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Nemanja Matic Serbia flag

2020-21 Performances

View full 2020-21 profile

5.5 Season Average Rating
Appearances
36
Goals
0
Assists
1
Yellow cards
4
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Matic hasn't worked out especially well in the end. He seemed to start off very nicely, he was even bursting through midfield alongside steady passing when he first joined. For a few months.

Then he seemed to settle into a period of lethargy and now that has converted into him looking completely unsuited to the rigours of English football as he has aged. I think he'd be better off somewhere where he's got plenty of time to get on the ball. He's still a decent footballer but the physical side is no way near.

Our opponents are all over us with Matic combined with anybody. They're all over us anyway but with him in there it seems to give them even more optimism. He also has a peculiar habit of dropping between our centre backs, or even deeper in an effort to find space. Which appears totally useless and leaves us a man down as if Lindelof and Maguire are going to bring the ball out, the whole point is to create overloads, if you're going to waste a player covering what is the point?
 
Can see him randomly popping up aged 35 in a CL quarter final for Fenerbahce or someone and running the show as the deepest of three midfielders
 
the game just passes him by these days. he's done.

cant play an early pass. cant defend
 
This kind of thing is the reason I don’t have faith in things changing much with Murtough and the transfer team. Calls like signing Matic up was on their watch. Matic legs have been gone since before he got the deal so a one year add on may have made perfect sense. Even 2 at a push if we were determined to slowly phase him out but 3? He was barely serviceable when he signed let alone leaving him as our only DM option. You can clearly see the player has next to no value beyond place holding and the odd poor run out but give him a long new deal anyway. The only thing I can think of is there is just no money at the minute or we are waiting around for Garner or someone to break through. Garner wouldn’t have done any worse than Matic this season but is it enough minutes to develop? Such fine margins but calls like the above and if we’d looked at Jota and Partey instead of Amad and VDB we might have shocked a lot of people this season. Amad could have a full season on loan this year and he would hardly have cost us much more than he did. I guess hindsight is always 20:20 but it’s a dedicated transfer team. They need to get this stuff right. Watch now as we struggle to make signings and sell players again this summer.
 
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Ali Dia said:
This kind of thing is the reason I don’t have faith in things changing much with Murtough and the transfer team. Calls like signing Matic up was on their watch. Matic legs have been gone since before he got the deal so a one year add on may have made perfect sense. Even 2 at a push if we were determined to slowly phase him out but 3? He was barely serviceable when he signed let alone leaving him as our only DM option. You can clearly see the player has next to no value beyond place holding and the odd poor run out but give him a long new deal anyway. The only thing I can think of is there is just no money at the minute or we are waiting around for Garner or someone to break through. Garner wouldn’t have done any worse than Matic this season but is it enough minutes to develop? Such fine margins but calls like the above and if we’d looked at Jota and Partey instead of Amad and VDB we might have shocked a lot of people this season. Amad could have a full season on loan this year and he would hardly have cost us much more than he did. I guess hindsight is always 20:20 but it’s a dedicated transfer team. They need to get this stuff right. Watch now as we struggle to make signings and sell players again this summer.
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Matic was an even more blatant Mourinho signing than Lukaku.
 
Ali Dia said:
i get that he was a Jose signing but the club have kept him around even though he’s been poor for ages.
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I agree with that, but let’s not pin that on Murtough. He was one of the most unimportant of the important, if you like, employees at the club before this recent promotion. I’m only judging him by the transfers he and Ole makes this summer and beyond.
 
RashyForPM said:
I agree with that, but let’s not pin that on Murtough. He was one of the most unimportant of the important, if you like, employees at the club before this recent promotion. I’m only judging him by the transfers he and Ole makes this summer and beyond.
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Ya I’m down with that too. Fresh start and all that but I’ve a feeling it will be more of the same from the club this season in the market. I think the main problem is it looks like there Is no set budget or consistency. It looks like for the first team we have to go to the owners on a transfer by transfer basis and everything gets drawn out running it past the various glazers and then the inevitable endless bargaining to get the fee down. It also sounds like the glazers have had a pretty big hand in making football and contract calls. Is that going to change now all of a sudden? I don’t really see it but I’d be very happy to be wrong.
 
Ali Dia said:
Ya I’m down with that too. Fresh start and all that but I’ve a feeling it will be more of the same from the club this season in the market. I think the main problem is it looks like there Is no set budget or consistency. It looks like for the first team we have to go to the owners on a transfer by transfer basis and everything gets drawn out running it past the various glazers and then the inevitable endless bargaining to get the fee down. It also sounds like the glazers have had a pretty big hand in making football and contract calls. Is that going to change now all of a sudden? I don’t really see it but I’d be very happy to be wrong.
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Yeah, and most importantly, we need to sell the deadwood first, of which Matic is obviously one of them. I’d be very happy to see a new DM like Ndidi, Kessie or Rice come in with Garner promoted to backup DM.
 
