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Nemanja Matic Serbia flag

2019-20 Performances

View full 2019-20 profile

5.9 Season Average Rating
Appearances
34
Goals
1
Assists
3
Yellow cards
4
Red cards
1
Status
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Matic is playing on a different level and has been even before the break happened.

I feel this is due to having a much better fitness regime, he looked totally spent under Mourinho after the first 3-4 months at the club. The whole team is on a different level when it comes to physical preparations and this is what helps good players the most, in order to express their qualities more consistently.
 
I just wish he’s 25. What a player. Chelsea probably had his best years but he has looked completely rejuvenated again in that midfield of ours. In my opinion the best signing Jose made after Pogba
 
He's been superb in 2020 and together with Pogba and Maguire, absolutely ran the show yesterday. Hopefully his legs can hold out long enough for us to secure a CL place.

Needless to say, we really need to find a long-term replacement for him this summer. Neither McTominay nor Fred possess the necessary skillset.
 
DoomSlayer said:
Matic is playing on a different level and has been even before the break happened.

I feel this is due to having a much better fitness regime, he looked totally spent under Mourinho after the first 3-4 months at the club. The whole team is on a different level when it comes to physical preparations and this is what helps good players the most, in order to express their qualities more consistently.
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Agree with all of that. When he was going through his bad patch, it seemed so out of character. He has always been such an honest player.

But his return to top form has coincided with United good form.
All I can say is long may it last because he is exactly what we need.
 
Ill hold my hands up and admit I thought he was done, especially after the first season. I thought the second part of the first season he started to dip and just continued, and didnt see anyway he would improve and was just on a downward spiral. Hes been great. Maybe its the rest? Maybe its time out of the game making him hungry? Whatever it is, having him fresh has helped rather than running him into the ground where we would see him jog and let people get by him so easily.
 
Great again last night. He's a totally rejuvenated player at the moment and it's very refreshing to see.
 
Man Utd 5:2 Bournemouth
Got robbed in our area early on but fortunately got away with it. Awful pass to Bailly that resulted in their penalty; one of several poor passes from Matic during the match. Did well to intercept that turned into an assist for Greenwood's 2nd goal.
 
Mixed bag today and actually Fred played a bit better than him when he came on though the game was over by that point.
 
Thought he was good going forward but very poor on the back end, which is his most important role in the side. Felt he was the blame for the pen and also should share the blame in the goal (letting the cross into the box). Not enough people I feel are recognizing how shambolic he was at times today as it's more popular to slag off DDG and Maguire (mind you, they also deserve blame today).
 
Good performance. Matic had a assist and was solid going forward, but made mistakes as well. I think its a good thing Ole rested him early. Its a worry how our subs couldnt score a single goal after some of our first eleven got subbed. We need more depth. Fred, MC and pereira aint good enough, Mata is even worse.
 
Think he was very good, he had some bad passes, primarily the one for Bailly's blunder of a penalty, but over very good. Also another great pass for Mason's first goal, plus he got an assist for the 2nd.
 
Idxomer said:
Mixed bag today and actually Fred played a bit better than him when he came on though the game was over by that point.
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Fred offers more going forward but Matic is better defensively.
Not one of Matics better games. Lost the ball with a few waywards passes a few times
 
sport2793 said:
Thought he was good going forward but very poor on the back end, which is his most important role in the side. Felt he was the blame for the pen and also should share the blame in the goal (letting the cross into the box). Not enough people I feel are recognizing how shambolic he was at times today as it's more popular to slag off DDG and Maguire (mind you, they also deserve blame today).
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Aye. Got robbed a couple of times in dangerous areas and that pass to Fred for the pen was incredibly bad. Fred looked very good when he came on. Got around the pitch well, made some important challenges, and played some wonderful passes into the strikers.
 
He was poor today.

Matic is a player who needs rest, everytime he has been overplayed his performances go down. He can be a good player, but we need to manage his game time.

Fred can play there imo, need to rotate enough as we can't risk burning Matic out with the amount of games we are going to have in the short amount of time this remaining season.
 
Today showed a bit of the downside fielding him. He isn't good when we get countered. He lacks pace going back.
 
Ace of Spades said:
He was poor today.

Matic is a player who needs rest, everytime he has been overplayed his performances go down. He can be a good player, but we need to manage his game time.

