🇷🇸 Nemanja Matic

[Henrique 9,133]

5 hours ago, BlueLyon said:

Yet you thrown a video of one of his defensive mistakes suggesting he was defensive liability. Make up your mind.

 

Point is if he was playing on right, he would be more comfortable on ball. Not Alaba, but still. And if we had a proper counter weight on other side in sense of a more offensive fb who has good skills and can cross instead of Ivanovic, that would be perfect. 

I will always prefer a fb who can defend than one who is a fraud at that. Attacking is just a plus. If you have a fb who can do both you are extremely lucky. 

But Azpi has other qualities, such as putting his body on the line and fighting till the end, so he certainly isnt the one who dissapointed this season, is average, or should be replaced like Cesc, Iva etc as you suggested.

The post was a simple answear to a previous suggesttion that Azpi was so good that he can't even be compared with Fabregas. Fabregas is a boring player, but is definetely more important than Azpi, and I rather have Fabregas than Azpi in my squad. People say he is superb, when actually he is correct in the basic of defending. Its the same reason why people were saying Cahill was world class months ago: he usually doesn't make those horros mistakes that Luiz used to do, bu he has never been better than average. Terry is still better than Cahill, even if his best years are long gone.

A fullback that can defend is obiously a better option than one that is superb attacking but a fraud defending (but this kind of player are usually guys that should be playing as wingers rather than full back), but I a good full back is the one that find the balance. For me Azpi is not even decent going forward, he is pretty bad. As a whole he is average. 

[King Deschain 24]

I agree with you on this Henrique. Azpi is ok...nothing compared to what we've had in recent years (Gallas and Cole come to mind).

Ivanovic of last year was superior to Azpi if you ask me. Azpi brings nothing offensively and is too small to be an intimidating defender. I also agree that Terry is better than Cahill and Zouma will surpass Cahill in the depth chart after this season.

The entire back line needs an overhaul (excluding Zouma) in my opinion. Gotta give some of our young talent a chance to prove their worth or start shopping.

[Gilvorak 3,734]

Henrique is spot on. Azpi is massively overrated on here. He should be a depth player used primarily for defensive tasks or injuries but a fullback that is clearly a liability offensively shouldn't be  automatic first choice.

[Jase 43,479]

19 minutes ago, Gilvorak said:

Henrique is spot on. Azpi is massively overrated on here. He should be a depth player used primarily for defensive tasks or injuries but a fullback that is clearly a liability offensively shouldn't be  automatic first choice.

Not sure how one can say Azpi is a liability offensively when he hasn't got much chance to get forward and has been playing out of position. If you're going to use that term 'liability offensively' to describe someone, then it should be Ivanovic, who is doing a lot worse than Azpi - who of course is a right back playing at left back. Ivanovic gets the license to bomb forward and always, ALWAYS, gives the ball back to the opposition 95% of the time with his brainless crosses!

[Stats 7,146]

Can see both sides of the argument. Azpi does not play enough on the right for us to see his true attacking qualities however I do agree with Henrique and Gilvorak in the sense that Azpi seems to get way too overrated by our fans. Because he does not get forward as much, he is less likely to get exposed defensively. I agree he is consistent in the fact that he does not make mistakes often but does he produce enough offensively and defensively consistently? Not sure and I would not agree with people saying he is one of our best players. He is excellent defensively but for instance if I had the choice I would have Bertrand over him all day. I still can't comprehend why Bertrand is not LB for us. Not just Bertrand but as soon as Luis was here, he should have been our no.1 LB imo even though Azpi had performed good there. I would have rather him compete with Ivanovic for the RB spot.

[CurlyHairLikeLuiz 1,625]

Because he's a warrior and always gives his all

 

I'd prefer to see that than a flat pack "technical footballer" who disappears when it matters. The geezer didn't even flinch at playing 90 minutes for us after having his face broken in the line of duty - I respect that.

