If rumours are to be believed, and Mourinho is looking to target English-based players, then I guess Matic is a target for the defensive midfielder position. That said, managers always have three/four targets in each position they are targeting. I believe Matic is a target, because we do need a holding midfielder; however, we don't know where he is in the pecking order. He could be first, he could be last.
Nemanja Matic| BBC says deal agreed
- Thread starter Paxi
- Start date
- Status
Chelsea are run like a business these days. There's no way they're not selling Matic this season if he isn't signing a new contract. Especially for 40m and the huge amount of money they're rumoured to he spending this summer.
I think people are making too big of a deal about that aspect of the move.
Obviously only time will tell but there are two players strongly linked to us that very much emulate that Chelsea 2.0 side.
Jesus Christ
He has a contract until 2019 they could still sell him next season.
Probably last. Maybe not on the list at all. This is an article from a has been who has lost his line to United info.
Will the Caf crash if this signing happens? Christ, if the £40m fee is to be believed this place will go berserk.
You said you wouldn't be happy if this happend though.
I won't. Seems like there's genuine vitriol towards Matic here. Some may be throwing chairs around their houses in anger.
Y"all can keep him.
All in all, Mourinho wanting Matic is better than Van Gaal convincing the board to shell out a crazy package to sign a washed up BFS.
Sissoko went for ,30m so no.
May be we are replacing fellani too with matic who knows.
Hopefully we do. Being able to bring the likes of Matic and Marcos Alonso in to the team for the domestic competitions or midweek fixtures when the season starts to slog would be fantastic.
I look at it like this: does Matic signing for United take your team up a level? Probably not. Does it make it harder for Chelsea to win the league? Yes. This is why we shouldn't even think of selling him to you.
Chelsea fans on Twitter seem ecstatic at getting him off the books for £40m. Not sure about him myself. He was brilliant the first season he came back but has fallen off a cliff since that horror season with Mourinho. Not a bad squadie to have but we need someone to come in and shore that DM position up and I'm not sure a declining Matic is going to be the one to do it. There's definitely better options at the moment, namely one Fabinho.
Fallen off a cliff,? Not at all.
Yep.
This one looks to be gathering steam. Even ESPN are jumping in on the rumours and source reporting. I'm personally not too worried about the price tag. I'd love to have Matic especially if he can replicate his first season form. Jose has shown that his transfers are spot on.
Personally, I'd not be unhappy with Matic; he's very much a Mourinho type player. Admittedly, if you were to believe past articles, stating he was apart of the brigade that hung him in London, it'd be easy ignore all the rumours. Disregarding my inner muppet, I can see this happening though. A player of his calibre will allow Pogba freedom to venture and take a lot of the defensive strain from Herrera - inadvertently allowing him to harness an outright box to box. I'd absolutely prefer we spunk the money on him over Dier.
Too much fuss over nothing article. It's Ogden who haven't got anything right since Moyes was sacked.
Also not even sure why Bakayoko is considered as replacement when they both are different players and Chelsea are in CL so they need bigger squad.
Also not even sure why Bakayoko is considered as replacement when they both are different players and Chelsea are in CL so they need bigger squad.
Matic is a very good DM. I'd love to have him at United. Signing him doesn't mean we can't also have Fabinho also. Matic is certainly better than Dier, while Fabinho can also fill in at FB.
Signing both would be a good upgrade over Carrick and Darmian.
Signing both would be a good upgrade over Carrick and Darmian.
Last edited:
Correct
If only we could sign a player who has been key to 2 PL wins in a position of need
He was not a key player this season, sorry to break the news to you. He was easily in the bottom 3 if we wanted to rank the starting XI.
Ohhhh yea
True. Or we could simply buy both as midfielders given that we just lost two in Schmidfield earlier this year. Can't ever have enough depth.
Yes you can. The financial commitment as well as having unhappy and potentially disruptive presence in the team mean you can indeed have too many players. Not saying that 5 or even 6 midfielders constitutes that but suggesting that there can't be enough is just naïve.
