Nemanja Matic

[lionsden 4,689]

Yes if he is the best player in their team, doesn't mean he has to be world class. For example Long is the best player in West Brom team, they obviously would have high opinions of him but he is no where near world class as we know. Also to be fair Portuguese League isn't known to be the strongest league, the fact that Porto lost Hulk, Falcao, James and others yet still challenging at the top of the league just tell you about its state. But I suppose I underrated Matic a little bit, partly due to me not seeing him play much elsewhere apart from his CL, Europa league appearances last season.

Are you comparing a certified champions league team to West brom?

And porto are still able to challenge for the portuguese league despite losing there best players each year because they have, by far, the best scouting team in world football and can cherry pick on the best talents in south America due to zero legal restrictions on foreign players in the portuguese league. they replaced falcao with jackson martinez and James Rodriguez filled into Hulk's boot after he was sold and the cycle will always continue as it's being the case since forever. their circumstance is different to most clubs in Europe. so your point is mute in that sense.

[laura90 556]

Combo of Matic and Ramires would be better than what we have but still not good enough to improve our central midfield dramatically .

If creativity in central midfield is not important how come Barca plays Busquets, Bayern won everything when they got Martinez and now are playing Alcantara I guess, City scores a lot with Fernadinho and Yaya who is more offensive than defensive oriented, Juventus improved significantly when they got Pirlo, Real plays with Alonso and Modric, Dortmund has Gundogan ect.

In fact the only team who was successfull without playmaker are Man United but they made up for it with great wingers, strikers and superb coach.

Just because we don't have genuine playmaker for ages we can't underestimate benefits of having one.

Genuine playmaker is even more important when you have creative mids up front to get the best out of them not the other way around.

Matic with playmaker would have taken our central midfield to a whole other level , up to the City’s even better. Matic with Ramires not so much. There is the difference.

[bluesman2610 1,341]

Luiz in midfield is a stickly plaster option just like Essien in defence was, Rafa and Jose are only doing it due to lack off options.

If we sign Matic and MVG makes a return sooner rather than later the only way David is going back in the only pivot is if we have a stupid injury crisis.

Don't forget we still have Romeu who seems to be doing well at Valencia even under new manager if reports out of Spain are correct as well.. we may have some very talented mid options in the very near future

[BlueLyon 9,359]

Combo of Matic and Ramires would be better than what we have but still not good enough to improve our central midfield dramatically .

If creativity in central midfield is not important how come Barca plays Busquets, Bayern won everything when they got Martinez and now are playing Alcantara I guess, City scores a lot with Fernadinho and Yaya who is more offensive than defensive oriented, Juventus improved significantly when they got Pirlo, Real plays with Alonso and Modric, Dortmund has Gundogan ect.

In fact the only team who was successfull without playmaker are Man United but they made up for it with great wingers, strikers and superb coach.

Just because we don't have genuine playmaker for ages we can't underestimate benefits of having one.

Genuine playmaker is even more important when you have creative mids up front to get the best out of them not the other way around.

Matic with playmaker would have taken our central midfield to a whole other level , up to the Citys even better. Matic with Ramires not so much. There is the difference.

But we had Makelele/Essien-Ballack-Lamps partnership once and we were realy good, I might say even more efficient than most other teams. And we had no real playmaker then.

Also if Matic comes, we will probably play 4:3:3 with midfield of

Ramires-Matic-Oscar, Oscar is good playmaker and will only get better and dont forget we have very creative Hazard and Willian, who are in my opinion few levels higher than Asamoah, Lichtensteiner, DiMaria, Ronaldo,...in terms of playmaking. Hazard and Willian can play as #10, while those players at Juve and Real are typical wingers/wing-backs.

Juve has Pirlo and thats it. We have Oscar, Hazard, Willian. There is difference. We might be good with deep playmaker, but I think we need all round CM like Matic more. We need someone who can run whole game and cover whole midfield, protect back 4. And Matic is quite decent in attack to. He made some amazing runs vs us in last year Europa league final.

[kellzfresh 7,229]

If he is valued at 40mio, why would they sell him for 20-30? They sold Witsel for 40 and they said that Matic is even better than Witsel. Unless we have some release clause or Benfica is in huge financial trouble, they simply wont sell him for cut price.

I hope we buy him though, summer should be priority for striker, Lb and possibly CB, I doubt we will look for CM too, 3 top players are just too much in summer...one problem needs to be solved in january.

They didn't qualify for the champions league knock out this time. That is a straight 30mil loss. They need money more now than before.

[lionsden 4,689]

Combo of Matic and Ramires would be better than what we have but still not good enough to improve our central midfield dramatically .