Taped it to Bruno's locker.

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MyOnlySolskjaer said:
Taped it to Bruno's locker.

seu9xkwbt4q61.jpg
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:wenger:

Ridiculous, if he cared so much he could play for Serbia. Cristiano is 5 years older than him and still scored what should have been the winner in extra time.

Matic should zip it on social media and refrain from bragging after retiring from international duties in his early 30s...
 
Nani Nana said:
:wenger:

Ridiculous, if he cared so much he could play for Serbia. Cristiano is 5 years older than him and still scored what should have been the winner in extra time.

Matic should zip it on social media and refrain from bragging after retiring from international duties in his early 30s...
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It's called banter! Pretty sure he 'cares' for his national team...
 
Nani Nana said:
:wenger:

Ridiculous, if he cared so much he could play for Serbia. Cristiano is 5 years older than him and still scored what should have been the winner in extra time.

Matic should zip it on social media and refrain from bragging after retiring from international duties in his early 30s...
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He's just trolling Bruno and Ronaldo, you can clearly see the picture was photoshopped.
 
Nani Nana said:
:wenger:

Ridiculous, if he cared so much he could play for Serbia. Cristiano is 5 years older than him and still scored what should have been the winner in extra time.

Matic should zip it on social media and refrain from bragging after retiring from international duties in his early 30s...
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Chill out
 
Nani Nana said:
:wenger:

Ridiculous, if he cared so much he could play for Serbia. Cristiano is 5 years older than him and still scored what should have been the winner in extra time.

Matic should zip it on social media and refrain from bragging after retiring from international duties in his early 30s...
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That escalated quickly...
 
I was hoping this had been bumped to show him being linked elsewhere this summer.

I love what Ole and the team have done on the recruitment side but renewing this guys contract was bizarre.
 
Yet another 'cameo' of his sheer done-ness.

Am sure he'll move on in the summer if we can find anyone willing. And by that, I mean sure he'll join Mata, Jones and Romero in the 'oh yeah, they're still there on big money not playing football' team. (Yes I know Mata has some mitigating circumstances, but he barely played last season either).
 
Man Utd 2:0 Granada
I've never been his biggest fan but he was very tidy tonight, dropping between the CB's to take the ball regularly.
 
For an experienced player, he makes so many dodgy decisions and loses the ball in dangerous areas.
 
his release was so slow. Ironically, having him play made it difficult to move the ball
 
I do like him usually but I have to be honest, that was poor. He usually plays a lot of really clean passes between the lines but did basically none of that today.
 
He's just too slow now - put him in a possession heavy attacking team and he could be an effective sub but in that type of frantic and, quite frankly, dogged game he's pointless.
 
Ali Dia said:
He’s managed to become almost totally invisible
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I know! My stream was playing up in the second half and jumped a few minutes forward I saw him touch the ball and thought "Oh Matic has come on" checked my phone to see who was subbed off and forgot he was a starter :lol:.
 
There are moments where he picks up the ball, drives forward and you think 'this could be going somewhere.' 99% of the time he just stops and goes sideways. You're left thinking 'what the hell was the point?' Take men out with a dissecting run only to give them time to get back by choosing a cautious pass. Really has no future and should not have had his contract renewed last summer.
 
It's over, I think. My impression is that he lost 100% of 50 50s tonight. I have no interest in real stats. I will be running with my impressions this evening.
 
Man Utd 6:2 Roma
No one wrote about Matic after the game... And he had 10 minutes
 
I was thinking we'd score 7 and then I seen him amble up to the touchline and I knew that wasn't going to happen anymore.

I'd let him go on a free transfer this summer if we're bringing in a midfielder. Just don't see how you can justify giving him minutes next year when he's looked so far over the hill this season.
 
There are still matches when he is needed. Especially when we need to calm things down.
 
edcunited1878 said:
He's a leader amongst the group. He's pretty much won it all and totally fine with him being a squad player.
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He hasn't, he has won the Prem twice with Chelsea, FA Cup with Chelsea, and the Portuguese league once with Benfica.
To be honest I thought he had more until I looked it up.
 
Legendary said:
He hasn't, he has won the Prem twice with Chelsea, FA Cup with Chelsea, and the Portuguese league once with Benfica.
To be honest I thought he had more until I looked it up.
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Thought he won a European comp? Oh well. Still an experienced head who knows what winning is and you always need that. He has good banter in the dressing room too.
 
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