Nemanja Matic

[pachman40 357]

I want to give a more in depth opinion on Matic and the whole situation because there's misinformation sprinkled through this thread, but unfortunately work gets in the way. I'll just throw this out there for now, Chelsea fans can forget about the Matic that used to play for Chelsea, you will be very very happy with the Matic that is returning to the blues.

[Korea 734]

A Kompany - Luiz partnership would be the best in the PL and one of the best in the world when both are on form. I'm not saying they'd sign him but United have a huge CB problem. Barcelona also for obvious reasons.

City already has the best young CB in the PL..

Why would they invest in Luiz, when their CB is more dependable and less risky?

United really doesnt have a CB problem. Smalling, evans, vidic, jones, rio are adequate enough. If anything, its anything but CB, Cf and Gk.

Barca probably, but barca is hard to tell....

bayern already has martinez on the bench, with batsbuder coming back. They even loaned out Kirchoff as a result... I dont think CB is a position they would address (also, it seems that Dante is not doing so well this year).... Boateng is good enough...

PSG already have 3 brazilians and invested a ton of money on two of them already... I highly doubt they would want another Cb unless Silva goes to Barca.

[bababoom 4,478]

I want to give a more in depth opinion on Matic and the whole situation because there's misinformation sprinkled through this thread, but unfortunately work gets in the way. I'll just throw this out there for now, Chelsea fans can forget about the Matic that used to play for Chelsea, you will be very very happy with the Matic that is returning to the blues.

I hear a lot of Benfica fans saying he's better than Witsel, whats your opinion?

[jmarlow 458]

City already has the best young CB in the PL..

Why would they invest in Luiz, when their CB is more dependable and less risky?

United really doesnt have a CB problem. Smalling, evans, vidic, jones, rio are adequate enough. If anything, its anything but CB, Cf and Gk.

Barca probably, but barca is hard to tell....

bayern already has martinez on the bench, with batsbuder coming back. They even loaned out Kirchoff as a result... I dont think CB is a position they would address (also, it seems that Dante is not doing so well this year).... Boateng is good enough...

Really! United have a huge CB problem! Ferdinand and Vidic are past it and wont be at united much longer. Smalling is very average, Evans is decent but no where near a top class Cb and Jones is not realy seen as a CB because of his versatility!

[Shane 2,275]

Just to add my two cents to the Luiz argument, As Gary Neville said, He gets battered by the press and fans in England because he is a 'Brazillian' style centre half, Likes to play football and go forward. Similar to Thiago Silva, Dante and others.

The English National team have hardly set the world alight in the last 50 years, Luiz needs to control his temperament and keep his concentration.

I do believe midfield is the correct position for him, mind.

[Term-X 7,891]

He's in a completely different position to Mata. Mata doesn't seem to fit the system whereas Luiz can, in multiple positions. As for who might be in for him there's probably Barca, maybe Bayern and maybe even PSG but that could all change after the World Cup.

David Luiz is 'practically' a reserve centre back and a reserve DM now.

Can you really see Mourinho dropping Cahill?, or another player (*would be signing*) in the same mold as Gary..

[The Skipper 20,593]

City already has the best young CB in the PL..

Why would they invest in Luiz, when their CB is more dependable and less risky?

United really doesnt have a CB problem. Smalling, evans, vidic, jones, rio are adequate enough. If anything, its anything but CB, Cf and Gk.

Barca probably, but barca is hard to tell....

bayern already has martinez on the bench, with batsbuder coming back. They even loaned out Kirchoff as a result... I dont think CB is a position they would address (also, it seems that Dante is not doing so well this year).... Boateng is good enough...

At City, he'd have to compete with Nastasic correct, but Nastasic has been injured a lot this season and he's certainly an improvement on Lescott or Demichellis. City play with a high line and build from the back so Luiz could be ideal for them, especially next to a very solid leader in Kompany (who also gets injured quite a bit).

United... I don't rate any of their CBs apart from Vidic and Jones. Vidic is nearing the end of his career, so is Rio, Jonny Evans and Smalling aren't as good as Luiz either.

Bayern have a solid core of defenders there but due to the way they play under Pep especially I think they'd potentially be interested too. I think Luiz is possibly better than all of their CBs when on form too but that's just my personal opinion.

Now I'm not saying that all these clubs would definitely be queuing up but I'm sure that if Luiz was to be made available on the market they'd look into the possibility of it.

PS: sorry for going off topic. Would be nice if this discussion was moved to the Luiz thread by any of the mods.

[jmarlow 458]

another thing about Matic is he works so hard and covers alot of ground!

