Nemanja Matic

[The only place to be 11,313]

To be honest, if Matic's name was Mikel, he would have gotten a lot of criticism for his performance since the start of the season.

Matic at his worst is still twice the player Mikel is at his best.

Some people are criticising him for his performance against Everton, and he was some way off his best yet he still got a crucial goal, an assist, led the team in tackles and was about average in terms of passing accuracy.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

Matic at his worst is still twice the player Mikel is at his best.

Some people are criticising him for his performance against Everton, and he was some way off his best yet he still got a crucial goal, an assist, led the team in tackles and was about average in terms of passing accuracy.

I know, and Matic is one of my favourite players in the team, but truth be told, he's been very far from his best since the start of the season. But as I said, I'm not that worried yet.

[kellzfresh 7,226]

We are attacking more than last season, it will expose us more on the counter. Look at the Matic goal, we made around 15-20 passes in the move to the goal and Matic was so high up the pitch.

The back will be exposed more this season so I hope we get used to it. Our season depends on 4 huge factors now

1. Courtois on form making last ditch saves and making sure we concede much less from corners

2. Fabregas finding those killer balls to break opposition (4 assists so far)

3. Hazard making more dribbles and moments of magic

4. Costa making runs to create space and chances while maintaining his clinical form

These conditions will keep us outscoring opponents and remain exciting, but if we start losing too much points, Mourinho will scrap it to keep us winning

[dee25 1,044]

I rate this guy very highly. He's such a gifted football player and has the potential to be the best defensive midfielder - he's already one of the best in my opinion.

But I agree that he's been generally poor. Maybe "poor" is an exaggeration, but it's clear that he's been struggling not only against Everton but also against Leicester and Burnley as well. However I think people need to realize that with Cesc in midfield now, it'll probably be hard for Matic to be as dominant as he was last season. I love the dimension Cesc gives us offensively but when the team isn't in possession he tends to be slow and passive in closing down players. The knock-on effect is that Cesc is easily bypassed, which then results in Matic having to leave his position to go and press the player with ball, which then throws off our shape completely. So while Matic has been poor, it seems slightly unfair to single him out particularly because he hasn't received much help from Cesc or even Ramires.

It's only been 3 games, but the early signs are that Cesc and Matic need more work. Oscar really is the only one out of that trio that understands what's required of him in this midfield system.

Also between Cesc and Matic, the both of them completed 78% and 74% of their passes, respectively. To put this into perspective, Hazard had about 89% and Willian 90%. It's one thing for Ramires to be sloppy on the ball, but Cesc and Matic simply have to do better.

[Daniel1980 1,425]

dee25, on 02 Sept 2014 - 8:16 PM, said:

Also between Cesc and Matic, the both of them completed 78% and 74% of their passes, respectively. To put this into perspective, Hazard had about 89% and Willian 90%. It's one thing for Ramires to be sloppy on the ball, but Cesc and Matic simply have to do better.

I agree with you that both of them(and Ramires) were pretty sloppy against Everton and must do better. But when Cesc played deeper, his pass accuracy has been very high - 85-95%. He made a few sloppy passes in our half against Everton, but half of his unsuccessful passes came from risky balls into attacking third. You don't get the through-ball rate he has by playing safe passes. Many probably don't remember, but when Cesc played higher on the pitch for Arsenal, his pass accuracy was just around 80%, so it's pretty normal for him when he plays in attack in the PL.

Out of Matic's misplaced passes only 1 was in the attacking third. The other 8 were misplaced in our half and in the middle of the pitch. That's why I was unhappy with him. All of them need to improve their passing under pressure.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Also between Cesc and Matic, the both of them completed 78% and 74% of their passes, respectively. To put this into perspective, Hazard had about 89% and Willian 90%. It's one thing for Ramires to be sloppy on the ball, but Cesc and Matic simply have to do better.

And Terry and Cahill completed 81% and 74% of their passes respectively. It was a sloppy performance from a lot of players.

Matic and Fabregas have completed 83% and 89% of their passes so far this season. The Everton match was almost certainly a once a season aberration that people really shouldn't read too much into. The lack of Oscar had a lot to do with that.

[Barbara 15,149]

Okay, so maybe I was extra harsh but it's a case of what I teach my kids: the higher the expectation the bigger the room for deception/disappointment. I'm one of his biggest fans, I wrote an article worshiping this guy the moment we signed him before he ever touched a ball for us and I stated then and I stand by those words even more now, that he's the midfielder we've been missing since Ballack left us and that he would bring us the stability we had in the 2005-07 seasons again because he's a beast.

So with expectations so high - because of him and because of what he offered - I may have been too harsh upon his 'poor' presentations to his own standards. It only proves how important he is to our system.

With their positioning and movement better drilled, I'm positive we'll improve our defensive system. We also need time for that to happen. I just want to make sure - again - that I only meant he had a bad first half, not that he's bad or should be replaced. We also need to find a way to fill the sometimes huge space between our defense and our midfield.