Fred can play there imo, need to rotate enough as we can't risk burning Matic out with the amount of games we are going to have in the short amount of time this remaining season.
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I agree with this. I think a big part of why we've seen an improved Matic since the season restarted was because he had three months off. I don't think Matic can do two games a week anymore.
 
Godfather said:
Today showed a bit of the downside fielding him. He isn't good when we get countered. He lacks pace going back.
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I thought he had an overall decent game, some bad passing aside. Whilst I agree with your sentiment, I do think his performance is also linked due to playing in a midfield 'two' with Pogba. Pogba, even at his most switched on and disciplined (i.e since the restart) is still a 'liability' in defensive transitions and running back towards goal. I say that as a big fan of both Matic and Pogba.

The issue is not the 80% of the games where we should be 'comfortably' have enough to beat teams but the remaining 20%. I said I would prefer Fred simply because he has the legs and pitch coverage if we are going to continue with the current playing positions and attacking approach (where it rightly should).
 
I do not think he was as bad as some people make him out to be. Bailly made a balls out of it by misjudging the flight of the ball. Yes it was a bad ball but he should never tried to control it on his shoulder. It would have been better to let it run out for a corner than trying to control it as there was no Bournemouth player near him.
 
Feel like he was better going forward than he was defensivly today. He looked very casual from the off and was lucky a few times to get away with some things he decided to do. Passing was a bit off but he looked slow and knackered when they broke on us.

We looked much more assured when Fred came on in my opinion.
 
Not his best game, some very slopping passing from him today and showed sluggishness at times. When Fred came on I really liked how we turned defence into attack a lot quicker. He's got plenty of credit in the bank though, so not gonna bash him too much.
 
Will get shown up against good pressing teams. Bournemouth are decent in that regard but don't have the quality so our attack bailed us out. He just doesn't suit a team playing a high press because he's not got the defensive capability in defensive transition.

He suits a more pragmatic approach. And I agree with Rio Ferdinand that we need a DM who is defensively clued on in such a high risk approach in defensive transition.
 
We can easily look for future replacement this summer, but Matić can still be our huge asset if used wisely and with just a bit of compassion for aging player who achieved everything in Premier League.
 
criticalanalysis said:
I thought he had an overall decent game, some bad passing aside. Whilst I agree with your sentiment, I do think his performance is also linked due to playing in a midfield 'two' with Pogba. Pogba, even at his most switched on and disciplined (i.e since the restart) is still a 'liability' in defensive transitions and running back towards goal. I say that as a big fan of both Matic and Pogba.

The issue is not the 80% of the games where we should be 'comfortably' have enough to beat teams but the remaining 20%. I said I would prefer Fred simply because he has the legs and pitch coverage if we are going to continue with the current playing positions and attacking approach (where it rightly should).
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Good post and I agree.
 
No coincidence that when Matic had a poor game our defence looked like a bunch of drunken sailers. Though obviously Bailly came on and made the rest look like Baresi and Maldini.
 
Not a very good game, at fault for a penalty. Still got an assist today
 
Wait what? he's having a bad game?
Why is that one bad pass to Bailly which gets highlights repetitively be the main thing mentioned to justify he had bad game?

I think he ran the show today next to Bruno when we're breaking up Bournemouth's defenses, the duo pulling the strings starting attacks.
Of course, not a perfect game, many passes that didn't reach targets, because he's making more than usual risk passes.

Defensively just as expected, with no Bruno/McT beside him, he gets found out each time Bournemouth counter quick and direct.
 
Ace of Spades said:
He was poor today.

Matic is a player who needs rest, everytime he has been overplayed his performances go down. He can be a good player, but we need to manage his game time.

Fred can play there imo, need to rotate enough as we can't risk burning Matic out with the amount of games we are going to have in the short amount of time this remaining season.
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Agreed, and this has been my point all along when people were overhyping his performances since the restart, it's been clear for ages that he can't sustain a week in and week out shedule anymore, but when given plenty of rest he can string a bunch of decent games together.

He's not a player I ever wanted here, not changing my mind now, but since he is here and has good spells, it seems logical that next season he should be a rotation option to manage his games and his replacement should be blooded in, rather than spending £50M on another AM.
 
Committing the rest of his best-shape career with Manchester United. Happy to have you Nemanja!
 
That is a bit long, but he deserved it. Similar type of player to Carrick who also kept it up until 35, so I'd expect he won't fall off the cliff for too much.
 
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