Nemanja Matic

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Manchester United seek Benfica's Nemanja Matic to boost midfield

• Sir Alex Ferguson begins task of strengthening in the middle
• United impressed by performances in Europe


Manchester United have made their first inquiries about Nemanja Matic's availability at Benfica as Sir Alex Ferguson renews his long and exhaustive search for another top-quality central midfielder.

Ferguson's scouts have been alerted to the impressive performances from Matic that have helped Benfica to the top of the Portuguese league as well as the Europa League semi-finals. However, the Serbia international might come with a prohibitive price. Benfica, aware of interest in their player, awarded him a new five-year contract in January, in part to strengthen their own position when it came to negotiating with potential buyers.

Matic has attracted United's attention at a time when Paul Scholes is giving renewed thought to retiring and Anderson's future is looking uncertain because of his inability to impose himself in United's midfield. Michael Carrick has been excellent this season, while Tom Cleverley has emerged as a prominent Old Trafford player and England regular, but Ferguson has described this area of his team as a problem position after trying at least twice for Wesley Sneijder as well as losing Paul Pogba to Juventus. Apart from the teenager Nick Powell, and not including Scholes coming out of retirement, Ferguson has not signed a central midfielder since Owen Hargreaves in 2007.

United's manager increasingly believes a team's ability to control midfield is key in Europe and Matic ticks the boxes because of his refinement on the ball. The 24-year‑old also has experience of playing in England, albeit briefly, after signing for Chelsea when Carlo Ancelotti was manager in 2009, but is a far more adept footballer now. Matic made two substitute appearances for Chelsea before joining Vitesse on a year-long loan and was eventually a makeweight in the £25.5m deal when David Luiz moved to Stamford Bridge from Benfica.

Matic's form since then has established him as one of Benfica's key players, identified for special acclaim by the Newcastle manager, Alan Pardew after Thursday's Europa League quarter-final at St James's Park.

"The way they kept the ball was fantastic, but Matic in particular," Pardew said. "The way he has grown since he has gone away from Chelsea … he's a terrific player for them."

Ferguson can also use Ryan Giggs in central midfield but sees Shinji Kagawa operating in a more advanced role. Giggs, who turns 40 in November, will have to be used even more sparingly next season and, though United go into Sunday's game at Stoke City with a 12-point lead at the top of the Premier League, the 2-1 defeat to Manchester City last Monday was a reminder of how well equipped Roberto Mancini's team are in midfield.

The current champions are planning another show of strength in the transfer market, with their chief executive, Ferran Soriano, privately acknowledging that the club made serious errors of judgment last summer when Brian Marwood was in charge of recruitment.

Soriano, who was not at the club at the time, believes Mancini has genuine grievances after they lost out on Robin van Persie to United, as well as other targets including Eden Hazard and Oscar, and ended up with Javi García, Maicon, Jack Rodwell and Scott Sinclair.

The former Barcelona executive expects to sign three or four established players and has spoken behind the scenes about the importance of each of them being an upgrade on players currently in those positions. He has also confirmed there will be a considerable exodus of Mancini's fringe players.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/apr/13/manchester-united-nemanja-matic-benfica
 
Similar player to Carrick IMO. Provides the defensive screen for the more offensive players and distributes the ball for them to attack with. Could be some truth to it, who knows. Seems to be having a solid season for Benfica since Javi Garcia went to City.
 
vuc said:
Similar player to Carrick IMO. Provides the defensive screen for the more offensive players and distributes the ball for them to attack with. Could be some truth to it, who knows. Seems to be having a solid season for Benfica since Javi Garcia went to City.
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Seems that way. Watched both games against Newcastle and he was quietly impressive. He is incredibly tall, and looked useful in both boxes from set pieces. Very silky on the ball too, left footed but played a great through ball with his right foot from deep. Range of passing is decent too.
 
pocco said:
Why didn't he make it at Chelsea?
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I think at the time their midfield was pretty strong.

Essien, Lampard, Mikel, Ballack, Malouda could play central, etc...

He was a typical Chelsea purchase of being highly rated as a youth player and then never really given a chance. I dont think he was the most mobile and perhaps that put them off, but he has definitely improved since being at Benfica.

Does sound like our sort of purchase really, will be interesting to keep an eye on.
 
If he is a Carrick type of player at a good price, we should go for him. If Carrick had been injured or out of form this season, we would have been in a bit of a mess.
 
Flourishing under regular football...well for the most-part I've caught in the Europa League. Problem with Benfica is they only sell for silly money.