If creativity in central midfield is not important how come Barca plays Busquets, Bayern won everything when they got Martinez and now are playing Alcantara I guess, City scores a lot with Fernadinho and Yaya who is more offensive than defensive oriented, Juventus improved significantly when they got Pirlo, Real plays with Alonso and Modric, Dortmund has Gundogan ect.

In fact the only team who was successfull without playmaker are Man United but they made up for it with great wingers, strikers and superb coach.

Just because we don't have genuine playmaker for ages we can't underestimate benefits of having one.

Genuine playmaker is even more important when you have creative mids up front to get the best out of them not the other way around.

Matic with playmaker would have taken our central midfield to a whole other level , up to the City’s even better. Matic with Ramires not so much. There is the difference.

Absolutely spot on but that will never happen with a mechanical manager like Mourinho in charge. he loves his donkeys. players in the ilk of Ramires are his bread and butter

[Alan Partridge 1,124]

Much better than what we currently have, so I'm happy

[Peppen 934]

Pleaseeeeeeee be true

[kellzfresh 7,229]

Combo of Matic and Ramires would be better than what we have but still not good enough to improve our central midfield dramatically .

If creativity in central midfield is not important how come Barca plays Busquets, Bayern won everything when they got Martinez and now are playing Alcantara I guess, City scores a lot with Fernadinho and Yaya who is more offensive than defensive oriented, Juventus improved significantly when they got Pirlo, Real plays with Alonso and Modric, Dortmund has Gundogan ect.

In fact the only team who was successfull without playmaker are Man United but they made up for it with great wingers, strikers and superb coach.

Just because we don't have genuine playmaker for ages we can't underestimate benefits of having one.

Genuine playmaker is even more important when you have creative mids up front to get the best out of them not the other way around.

Matic with playmaker would have taken our central midfield to a whole other level , up to the Citys even better. Matic with Ramires not so much. There is the difference.

The difference is that if we buy gundogan, we can't pair ramires with gundogan?? That would be the smallest pivot pair you can find and we would be skinned alive by stoke and westham who keep the ball in the sky. If you play mikel beside gundogan we lose ramires who wins a lot of tackles and we will be defensively vulnerable.

But if we get matic who has a workrate of a brazilian and significantly better quick long passing than our current CM, it becomes easier to play smaller people like cabaye and gundogan in the pivot beside him.

[José Mateus 46]

Benfica - Porto in an hour and a half.

Recommend strongly.

[De_ChrapQaa 192]

Benfica - Porto in an hour and a half.

Recommend strongly.

I don't always watch other team games, but when I do, It's because players chelsea are linked with.

[Jype 6,398]

Matic, Mikel, MvG, Romeu and Ramires as our midfield options for next season would be great. If we have a defensively solid pivot, we don't necessarily need the "world class deep-lying playmaker" everyone seems to be craving for because we have much better options in the attacking midfielder department than most teams in the world and they can work their magic as long as the defensive contribution from the two midfielders is better than we're now getting from Lampard - Ramires.

Will definitely watch the Benfica - Porto match today. I don't believe the rumours that Matic has refused to play because the Benfica chairman seems like a guy you don't fuck around with. If we're getting him, I suppose they've agreed he will play his final game today and after that they'll let him go, no hard feelings.

[drog.ba 239]

Ramires and Matic should work well together, Matic is good at keeping possession and still a strong defensive midfielder, Ramires is one of the best box to box midfielders and wont be replaced as first choice anytime soon. Half the players meant to be "deep-lying playmakers" (Toure, Fernandhino, Martinez) are no more so then Matic is, and the players like Alonso and Pirlo who are, are either too small/weak or unavailable.

[We Hate Scouse 10,286]

Didn't Matic and Ramires play together at Benfica?

Have the squads been announced yet for the Porto game?

[Waterfall 893]

This would be awesome. Fuck this obsession with playmaking midgets playing in the pivot. Just because Barca's doing it, it doesn't mean we should. In fact we are the team that constantly bothered Barca. Also I think people will be pleasantly surprised with Matic's abilities going forward anyway. He's like Nigerian-NT-version of Mikel (which is pretty damn good albeit playing more advanced), but even better.

[José Mateus 46]

Didn't Matic and Ramires play together at Benfica?

Have the squads been announced yet for the Porto game?

No.

Maxi --- Luisao ---- David Luiz --- Coentrao

---------------Javi Garcia------------------

Ramires ----------------------- Di Maria

---------------Aimar-------------------------

Saviola -------------------- Cardozo

Matic wasn't at Benfica yet.

[Eidur the Spider 4,515]

João Ruela ‏@joao_ruela2h

Matic will play against FC Porto today, but shall join Chelsea after it. #Benfica #classico

[Jype 6,398]

Didn't Matic and Ramires play together at Benfica?

Have the squads been announced yet for the Porto game?

No, we bought Ramires in 2010 and Matic only moved there in time for the 11/12 season.