defense while trying to bring the ball out from the back while also covering multiple attackers.

 

[el3mel]

That's a weak excuse for a seasoned professional, like I say Smalling came straight back in and never looked like he'd been gone, and lets not pretend like this kind of performance is a one off for Matic.

I disagree, I don't think he's been that good since Ole took over and neither did the person you were quoting, she has felt the same about Matic as I have, take a look back, my opinion didn't flip flop like others just because Ole took over, it's like Lukaku has been on a good run of goal scoring which has seen his fanboys coming out of the woodwork but his performances outside of the 18 yard area have still been littered with the same issues as before, oddly today it was the other way around. With Matic I've been saying the entire time under Ole that defensively he is still a liability and that Ander is having to do a lot of running for him to cover the spaces he leaves, today he had Fred with him who just isn't at the same level as Ander in this regard.

Professional or not the guy is human, mate. He's not a machine. You can't be out of training and recovering for 3 weeks then immediately get thrown in a big game away from home that needs loads of work. How many professionals are going to drop a great performance here? Scott should have started this and Matic should have been introduced gradually.

Not really flip flopped with Ole taking over. I just give credit to players who actually play well. I slaughtered Shaw a lot, however I have been over praising him the last few matches. I slaughtered Lukaku almost the entire season but still over praised him the last 3 matches. Just because I have a harsh opinion on a player himself doesn't mean I'm not going to admit he is good when he's actually playing well.

I have no problem with criticizing Matic for this particular game but using it as a a general view and claim he was never good the previous games mean that you can't warm to him and simply will wait for his bad days to say you want him out while whenever he plays well it will be thanks to others. That's pretty harsh and simply illogical. That's why I said he's getting scapegoated by many here.

Midfield works as a unit not individually and needs every player to do his job or it will affect the others. You can't carry anyone's job in it and cover for him, not in premier league and especially not in big games. Herrera did his job pretty well, but Pogba and Matic also did the job asked for them pretty well and resulted in our great performance under Ole. Simply throwing the full praise to Herrera and discrediting Matic from any success in his role in midfield means some here can't welcome to him at all whatever he plays, but as I said.

 

[kouroux]

This is the 2nd time he's back from a lay off/injury, introduced in the first team directly and we lose. It's not a coincidence.

 

[Robbie Boy]

He needs to be upgraded. He shouldn't be an automatic first choice.

 

[Patrick08]

Not discredit but there's no sense coming here to see things like "can't wait to see the back of him" when he's just back from injury straight to a big game that needs lots of work. He was rushed and Ole shouldn't have started him at all. Otherwise he played in other big games under Ole and looked pretty well.

If he is playing then its not a worse thing to assume he is fully fit, and even a fully fit matic is capable of getting caught with mobility around him and that's exactly what happened when xhaka took a shot under no pressure with ample space and time. Team's work on our weaknesses and they see it on right side of defence and in the centre with both pogba and matic who cant win the duels to dominate the middle and gets caught out of position with mobility and switch of play.

If matic was crucial for his passing than ole should have paired him with mctominay than fred

 

[Kostov]

We need better.

 

[Roberto420]

Fans wishing to see the back of him others comparing a center back coming back from injury to a midfielder coming back from injury in a top 4 game looks like things are back to normal I called it when Fellaini left (scapegoat)and all this talk of Herrera doing all the work laughable lets see if he can work his was to a premier league title like Matic But let me guess that's because of someone else right?

 

[Devil may care]

This is a terrible take. Matic has been one of the best midfielders under Ole. Let’s not rewrite history and only credit Herrera and pogba. Matic has just been as invaluable as the two. You guys love to discredit him because of his immobility.

Let’s talk about today though. The lack of a midlfield had nothing to do with his “immobility” but much more a tactical deficiency by Ole. We also know that pogba who is also part of the midfield that was supposedly empty does feck all when it’s time to build out the back and would rather run to his favorite position the far left wing to wait for the ball. Why don’t we ever talk about this burden left on matic to always cover pogba’s responsibilities? It’s because he is a fan favorite I’m guessing?