In fact Matic has covered more ground then any other player in the CL this season! 78926 m

[The Skipper 20,593]

David Luiz is 'practically' a reserve centre back and a reserve DM now.

Can you really see Mourinho dropping Cahill?, or another player (*would be signing*) in the same mold as Gary..

It's very naive to think that Cahill won't get injured or won't drop form or Luiz won't pick up his form...

[José Mateus 46]

I hear a lot of Benfica fans saying he's better than Witsel, whats your opinion?

Different players.

Matic impact on our gameplay surpassed Witsel's. I'm not saying he is the best player, but was definitely more useful to us.

While Witsel always had the look of a great player, he never quite achieved his potential while playing for us... Matic... well... he was a beast.

Matic was the best player I saw playing for us. Better than Di Maria, David Luiz, Coentrao, Witsel etc.

[Ainsley Harriott 2,732]

Different players.

Matic impact on our gameplay surpassed Witsel's. I'm not saying he is the best player, but was definitely more useful to us.

While Witsel always had the look of a great player, he never quite achieved his potential while playing for us... Matic... well... he was a beast.

Matic was the best player I saw playing for us. Better than Di Maria, David Luiz, Coentrao, Witsel etc.

Better than Cortez?

[Korea 734]

Different players.

Matic impact on our gameplay surpassed Witsel's. I'm not saying he is the best player, but was definitely more useful to us.

While Witsel always had the look of a great player, he never quite achieved his potential while playing for us... Matic... well... he was a beast.

Matic was the best player I saw playing for us. Better than Di Maria, David Luiz, Coentrao, Witsel etc.

I dont know about the others, but if he was better than Coentrao during his time at benfica, sign me up!

[José Mateus 46]

I dont know about the others, but if he was better than Coentrao during his time at benfica, sign me up!

Yes. Coentrao was really impressive during the season before his transfer, but didn't achieve the heights Matic did last season.

[robsblubot 3,502]

It's very naive to think that Cahill won't get injured or won't drop form or Luiz won't pick up his form...

yet it is far more likely Terry is the one picking a knock (on wood)... After all Cahill was signed to eventually replace Terry - similar characteristics.

If we do sell DL, we'd need a fit replacement. Right now with Ivanovic injured, we'd be very thin at the back. Really can't start the likes of Kalas and Kenneth in tough matches.

[The Skipper 20,593]

yet it is far more likely Terry is the one picking a knock (on wood)... After all Cahill was signed to eventually replace Terry - similar characteristics.

If we do sell DL, we'd need a fit replacement. Right now with Ivanovic injured, we'd be very thin at the back. Really can't start the likes of Kalas and Kenneth in tough matches.

And Kenneth's even gone out on loan so pretty much right now if we did sell Luiz we'd have to throw in Kalas at CB if Cahill or Terry got a knock.

[pachman40 357]

I hear a lot of Benfica fans saying he's better than Witsel, whats your opinion?

Whether he's better than Witsel or not is subjective. They're both really good players playing similar but different positions.I was one of the Benfica fans who were terrified going into last season losing both Javi Garcia and Witsel without buying replacements and thinking "we're going to get overrun in the centre of the park". But I'll tell you, I have never heard any Benfica fan say we would've had a better game or we would've won that game if we had Witsel instead of Matic. Matic made Benfica fans forget Witsel almost instantly so that says enough I think.

[Mouri_Matic 560]

Just to add my two cents to the Luiz argument, As Gary Neville said, He gets battered by the press and fans in England because he is a 'Brazillian' style centre half, Likes to play football and go forward. Similar to Thiago Silva, Dante and others.

The English National team have hardly set the world alight in the last 50 years, Luiz needs to control his temperament and keep his concentration.

I do believe midfield is the correct position for him, mind.

There is a reason why Silva was named in world 11 yesterday...Luiz doesn't even make top 10

[Korea 734]

Yes. Coentrao was really impressive during the season before his transfer, but didn't achieve the heights Matic did last season.

Nice... Coentrao was and is really good. Its too bad he went to the team with the best offensive lb in the world (at that time).....

I would totally do a coentrao for mata straight swap....

Whether he's better than Witsel or not is subjective. They're both really good players playing similar but different positions.I was one of the Benfica fans who were terrified going into last season losing both Javi Garcia and Witsel without buying replacements and thinking "we're going to get overrun in the centre of the park". But I'll tell you, I have never heard any Benfica fan say we would've had a better game or we would've won that game if we had Witsel instead of Matic. Matic made Benfica fans forget Witsel almost instantly so that says enough I think.

People on this board drool over Witsel, so if you Portuguese fans say Matic is better, Ill take your word over theirs..

On a side note, how do you think Rambo-Matic combo would do?