Also re-watching the match again with Dion yesterday we both noticed that sometimes we have too many of our players surrounding a zone of the pitch or opponent, leaving other areas/opponents with a lot of space. Some of Everton's most dangerous attacks and goals (particularly the second) comes from that positioning mistake. but it's early days and I'm not worried yet. Actually it's a wonder that our attack - with two new players (counting Cesc's contributions in the attack) has adapted and clicked so fast. The defense and the midfield are going through the normal rhythm. The important thing is try and do our best not to drop points and so far, so good. We have a good challenge coming Sept. 13th with Swansea and hopefully we'll continue to get three points. The team's chemistry, positioning and all the little adjustments needed to be done will come.

So apologies for jumping the shark (although he had a poor first half)

And thanks for the nice answers and debate.

[Sidzeret 2,257]

I rate this guy very highly. He's such a gifted football player and has the potential to be the best defensive midfielder - he's already one of the best in my opinion.

But I agree that he's been generally poor. Maybe "poor" is an exaggeration, but it's clear that he's been struggling not only against Everton but also against Leicester and Burnley as well. However I think people need to realize that with Cesc in midfield now, it'll probably be hard for Matic to be as dominant as he was last season. I love the dimension Cesc gives us offensively but when the team isn't in possession he tends to be slow and passive in closing down players. The knock-on effect is that Cesc is easily bypassed, which then results in Matic having to leave his position to go and press the player with ball, which then throws off our shape completely. So while Matic has been poor, it seems slightly unfair to single him out particularly because he hasn't received much help from Cesc or even Ramires.

It's only been 3 games, but the early signs are that Cesc and Matic need more work. Oscar really is the only one out of that trio that understands what's required of him in this midfield system.

Also between Cesc and Matic, the both of them completed 78% and 74% of their passes, respectively. To put this into perspective, Hazard had about 89% and Willian 90%. It's one thing for Ramires to be sloppy on the ball, but Cesc and Matic simply have to do better.

Cesc-Matic is still adapting to the Premier league and it will get defensively stronger as they play more together.

Having said that, its better to play Fabregas in the hole behind Costa with a Matic-Ramires/Mikel pivot against the bigger sides or we could get dominated again in midfield like at Goodison.

[Polo7 3,496]

Couldn't be anymore condescending if you tried.

The sign out button is top right if you need it.

Stay on topic now.

[Special Juan 27,092]

Stay on topic now.

Don't get funny mate.

[Polo7 3,496]

Don't get funny mate.

Seriously just because you got a little mod badge next to your name doesnt mean you should nit pick every fucking post. It gets really tedious seeing you exercise your "power". Get a life.

[Special Juan 27,092]

Seriously just because you got a little mod badge next to your name doesnt mean you should nit pick every fucking post. It gets really tedious seeing you exercise your "power". Get a life.

Please carry on by all means.

[Polo7 3,496]

Please carry on by all means.

I get a warning for that. Absolutely pathetic. Apparently we are all adults on this site.

[robsblubot 3,205]

I have to disagree with the majority here on blaming individuals when the team fails at some specific task such as defending.

As pointed out already by some, Matic had a good technical game: produced his usual tackles, pressurised opponents, but could not - alone - contain Everton. This happens a lot to midfielders and defenders: the sector gets exposed/overwhelmed and then players struggle because they literally cannot find the opponent - when they are about to apply the tackle ball the has moved.

We were wide open and that was a concern for Jose during and after the match. I thought William was very poor esp defending, while Fabregas was poor when defending... We really miss Oscar work rate and movement esp playing away from home.

[iseah100 5,612]

I get a warning for that. Absolutely pathetic. Apparently we are all adults on this site.

Certain members are not allowed to be argued with. You must agree with them. Some people are targeted moreso than others. Just ignore it, man.

[Special Juan 27,092]

Certain members are not allowed to be argued with. You must agree with them. Some people are targeted moreso than others. Just ignore it, man.

This has got nothing to do with who should, or shouldn't be argued with, nor does this have anything to do with you.

Please stay out of this as it really does not concern you in the slightest.

This is the final thing said on this in this thread because it's already going away from where it should be. Anymore off topic posts will be removed and warnings handed out.

[iseah100 5,612]

This has got nothing to do with who should, or shouldn't be argued with, nor does this have anything to do with you.

Please stay out of this as it really does not concern you in the slightest.

This is the final thing said on this in this thread because it's already going away from where it should be. Anymore off topic posts will be removed and warnings handed out.

[emoji55] [emoji52]

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

We just have to improve our ability to retain possession as a team. With Fabregas now in central midfield, we're clearly less solid. This team is definitely no longer built to soak pressure and play on the counter attack. At some point in that match, the ball possession was 75% Everton 25% Chelsea. That's simply not good enough for a team with a midfield such as ours. We need to be more confident in our quality when we play away from home and more patient in possession. When we allow the opposition to dominate possession like Everton did, it tends to make some individual players, the likes of Hazard and Fabregas especially, less effective.

Swansea will be a good test because they are one of the best possession based sides in the league. Bringing in Filipe Luis and Oscar for Ramires and Azpilicueta will be a good start.