I rated the transfer of Javi Garcia in the summer, he was very good against us last year and look how that turned out. Having paid £16m up front for him, City would've expected a hell of a lot more from him but he's been absolutely terrible. No two transfers are the same, but we don't want to see heavy investments in CM go to shit like the last two (Anderson and Hargreaves).
 
kiristao said:
If he is a Carrick type of player at a good price, we should go for him. If Carrick had been injured or out of form this season, we would have been in a bit of a mess.
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Im amazed hes managed to stay injury free and in decent form for the whole season. We'd be rightly fecked without him, and to think the majority of my mates have been slagging him off for ages now. Muppets
 
ForeverUnited19 said:
Seems that way. Watched both games against Newcastle and he was quietly impressive. He is incredibly tall, and looked useful in both boxes from set pieces. Very silky on the ball too, left footed but played a great through ball with his right foot from deep. Range of passing is decent too.
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Saw only the first half of the second game, and bits of the first game but from what I saw he wasn't that good compared to other games I have seen of him this season.

He is deceptively good on the ball for someone so tall. He started out as more of a box to box midfielder, a guy who could carry the ball forward from the middle and contribute in the final third. At Benfica he has been used as Garcia was and as Carrick is at United. A screen for the midfield to the defence and a distributor.
 
vuc said:
Saw only the first half of the second game, and bits of the first game but from what I saw he wasn't that good compared to other games I have seen of him this season.

He is deceptively good on the ball for someone so tall. He started out as more of a box to box midfielder, a guy who could carry the ball forward from the middle and contribute in the final third. At Benfica he has been used as Garcia was and as Carrick is at United. A screen for the midfield to the defence and a distributor.
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Vuc how good is he, can he play in United midfield?

I recall he was at Chelsea and failed, also Garcia looks a right donkey for City so kinda conscious that he may not be suited for the PL.
 
Nate Dogg said:
I recall he was at Chelsea and failed
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I think that's incredibly harsh to say he failed at Chelsea. He made 3 appearances for Chelsea's senior team, and only 11 for their U21 team. He was loaned out to Vitesse in Eriedevise, where he averaged 83 minutes per match before being sold to Benfica.
 
KanieKaned said:
Im amazed hes managed to stay injury free and in decent form for the whole season. We'd be rightly fecked without him, and to think the majority of my mates have been slagging him off for ages now. Muppets
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He had his usual rubbish early season form from what I remember. Been good for long enough though.
 
Is there truly something in this rumour or has it all escalated crazily from a suggestion in bleacher report?

The Matic to Manchester United story has spiraled so much over the last week or so that it's now a main part of the transfer rumour mill, despite how the original claims came about. We explained on Saturday:

'The Portuguese press picked up a Bleacher Report blog which said United should look at Matic instead of Strootman and misunderstood it, with A Bola running the following at the time:

'According to the news website bleacherreport.com, the Benfica midfielder will be an option if Alex Ferguson decides to strengthen the squad's midfield sector with a view to next season. Listed previously with the English club is also Dutchman Kevin Strootman, PSV, but Matic allegedly appears in the first position.'

That led to numerous reports in England, citing A Bola as the source and conveniently ignoring the obvious misunderstanding and that it had originated from a Bleacher Report blog. Just because those reports were a fine example of transfer rumour nonsense, it doesn't make interest impossible and Manchester United have been attending many Benfica games this season to scout one or more players.'

On Saturday morning Portuguese newspaper Diario de Noticias carried a story claiming Nemanja Matic had given a 'yes' to Manchester United and agreed to join them as long as they could come to an agreement with Benfica. They said contact was first made in February and that Matic was up for it.

On Saturday night the Guardian released an article claiming Manchester United had 'made their first inquiries about Nemanja Matic's availability', and that gave the story more oxygen.

Juventus have been brought into the rumour by several outlets, but then a transfer rumour doesn't really exist until the Turin club have been crow-barred into it by someone. The Juventus stuff is all over rumour websites including Caught Offside, talkSPORT, Tribal Football and TMW. From what we can gather, it originated on a blog in Italy on 9/4 and was then picked up by A Bola on 10/4, with many websites In Italy citing A Bola as the source.

The way the Matic to Juventus rumours have started sounds remarkably similar to the way the Matic to Manchester United rumours started.

Today's Record (see left), a Portuguese newspaper, says that Nemanja Matic is happy at Benfica but may be 'compelled' to join Manchester United because of the building interest in him, and go on to explain that Matic would only move to a side challenging for titles. They explain that the Serbian would happily stay at Benfica and won't force a move, but that the Portuguese club are willing to negotiate with Manchester United to make a deal happen.

Record also have a column covering the extensive Benfica scouting carried out by Sir Alex Ferguson's brother, Martin, and say he's been watching Garay, Gaitan and Matic recently. With a combined value not too far off £100m, it may be worth Manchester United just going the whole hog and buying the club.

