Nemanja Matic

[lionsden 4,689]

I dont think he defends well at all, a pretty tackle and an impresive chase on a player now and than, thats about it i think.

I thought I was the only one outside city fans that notices that ugly part of yaya's game. He gets the plaudit solely for his ability to orchestrate play from deep, bursting forward runs and goals. His defensive game is nothing to write home about.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Completely disagree. Yaya Toure can play CB comfortably if needed, don't think i can say the same about Matic. Just because Toure doesn't play as a proper DM anymore does not mean Matic is suddenly better than him defensively.

Yaya is probably the most complete CM on the planet, Matic isn't in the same class at all.

I agree Yaya is one of best midfielders, but he is terrible in defending, same as was Song at Arsenal...

[lionsden 4,689]

I get the feeling many are massively underrating Matic here. some probably still see him as that chelsea reject who got traded plus cash for luiz. how much better could he have progressed as a player they say.

[Toli 977]

I agree Yaya is one of best midfielders, but he is terrible in defending, same as was Song at Arsenal...

Toure is better at defending though. attacking-wise he is surely better, but defending, he is also ok at it. dont even get why people compare yaya to matic. yaya is on another level and probably the best DM in the Premier League. Especially in the beginning of his city time he took a more defensive role than now.

@lionseden one could also say that people are overrating him massively, if they are starting to compare him to Yaya Toure.

[lionsden 4,689]

Toure is better at defending though. attacking-wise he is surely better, but defending, he is also ok at it. dont even get why people compare yaya to matic. yaya is on another level and probably the best DM in the Premier League. Especially in the beginning of his city time he took a more defensive role than now.

@lionseden one could also say that people are overrating him massively, if they are starting to compare him to Yaya Toure.

As a defensive midfielder he's better than Toure post barca but since Toure never plays that position anymore renders the comparison redundant anyway.

[LondonPride1905 236]

Rumours up that he'd be available after the weekend clash against Porto. Maybe then we would have some development over the issue.

Seems reasonable. They play Porto, we play the game against Hull and if the time is right, we enter negotiatons.

[Berke 58]

Doesn't have Yaya's stamina and isn't anywhere near as well rounded as him either. He's not Yaya esque at all IMO.

I believe he's got the same sort of playing style. I wouldn't say he's on Yaya's level. Not just yet anyway

[Gilvorak 3,734]

I haven't seen much of Matic since his departure but I doubt it takes much for him to be a better defender than Yaya. Despite his athletic gifts Toure is a horrendous defender.

He does his damage higher up the pitch these days and hasn't played DM in years. He's strictly a B2B/Attacking midfielder now, Fernandinho is the midfielder that does the most defensive work at City.

Yaya's poor defensive nous, terrible stamina and laziness is exactly why he was shipped away from Barca and replaced by Busquets.

[Waterfall 893]

Pretty sure Matic is the leader in distance covered in CL. Not sure where this stamina concern came from.

[OneMoSalah 8,766]

Don't know why people are sticking up for Toure being a defensive liability when he is, watch the first game vs Bayern Munich in the CL, at times Toure was so far ahead of Fernandinho it was effectively a 4-1-3-2 and the same against Swansea a while back back when De Guzman fluffed that sitter which he managed to get into that position because of Toure's lack of working back. He is obviously a box to box midfielder but as Didi Hamann said he leaves Fernandinho exposed and as good as Fernandinho is how can he defend against 2 or 3 players in his zone? Toure doesn't look like he wants to run back at times.

Anyway on to Matic, I was surprised with how well he played in the Europa League final against us, I'd seen him play a few reserve games and he didn't look all that good but obviously playing every game for a few seasons has helped him a lot. Would I pay over 15-20m for him? No, probably not as I have to be honest hes a decent player but not exactly anything we don't have or what we need. We don't need a sitting midfielder, we normally play 4-2-3-1 we need someone whos a bit more rounded in their game not just a destroyer.

[Rom2013 446]

Toure is by far the best pivot player in the world. He does everything, he is strong phisically, defends well, is really important in every aspect of set pieces, is really good attacking. I don't think Matic is so complete.

In my opinion no one is comparable with Toure, and maybe he is the best player in the Premier Legue. When you have a CM that will score a lot more that 15 goals in one season (among many other things) you know you are really in a great position to fight for everything.

I don't like that much Matic, especially if we pay 40M€. But if its considerably less thanthat, I think he is really a good option.

[José Mateus 46]

Mate, I read that article in O Jogo yesterday about Benfica willing to let Matic go in this transfer window. O Jogo was saying Benfica decided to let him go because of the early Champions League exit and some financial problems the club is dealing with. What about those financial problems? What is all about? O Jogo say that the sale of Matic would ease financial pressures and give Benfica some fiscal breathing space for a while. Now, with all this financial problems I don't think anyone will pay 30m, maybe 20-22m will be the right price since Benfica is in need for some money. Also the article said Benfica will listen to offers only after the game against Porto this week-end.

Finantial problems? What was said by our president was that he would probably let players go, if the summer proposals were still around...

Now, with Eusebio's death... more than ever we want to win the league this year. Letting our best player go for a bargain would set the fans on fire.

[drog.ba 239]

Toure is by far the best pivot player in the world. He does everything, he is strong phisically, defends well, is really important in every aspect of set pieces, is really good attacking. I don't think Matic is so complete.