[Jase 43,479]

3 hours ago, Stats said:

Can see both sides of the argument. Azpi does not play enough on the right for us to see his true attacking qualities however I do agree with Henrique and Gilvorak in the sense that Azpi seems to get way too overrated by our fans. Because he does not get forward as much, he is less likely to get exposed defensively. I agree he is consistent in the fact that he does not make mistakes often but does he produce enough offensively and defensively consistently? Not sure and I would not agree with people saying he is one of our best players.

I don't see how Azpi is overrated by the fans to be honest. A full back's job, first and foremost, is to defend and Azpi does that extremely well. Rarely you see him get beaten in 1-v-1 situations, get caught out of position etc. He always does his job in unassuming fashion and the fact that most of the goals we conceded come from our right side and oppositions targeting our right side is a testament to his defensive work at left back (and this when he's playing behind the supposedly not-so-hard-working Hazard). And to judge his offensive qualities when he's playing at left back and doesn't get much chance to attack isn't very fair.

4 hours ago, Stats said:

for instance if I had the choice I would have Bertrand over him all day. I still can't comprehend why Bertrand is not LB for us. Not just Bertrand but as soon as Luis was here, he should have been our no.1 LB imo even though Azpi had performed good there. I would have rather him compete with Ivanovic for the RB spot.

That goes without saying, doesn't it? Most - if not all - of us would have preferred to see a left back playing in the left back position and Azpi playing in the right back spot.

[Tomo 21,751]

It's quite ironic that some people think Azpilicueta (one of the best defenders) should be dropped because of his forward play not being great, yet it's scoffed at any time someone brings up the defensive game for a winger/AM.

"There an attacking player, why should it matter how well they did defending" was a favroite during Matas final days here, so shouldn't Azpi get the same treatment the other way round?

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Lmao when people talk about dropping the best fullback in the league....in the Matic thread for some reason!  

[Jase 43,479]

People say Bale is better than Hazard. The former went and scored a hat-trick.

People say Azpi is poor offensively. He went and provided the assist for Loftus-Cheek.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

People say Bale is better than Hazard. The former went and scored a hat-trick.

People say Azpi is poor offensively. He went and provided the assist for Loftus-Cheek.

Bet Eden can't score a hat-trick against West Brom 

[OneMoSalah 8,886]

Azpi's lack of offensive contribution was really more down to Jose's instructions I feel. He made several overlapping runs v Scunthorpe, provided an assist and whenever he could offer an overlap he tried to. As well in the other games, hes looked more and more willing to get forward under GH. 

[lucio 5,418]

guus says matic was out, because one our keepers (probably amelia) launched the ball into the back of his head, and matic was dizzy

[Gilvorak 3,734]

Get him out my club

[Styles 9,790]

He found his level in Benfica. Time to go back to Portugal in my opinion.

[Kieran. 6,317]

Dude fucking sucks, bye. 

[Henrique 9,133]

I'm pissed. Anyone who believe Matic is world class should watch his display after he was introduced. DM is a key position in football, and is easily a position that can turn a team into a mess depending of the player's performance. 

Fabregas was playing a good match, readin the game well, starting counter attacks. Matic was lost. When the team was under pressure he was just inside the box, marking no one. The 2nd goal was his fault. That is rash, but he must be sold in the summer to get as much money as possible and leave space for decent DM.

[Stats 7,146]

40 minutes ago, Gilvorak said:

Get him out my club

Go to the Oscar thread and say the same please.

[lucio 5,418]

broken player, only a change of system will help

[Gilvorak 3,734]

44 minutes ago, Stats said:

Go to the Oscar thread and say the same please.

Oscar wasn't the reason we dropped points today. Only one man was and you know it.

You can't scapegoat Mikel or Cesc for his performances anymore so of course you try to deflect. Don't bring Oscar into this, Matic can't keep getting away without criticism. Keep the Oscar bashing in his own thread.