What financial commitment is that ? We are likely going to be spending well over 200m this summer and have reduced our wage bill significantly be removing Depay, Morgan, Bastian, and Ibra (not to mention possibly Young and Smalling). We wouldn't have any more players than last year, just players Mourinho actually wants.
the last real update on Matic was the Telegraph pimp slapping MEN by dismissing their report that personal agreement with Matic were agreed. Telegraph said the club confirmed no agreement with Matic. Other than that, Matic rumours seem to be based on:
"chelsea is buying bakayoko, that means Matic can join MUFC"
I have no idea. I am not an accountant at the club and therefore have no clue on what wages we are planning to have on the bill, nor do I know how we see the sell on value of players in terms of which age bracket we are targeting and such details. I wasn't commenting on the specific case of those two players. I was merely responding to the comment that there "can't be enough depth" by pointing out that no club can run with the mentality that there can't be too much as there indeed CAN be too much for several reasons, the financial aspect being one of them.
the last real update on Matic was the Telegraph pimp slapping MEN by dismissing their report that personal agreement with Matic were agreed. Telegraph said the club confirmed no agreement with Matic. Other than that, Matic rumours seem to be based on:
"chelsea is buying bakayoko, that means Matic can join MUFC"
Yeah, IIRC not one paper is reporting it except ESPN, who are as reliable as daily mail or worse.
The depth issue is obviously a problem for us. How many times have we been in an injury crisis where (for example) we've been light on defenders and had to have the likes of Carrick and Fletcher deputize at CB. Similar problems can arise in midfield. What if one of them gets a long term injury.
As a Chelsea fan, I would love to see Matic staying. But if he doesn't want to stay and compete with Bakayoko (let's assume we get him) for a slot in XI, then 40M for him (as reported) would make me happy. As Chelsea did sell its player of the year Juan Mata to United when he didn't fit Jose's plan, there is no doubt Matic would be sold too if the same thing happens.
Matic was a beast 2 years ago. But his form is declining. So if Jose gets him, his first task is to turn that form around.
Matic was a beast 2 years ago. But his form is declining. So if Jose gets him, his first task is to turn that form around.
I don't understand where all this is coming from. The guy has been a vital part in your PL winning sides.
Matic was one of my favourite players when he returned; I've always had an affinity for defensive midfielders. Here's some observations of mine from watching him very closely over the past few years.
1. When he first came back from Portugal, he was capable of single-handedly controlling a midfield by himself. Here's a video-I think this was his second or third game for us, when City were the best team in the country and Yaya was the best midfielder in the country. It remains one of the better performances I've seen from a player in a Chelsea shirt, considering the circumstances:
The following year, he could still largely do this (though Fabregas actually was more defensively useful than he was given credit for), but a lot of this changed after an absolutely shocking challenge from Ashley fecking Barnes.
2. Ever since then, Matic's defensive numbers have been in steep decline, in particular his tackling-he went from attempting 5.7 tackles per game to 3.6 last year to 2.3 this year. This hasn't been because he's been getting more interceptions, those have been at 2.0, 2.0, and 1.4 over the past 3 years. WARNING! CONJECTURE ALERT! It seems to me that he's become very hesitant to extend his legs into challenges, thanks to (again) Ashley fecking Barnes:
With the obviously massive caveat that this is Squawka, you can see the massive dip in form that this caused, he really fell off a cliff for a while before recovering somewhat towards the tail end of the season. I can tell you that at least by the eye test, he has never been as aggressive as he was for the first 12 months he was back in England.
3. In terms of his passing, he is only comfortable making incisive passes with his left foot, which can be a problem at times. He is pretty clumsy on the ball and can be ponderous/unimaginative, especially when closed down. When in a 2 with Fabregas, Cesc would draw enough attention that Matic would often be in space, which would be ideal for him-I think Matic struggled at times because opposing teams were more worried about his passing than Kante's this year. For me he fails to shift the ball quickly enough for two reasons, first because he is only comfortable doing so with his left foot and second because he is very tall and needs to adjust his lanky frame around the ball to position his left foot to play it. There was a noticeable difference in the speed with which the ball moved from flank to flank between wingbacks when it went via Matic versus Kante this year, for instance, and these things can be important.
Another worrying trend though is that his dribbles are way down as well-from 2.5 total/1.9 successful in 14/15, 1.6 total/1.2 successful in 15/16, to 1.3 total/0.8 successful last year. Obviously not a priority for a holding midfielder, but his ability to dribble past and break pressing was vital to help make up for his somewhat imprecise passing.