In my opinion no one is comparable with Toure, and maybe he is the best player in the Premier Legue. When you have a CM that will score a lot more that 15 goals in one season (among many other things) you know you are really in a great position to fight for everything.

I don't like that much Matic, especially if we pay 40M€. But if its considerably less thanthat, I think he is really a good option.

Toure's actually quite poorly suited to the pivot I think, the Toure-Fernandinho(who is better in that position) partnership has often been too attacking and left them open. Matic isn't as good going forward but he'd give us more cover defensively.

Seems unfair to compare Matic to him, for his size his skillset is rare, plus only Matic is possible to sign

[Tomo 21,733]

Toure is lazy defensively, infact when we go to The Ethiad i wouldn't be surprised in the slightest if Jose specifically targets the space he would leave on the counter attack.

Man.City under Pellegrini are being heavily over-rated, people just look at their squad man for man and assume they will run away with the league (they might, but so might us and Arsenal), Manuel has given players freedom to express themself's and at times it's great to watch, but tactically they are like Arsenal of 2009-2010 with superior players, i can't see them winning many big games away from home under that blueprint and for that reason alone i think we stand a decent enough chance of getting something in Eastland's.

Watch their game against Liverpool compared to our's and the difference tactically is night and day.

[Rekin 835]

I think it is quite unfair to call Matic purely a destroyer. While he clearly isnt as good as any of our attacking trio in terms of offensive skills, he has shown himself able to dribble, pass forward from deep positions and hold the ball under pressure. Add to that his height which will win us a lot of balls from throw-ins, goalkicks etc in combination with his excellent stamina and we have someone that could improve us by a lot.

I do not expect us to win CL so I am not too bothered by him being cup-tied. In the league he could however be the player that pushes our jog inte a sprint, and I think a league win is what most of us want.
Of course I would prefer Bender, Pogba or Vidal, but we are looking at £40m at the very least there.

[Rui Couto 1]

GREAT PLAYER

is a 6 and a 8 at the same time

great tecnique.. great pass skils.. great shoot

[Waterfall 893]

Gonçalo Lopes‏@_GoncaloLopes

About Matic,Benfica keen on selling this january. Out of the Champions, they need money. 30m€ is his value. @MCFC @chelseafc @ASMFC_MONACO

That's £25M - asking price for De Bruyne that we probably won't get.

[The Skipper 20,593]

Yaya and stamina in the same sentence lol. ask any man city fan and they will tell you poor stamina and laziness off the ball are yaya's main weakness. he saves his energy for those long bursting forward runs. maybe you might have a solid case for the barcelona yaya but not the man city version. he probably still has the amazing stamina he displayed at barca but rarely shows it in full stretches anymore.

First you say Yaya has poor stamina and then you say he still has the amazing stamina he showcased during his earlier days... Contradictory much?

To begin with, I never even said Yaya was the best midfielder defensively, so I don't get the overreaction here. He's a complete midfielder to me because A. he's good defensively (if he has to be) B. great at getting forward C. technically astute, can shoot, dribble, pass etc. D. has great physical tools. There isn't a real weakness in his game IMO. To me you won't find a more complete midfielder out there at the moment. Certainly not Matic anyway.

I dont think he defends well at all, a pretty tackle and an impresive chase on a player now and than, thats about it i think.

The Skipper,

First, we are five years after his days in Barcelona. He havent contirbuted a lot in attack when he was there, and I also think he never was a beast defensively.

I know he doesnt play a DM anymore, but Toure still needs to do his job in defense as a CM. It clearly doesnt work for City right now, their defensive midfield is very soft when defending. Its Pellegrini's fault as well to allow that to Toure, but i do think Toure was playing like that for years. Imo his overall impressive and powerfull play in his CIty career has blinded people to think he's a complete CM, but he doesnt show it.

You're confusing him being given greater freedom to get forward with him being poor defensively. Man City were a lot more solid under Mancini because Toure didn't get forward as much, he was more of a true B2B CM then, but now he's been given even greater freedom by Pellegrini, so it's wrong in my opinion to say that he's been never been good defensively. If Toure has to be more disciplined he'll do so.

He's being used more offensively this season; just because that's the case doesn't mean he doesn't know how to defend anymore.

I agree Yaya is one of best midfielders, but he is terrible in defending, same as was Song at Arsenal...

I don't get how anyone could say Yaya is 'terrible' at defending, especially when he used to play as a holding midfielder. Just because he plays further up the pitch now (which to me proves that he is the complete CM) doesn't mean he has suddenly lost everything defensively.

Call him ordinary or average in defending but terrible is really overstating it. This guy played at CB in a CL final ,granted in a system that protects it's CB quite a bit but still, you can't tell me that he's 'terrible' defensively. By saying he's terrible defensively you're basically saying that if Toure was given a job as the holding midfielder he'd flop... Completely wrong in my opinion, as he's showcased in his career before.

There's underrating Matic and then there's overrating him. A couple of things Matic does not have that Toure does like the ability to accelerate past a couple of players, or his ability in the more forward parts of the pitch, is why I wouldn't compare Matic to Toure. Not the same type of players at all.

The only young midfielder that comes close to Toure's completeness (that I can think of right now) is Paul Pogba.