It's either a coincidence that all the Nemanja Matic to Manchester United articles followed on straight from the A Bola mess-up, or everyone has just taken A Bola's lead - in which case this whole rumour from start to finish is a load of rubbish. It's impossible to know which of the two scenarios is the correct one.;)
http://sportwitness.ning.com/forum/...ed-to-join-manchester-united-says-portuguese-
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I wonder if this transfer would mean that we adopt a formation more akin to City/Bayern with:

-----Carrick------Matic-----
-----------Rooney----------
Valencia-------------Kagawa
-------------RVP-----------
 
Jimy_Hills_Chin said:
I wonder if this transfer would mean that we adopt a formation more akin to City/Bayern with:

-----Carrick------Matic-----
-----------Rooney----------
Valencia-------------Kagawa
-------------RVP-----------
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Get rid of Valencia and that looks okay.
 
LR7 said:
Is there truly something in this rumour or has it all escalated crazily from a suggestion in bleacher report?
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I got the impression it started with the bleacher report stuff. I watched the europa league game with the intention of seeing how good Garay was. I think that article was maybe around that first tie, so i did the same for Matic. I did not know about the scouting though, which gives the story enough legs for the hacks. Benfica are leading the league and performing well in europe so there's something in it.

Jimy_Hills_Chin said:
I wonder if this transfer would mean that we adopt a formation more akin to City/Bayern with:
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Which is exactly what we should do imo, especially in europe. It requires goal scorers in all four players ahead of them though.
 
Nate Dogg said:
Vuc how good is he, can he play in United midfield?

I recall he was at Chelsea and failed, also Garcia looks a right donkey for City so kinda conscious that he may not be suited for the PL.
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Difficult to say. He could end up as a Carrick or end up as a Gibson. Not neccessarily meaning he is a bad player, but maybe not good enough for United. Depends on his development. Prior to this season he played sparingly at Benfica, but this season since Garcia's departure he has moved in there and become a first team player - and benefited a lot from it.

I want to see how he performs in the next Europa League match for Benfica against some tough opposition before I say if he will make it at United or not.

He never failed at Chelsea, they had too many players in CM and they loaned him out as the poster above said. I think he would have been better than Mikel if they gave him a shot but that's another issue entirely.
 
vuc said:
Difficult to say. He could end up as a Carrick or end up as a Gibson. Not neccessarily meaning he is a bad player, but maybe not good enough for United. Depends on his development. Prior to this season he played sparingly at Benfica, but this season since Garcia's departure he has moved in there and become a first team player - and benefited a lot from it.

I want to see how he performs in the next Europa League match for Benfica against some tough opposition before I say if he will make it at United or not.

He never failed at Chelsea, they had too many players in CM and they loaned him out as the poster above said. I think he would have been better than Mikel if they gave him a shot but that's another issue entirely.
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Thanks Vuc
 
He played a very good pass through to the left back. Been impressed with him on the few occasions I've seen him play, and this time is no exception.
 
Obviously we shouldn't pay the Benfica price for him which will be £20m+ but he does look like an interesting prospect. A bit foolish by Chelsea to let him go because he's better than their defensive midfielders now (certainly better than Romeu and probably slightly better than Mikel too).
 
Benfica seem to be one of those clubs that gets the maximum possible transfer fee out of a club so it's possible they would do something like that.

One thing that has impressed me about Matic is his aggressiveness in the challenge. He doesn't wait around he closes down quick and wins a lot of challenges. As I mentioned, Carrick-like.

Next game to see him in is the Europa League SF.
 
vuc said:
Benfica seem to be one of those clubs that gets the maximum possible transfer fee out of a club so it's possible they would do something like that.

One thing that has impressed me about Matic is his aggressiveness in the challenge. He doesn't wait around he closes down quick and wins a lot of challenges. As I mentioned, Carrick-like.

Next game to see him in is the Europa League SF.
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That's not exactly Carrick-like, is it?
 
He's more aggressive than people give him credit for. Might not be a terrier ball winner but he can get his hands dirty.

If Carrick isn't the ball winning midfielder in the United team, who is?
 
vuc said:
He's more aggressive than people give him credit for. Might not be a terrier ball winner but he can get his hands dirty.

If Carrick isn't the ball winning midfielder in the United team, who is?
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No-one said he isn't, just not the type of BWM you state.
 
vuc said:
He's more aggressive than people give him credit for. Might not be a terrier ball winner but he can get his hands dirty.

If Carrick isn't the ball winning midfielder in the United team, who is?
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Did I say he isn't? I only pointed out he ain't any similar to you description of Matic. Actually, you portrait Nemanja Matic as a kind of a player as similar to Carrick as Nani is.
 
Tomuś said:
Did I say he isn't? I only pointed out he ain't any similar to you description of Matic. Actually, you portrait Nemanja Matic as a kind of a player as similar to Carrick as Nani is.
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Bit over the top. They share similar traits, Matic might be more aggressive but they are similar players.

Anyway, getting into too much of a comparison thread at this stage. My fault.

Benfica are playing against Fenerbahce on Thursday in the first leg of the SF of Europa League for anyone who wants to see him play again.
 
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