🇷🇸 Nemanja Matic

[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 10,326]

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.

[The only place to be 11,313]

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

And Ronaldo. And Deco. And Sneijder. And Hazard.

Donkeys the lot of them.

[didierforever 7,349]

No I just wanted to show that managers are not flawless immortals that never make questionable decisions. fergie, who's arguably the greatest manager of all time, decided Pogba wasn't good enough when he played a defender, Rapheal, ahead of him in midfield in a game where they were short of options in midfield which eventually proved to be a terrible decision. so even the best managers get it wrong sometimes is the point I'm trying to make.

one manager can and probably will make one mistake in his lifetime but when 2 different managers do the same thing and that too beniyez did it over a period of half a season and now jose has done it, there must be something to it. Its not a decision thst they have made in just one match. Moreover, we seem to be winning games and DL seems to be playing well.

[Bacika 188]

João Ruela ‏@joao_ruela2h

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

Is he reliable at all?

[sdrcfc 461]

Always, in Portugal.

[lionsden 4,689]

And Ronaldo. And Deco. And Sneijder. And Hazard.

Donkeys the lot of them.

Capello managed the likes of Totti,Robinho,Gutti, Ramos,Rooney et al. doesn't mean he, like jose, are managers who favor technical players over gritty hard workers like pep,Wenger et al.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Capello managed the likes of Totti,Robinho,Gutti, Ramos,Rooney et al. doesn't mean he, like jose, are managers who favor technical players over gritty hard workers like pep,Wenger et al.

Sorry but you said that Mourinho likes his 'donkeys' which is really only half of the story. He likes his water-carriers but he uses them to give the magicians a chance to do their things.

For every Makelele there was a Robben. For every Costinha there was a Deco. For every Cambiasso a Sneijder.

[We Hate Scouse 10,326]

Matic starts

[Jype 6,398]

Oblak, Maxi Pereira, Luisão, Garay, Siqueira, Matic, Enzo Pérez, Markovic, Gaitán, Rodrigo, Lima

Will be keeping an eye on Markovic and Rodrigo too.

[lucio 5,418]

hope porto win

[lionsden 4,689]

Sorry but you said that Mourinho likes his 'donkeys' which is really only half of the story. He likes his water-carriers but he uses them to give the magicians a chance to do their things.

For every Makelele there was a Robben. For every Costinha there was a Deco. For every Cambiasso a Sneijder.

ramires is important to his tactics and philosophy which is the point I was making that Jose won't buy another technical midfielder alongside matic (if we get him) to demote Ramires to the bench as that's what will be required if we are to significantly improve the quality our CM and play. moreover makelele was 10x more tehnical than ramires and it's not even close.

How many top midfield in the world would Ramires walk into? All the top team that play quality football all have top technicians in central midfield and it's no coincidence. The difference between these teams and us is that their "donkeys" are very intelligent technicians as well (Gundogan, Bastian, javi Martinez,Busquets, Xavi et al) unlike Ramires.

Make no mistake about it, I have no problem with donkeys as long as they combine technicality with physical prowess like those players I mentioned. donkeys that can play football if you will.