You guys need to stop placing ALL the blame on matic when our midfield fails to perform. He isn’t the only one responsible for protecting the defense while trying to bring the ball out from the back while also covering multiple attackers.

Actually you have described exactly what Matic's job is as the defensive holding midfielder. he's supposed act as that cover so Pogba can stay forward, recieve the ball and hurt teams, like what Fernandinho does for City and he doesn't have a second CM doing his running for him as they play with 2 AM's. Yesterday Pogba ran back beyond him more than once.

Professional or not the guy is human, mate. He's not a machine. You can't be out of training and recovering for 3 weeks then immediately get thrown in a big game away from home that needs loads of work. How many professionals are going to drop a great performance here? Scott should have started this and Matic should have been introduced gradually.

Not really flip flopped with Ole taking over. I just give credit to players who actually play well. I slaughtered Shaw a lot, however I have been over praising him the last few matches. I slaughtered Lukaku almost the entire season but still over praised him the last 3 matches. Just because I have a harsh opinion on a player himself doesn't mean I'm not going to admit he is good when he's actually playing well.

I have no problem with criticizing Matic for this particular game but using it as a a general view and claim he was never good the previous games mean that you can't warm to him and simply will wait for his bad days to say you want him out while whenever he plays well it will be thanks to others. That's pretty harsh and simply illogical. That's why I said he's getting scapegoated by many here.

Midfield works as a unit not individually and needs every player to do his job or it will affect the others. You can't carry anyone's job in it and cover for him, not in premier league and especially not in big games. Herrera did his job pretty well, but Pogba and Matic also did the job asked for them pretty well and resulted in our great performance under Ole. Simply throwing the full praise to Herrera and discrediting Matic from any success in his role in midfield means some here can't welcome to him at all whatever he plays, but as I said.

I wasn't saying you flip flopped I am saying myself and Footygirl hadn't either, our view of Matic hadn't changed under Ole, his lack of mobility has been an issue under both managers when it comes to the defensive side of his game, which is his primary function. As for the 3 week lay-off, it's a poor excuse mate no matter how you slice it, I used Smalling as a recent example but there are plenty of other players that have come into sides after longer lay-offs and done well, this was a Matic performance we have seen plenty of times before.

Fans wishing to see the back of him others comparing a center back coming back from injury to a midfielder coming back from injury in a top 4 game looks like things are back to normal I called it when Fellaini left (scapegoat)and all this talk of Herrera doing all the work laughable lets see if he can work his was to a premier league title like Matic But let me guess that's because of someone else right?

Well with the one under Conte it was Kante doing the ground coverage of 2 men, so yeah with regards to that, he was good in the first title win under Mourinho but has regressed physicdally since then. However saying he's been part of a PL title winning team makes him better than Hererera is silly, it's like saying Hargreaves was better than Gerrard or Wes Morgan is better than Konscielny because one has won a PL medal and the other hasn't.

 

[el3mel]

I wasn't saying you flip flopped I am saying myself and Footygirl hadn't either, our view of Matic hadn't changed under Ole, his lack of mobility has been an issue under both managers when it comes to the defensive side of his game, which is his primary function. As for the 3 week lay-off, it's a poor excuse mate no matter how you slice it, I used Smalling as a recent example but there are plenty of other players that have come into sides after longer lay-offs and done well, this was a Matic performance we have seen plenty of times before.

You don't get the difference do you? It's fine to return from a long lay off into match against a relegation fodder or midtable club. Completely different to return from a long lay off straight into the a big game and away from home too.

 

[Devil may care]

You don't get the difference do you? It's fine to return from a long lay off into match against a relegation fodder or midtable club. Completely different to return from a long lay off straight into the a big game and away from home too.

So now it's not the lay-off it's because Ramsey and Xhaka from banter FC are such a high level that he couldn't come straight back in against two such midfield titans? Come on man, you make it sound like it's mission impossible when loads of players have come back into big games from much longer spells out and performed well. This type of defensive performance from him has happened in games when he's been at his fittest for us and even had a decent game on the ball, that's what you aren't getting, this wasn't an out of character game for him like say De Gea's blunder was out of character, this immobility issue on the defensive side of his game is an ongoing issue and that's the point, it has nothing to do with whether he'd not trained for a couple of weeks.

