The Skipper

Thank you, was about to say that. Why are people forgetting about him or so certain he's off or that Mourinho doesn't like him one bit? He's the perfect 2nd choice striker IMO, and he'd get plenty of game time as our 2nd choice striker as well.

I like this guy, one of the better defenders England have recently produced, but we don't need a CB.

Sometimes I wonder whether people appreciate this guy enough... It seems because he isn't lighting it up as well as he was during parts of the season earlier that people are sort of trying to play down his importance to the side...

It's amazing how people will look past the fact that he got into the right positions, beat plenty of players in the game just because his finishing was off. I'm pretty sure that if he scored one of his chances and that if Eto'o had his shooting boots on (he would have easily had two assists in that game) people wouldn't be saying stuff like this. This is very annoying, sorry.

Ugh, bunch of idiots. Liverpool have spent the third most on transfers after Man City and us in PL history. They really need to stop with this nonsense.

So basically what you are trying to say is that players that can only play in one position are one dimensional players? You're ignoring the fact that a position can have multiple roles... In fact, I would tell you that if we could, Matic has the capabilities to play as a B2B midfielder because he's not as bad going forward and is technically and physically very good (apart from his pace perhaps) and has shown at a Benfica and his short time here that he can sometimes find that final pass. He's not bad in tight spaces either - but the point I'm trying to make is that his strengths lie at DM - that's where his abilities will shine the most. He'd be a normal B2B player but he's exceptional at DM. That's just the fickle nature of football fans, you should know that... But you can't deny that we'd have a better chance at the CL if Matic was available for us simply because he's very important to the system we implement. Surely you can't deny that. Like I said... This is just the fickle nature of football fans in general... But you can't use this to prove that Matic is just a normal player. Even opposition fans rate him very highly, and a lot of Benfica fans when we signed him said that he's one of the best DMs in the world, one even went as far to say that he was the best full stop. As I said, it's unfair to use that to demean Matic as a player instead of just looking at the player and his performances full stop. I didn't say you can't compare Matic to Essien, just that your analogy wasn't really good because Essien is first and foremost a B2B midfielder, whilst Matic is first and foremost a pure DM. Just like how Ramires can play as a pure DM but he's a much better B2B midfielder. Similarly with Ballack - yeah he was decent at DM but you're restricting him there because he's not using all of his strengths as a player. It's not like that for Matic. Why do I call Matic a pure DM? In basic terms... Matic is the holder of our midfield, and I think holding midfield players are the pure DMs because they're the deepest midfielder in any system - I hope that answers your question. We're still in search of a pure creator next to him, but because we don't have one he's essentially playing as a hybrid of the two - he's been forced to step up creatively and in that regards he's done very well as his 4 assists allude to - and in that way I think you calling him one dimensional is off key. That's why I said before, when we get a proper creator next to Matic, we'll have one of the most creative pivots out there because he can provide that spark from deep, he's a very good passer and can see the necessary passes when they need to be executed. That article is very interesting though btw.

Sky Sports News are still going on about Liverpool's win against City yesterday and about how great Stevie Me is. This is getting ridiculous.

Not on the topic of your discussion but that is entirely their own fault for failing to finish top of their group.

Fair enough, I can see your reasoning but Matic is a DM, and he's a very good one because he does his job very well. The Essien analogy is quite flawed because Essien wasn't a pure DM, he was a B2B player. Expecting your pure DM to be as effective going forward as someone like Essien who is a completely different type of player (more in the Ramires/Matuidi mold) is nonsensical. As I said, Matic does his job very well in the way he shields the back four, starts the transition into attack by laying it off to our more creative/advanced players etc. but you can't say he's being overrated because he isn't a B2B midfielder or isn't meant to be a creator... As you and I both know, he does his job very well, and the fact that despite being a pure DM he's still adding assists to his game is something very good - if we can add a proper DLP/creator next to him we'll have one of the most creative pivots out there because creatively, as he's proved so far this season, Matic is not bad at all. In every game you still need a defensively solid midfielder out there, even in games where you are going to have most of the possession, and Matic is ideal because he recycles the ball very well, and can provide great balls from deep as shown this season... He isn't one dimensional. A one dimensional DM would be someone like Mikel. Matic has that switch to his game where he can see a run and just provide a great long ball over the top for an assist... That to me is another dimension to his game rather than just the usual DM stuff. Barca have Busquets, who isn't even that creative - they still play him in every game though even though he's a pure DM and not that great going forward. You still need that one player to keep things ticking and we have that in Matic. You're being unfair on him and expecting him to be something he's not. If you rate him as a pure DM he's one of the best out there, there's no denying that. EDIT: I've edited the post quite a bit and added new bits.

I'd rather start Eto'o against Atletico.

Explain how Matic is a one dimensional DM. You're sprouting out stuff without even backing it up... Go ahead, explain.

He wasn't playing in the pivot... We played a 4-1-3-2. Matic held the midfield on his own.

If you take away his bad finishing Salah had a good game. If Eto'o had his shooting boots on today he could've easily ended the match with 2 assists.

Salah has been really good IMO, a bit more maturity and he would've ended the game with a goal at least.

Matic stepped it up this half. My MOTM.

Credit to Mou for going gung-ho this early (by his standards).

Looks more like a 4-1-3-2 to me.

Eto'o for Schurrle, Oscar for Ramires... Interesting. Oscar in the pivot?

His second chance wasn't a quality chance but he could've scored both.You can't seriously think we've just had a half where we've consistently created quality chances...

Apart from Salah first chance we've not created any quality chances...

This I agree with. He's too eager to impress, that's why he's scuffing his chances. He's getting into real good positions though.

Salah is too anxious right now... Should have two goals to his name.

We're struggling to create again...

Uh oh... Shots fired.