Look, I'm really not trying to be a WUM or anything, I just can't for the life of me understand why United would spend £40m on a soon to be 29 year old for whom every statistical profile plus scouting report I can find indicate he's in decline. If you were getting the Matic of 3 years ago who destroyed Yaya Toure at the Etihad then of course yes, you do that deal in a heartbeat, but that player has been gone since February 2015.
1. When he first came back from Portugal, he was capable of single-handedly controlling a midfield by himself. Here's a video-I think this was his second or third game for us, when City were the best team in the country and Yaya was the best midfielder in the country. It remains one of the better performances I've seen from a player in a Chelsea shirt, considering the circumstances:
The following year, he could still largely do this (though Fabregas actually was more defensively useful than he was given credit for), but a lot of this changed after an absolutely shocking challenge from Ashley fecking Barnes.
2. Ever since then, Matic's defensive numbers have been in steep decline, in particular his tackling-he went from attempting 5.7 tackles per game to 3.6 last year to 2.3 this year. This hasn't been because he's been getting more interceptions, those have been at 2.0, 2.0, and 1.4 over the past 3 years. WARNING! CONJECTURE ALERT! It seems to me that he's become very hesitant to extend his legs into challenges, thanks to (again) Ashley fecking Barnes:
With the obviously massive caveat that this is Squawka, you can see the massive dip in form that this caused, he really fell off a cliff for a while before recovering somewhat towards the tail end of the season. I can tell you that at least by the eye test, he has never been as aggressive as he was for the first 12 months he was back in England.
3. In terms of his passing, he is only comfortable making incisive passes with his left foot, which can be a problem at times. He is pretty clumsy on the ball and can be ponderous/unimaginative, especially when closed down. When in a 2 with Fabregas, Cesc would draw enough attention that Matic would often be in space, which would be ideal for him-I think Matic struggled at times because opposing teams were more worried about his passing than Kante's this year. For me he fails to shift the ball quickly enough for two reasons, first because he is only comfortable doing so with his left foot and second because he is very tall and needs to adjust his lanky frame around the ball to position his left foot to play it. There was a noticeable difference in the speed with which the ball moved from flank to flank between wingbacks when it went via Matic versus Kante this year, for instance, and these things can be important.
Another worrying trend though is that his dribbles are way down as well-from 2.5 total/1.9 successful in 14/15, 1.6 total/1.2 successful in 15/16, to 1.3 total/0.8 successful last year. Obviously not a priority for a holding midfielder, but his ability to dribble past and break pressing was vital to help make up for his somewhat imprecise passing.
Look, I'm really not trying to be a WUM or anything, I just can't for the life of me understand why United would spend £40m on a soon to be 29 year old for whom every statistical profile plus scouting report I can find indicate he's in decline. If you were getting the Matic of 3 years ago who destroyed Yaya Toure at the Etihad then of course yes, you do that deal in a heartbeat, but that player has been gone since February 2015.
Don't think we'll spend +90m on 2 DMFs considering the heavy price of Morata and we still don't know how much we'll pay for Perisic. We may very well be talking about 250m spent this summer and I don't think we'll reach that.
I'm still boarding the Fabinho train and think all Matic rumors are English journalists guessing because Chelsea getting Bakayoko so they're selling Matic. The sources are too weak.
I'm still boarding the Fabinho train and think all Matic rumors are English journalists guessing because Chelsea getting Bakayoko so they're selling Matic. The sources are too weak.
If anyone has a substantial report that goes beyond: "chelsea is buying bakayoko, that means Matic can join MUFC", i'll get excited for this deal.
First the shitty Perisic rumours now this
Christ, just realised this thread was started on a Sam "fanboy" Luckhurst tweet.
Matic would be a very good signing for us. He is at his peak age, knows Mourinhos system and tactics, has a lot of PL experience, fills a position in the squad and first eleven that we lack quality and would give Pogba more freedom. This signing makes so much sense. It's maybe not the most exciting of signings, but he is such a solid player and would instantly make our team better. A midfield trio of Matic-Herrera and Pogba would be up there with the best in the league.
Wasn't that the same ESPN article that created this meltdown ? There's nothing new in it.
I don't really believe Ogden much.
I guess the only substantial report we are likely to get is when the Club officially announce a signing.Speculation in today's UK press says we have agreed personal terms with Morata,James,Nainggolan,Matic and Fabinho with talks ongoing for Semedo and Alba and not forgetting Perisic.
- Status