 

[BluesJr]

McTominay should have played instead.

 

[MadMike]

You don't get the difference do you? It's fine to return from a long lay off into match against a relegation fodder or midtable club. Completely different to return from a long lay off straight into the a big game and away from home too.

The point that he’s making is that was Matic par for the course. That he hasn’t been any different in terms speed, ground coverage etc. over the last couple of years. Better decision making in other games, better awareness for sure. But you can’t argue that he was slow and ponderous only today.

He lacks speed in tracking back, hence he can’t move much forward unlike say Fernandinho. And he’s pretty slow in the build up. He’s good if you want to slow the game down, but not if you want to speed it up. That’s not based only on yesterday. But the last couple of years of close observation.

 

[settembrini]

Matic's performance yesterday had nothing to do with returning from a long lay off. I know this because a) he didn't have a long lay off, he was out for two weeks and b) He played exactly like he did before he got injured and how he has generally played for United outside of his first couple of months at the club, when he was great.

 

[NotoriousISSY]

I don't think anyone can deny he looked well off the pace, as did Pogba.

No need to micro-analyse as far as I'm concerned unless it becomes consistent under Ole. But I'm sure McTominay will get a number of games between now and the end of the season after proving himself in big games.

 

[el3mel]

So now it's not the lay-off it's because Ramsey and Xhaka from banter FC are such a high level that he couldn't come straight back in against two such midfield titans? Come on man, you make it sound like it's mission impossible when loads of players have come back into big games from much longer spells out and performed well. This type of defensive performance from him has happened in games when he's been at his fittest for us and even had a decent game on the ball, that's what you aren't getting, this wasn't an out of character game for him like say De Gea's blunder was out of character, this immobility issue on the defensive side of his game is an ongoing issue and that's the point, it has nothing to do with whether he'd not trained for a couple of weeks.

It is not "now". I have been saying this pretty much since my first post in this discussion.

A fitter player will always do more than a player out of training for 3 weeks in a game that needs loads of energy and work whatever that fitter player is shite. That's why I said from the very first post Scott should have kept his position in this game.

It's not mission impossible, but expecting a top performance in that circumstance is like expecting the player to be a machine.

He has done great defensive work in the big games we won away from home this season so it's not the same kind of performance from him. The problem is even those big games we won with him playing you still give the full credit to Herrera only and discredit him so it's kinda a closed alley here.

 

[el3mel]

The point that he’s making is that was Matic par for the course. That he hasn’t been any different in terms speed, ground coverage etc. over the last couple of years. Better decision making in other games, better awareness for sure. But you can’t argue that he was slow and ponderous only today.

He lacks speed in tracking back, hence he can’t move much forward unlike say Fernandinho. And he’s pretty slow in the build up. He’s good if you want to slow the game down, but not if you want to speed it up. That’s not based only on yesterday. But the last couple of years of close observation.

He wasn't. He was far worse yesterday than his original form. Otherwise he has been pretty good for a good time now, prior to his injury.

 

[Sylar]

I could see next season being his last season full time with us. I reckon we should defo keep him here next season at the very least as part of the squad. The game yesterday defo came too early for him (a home game against a lower team would have been a better came to return).

Matic has been good since Ole came in however. But its also helped that hes had Herrera next to him to do a lot of the running and intercepting.

 

[FootyGirl88]

If we're being honest we never should have signed Matic in the first place, complete waste of £40mil if you ask me.

Hes put in some good performances since Ole arrived but i think that was a purple patch tbh. He was looking suspect just before he got injured, the first goal we conceded in the first leg against PSG sums it up he's a liability defensively doesn't track runners or let's them run past him and doesn't mark properly on set pieces.

We need a replacement in the summer, I don't mind him sticking around as squad player but he shouldn't be part of starting 11 next season.

 

[Water Melon]

Matic's legs are slowly failing him and he is getting even less mobile. His contract expires in June 2020 (an option for a further year), and I wont be surprised if Nemanja is rotated more next season. We need a bit more of ability against fast opposition players, particularly if Herrera is not playing and Pogba is not in a beast mode.