Nemanja Matic

[Blue Armour 4,436]

Seems to be a bit of 'confidence' player. Yesterday he played far better than how he did in the Spurs game, especially with crowd encouraging him to shoot.

You can even see it in the way he tries to pass.. Takes 2-3 extra touches before releasing the ball, mainly because he doesn't seem to have the confidence to release it first time (to attackers like Hazard or Diego). But yesterday's game he seemed to improve a lot better in that aspect. Either that, or he's just more comfortable playing like that when he's in a midfield 3 rather than in a midfield of just him and Kante.

[TheWiz 109]

Another solid Performance by Matic.

Marshalled the Midfield and Shielded the Defence as great as we know it from him.

Sill don't like him being shackled so defensively ... Would like to see more of his Vision and Creativity upfront, but its Contes Choice.

 

[the wes 7,212]

Hada  good game today same again against Middlesbrough 

[kellzfresh 7,229]

1 hour ago, TheWiz said:

Another solid Performance by Matic.

Marshalled the Midfield and Shielded the Defence as great as we know it from him.

Sill don't like him being shackled so defensively ... Would like to see more of his Vision and Creativity upfront, but its Contes Choice.

 

I think he was just okay. Nothing like a great performance from what I was watching. A good performance is what wayanma did against arsenal today, not giving away easy passes and looking slow on the ball. 

[Special Juan 28,096]

He was shite IMO and highlighted the biggest area of this team that needs improving. 

[robsblubot 3,595]

Wow

although we could certainly improve on him esp in technique, he had a good game today.

No not great in possession, only Ok. Though he deserves a lot of credit for the dominance we had in midfield today.

comcerning Wanyama, well I spotted him when he was playing in Scotland while we were still insisting with the likes of mikel. Matic still edges him in the physical side, but wanyama is certainly the more technical and more pacey player.

[The Skipper 20,609]

47 minutes ago, Robguima said:

Wow

although we could certainly improve on him esp in technique, he had a good game today.

No not great in possession, only Ok. Though he deserves a lot of credit for the dominance we had in midfield today.

comcerning Wanyama, well I spotted him when he was playing in Scotland while we were still insisting with the likes of mikel. Matic still edges him in the physical side, but wanyama is certainly the more technical and more pacey player.

Wanyama has improved a lot technically under Pochettino. Always showed flashes of technical quality but was lacking that edge - seems to have developed that under Mauricio now. Top player. Love massive athletic midfielders with good technical quality tbh. 

[robsblubot 3,595]

55 minutes ago, The Skipper said:

Wanyama has improved a lot technically under Pochettino. Always showed flashes of technical quality but was lacking that edge - seems to have developed that under Mauricio now. Top player. Love massive athletic midfielders with good technical quality tbh. 

Perhaps, but the flashes were there. Reckon he improved more the mental aspects than technique really, technique is the hardest attribute to improve on.

That's when you acquire good players -- when they need to improve in some areas -- not when they are expensive or unsellable. That's one of the reasons I think we cannot compete in Europe.

BTW, I still think that defensively Wanyama isn't that great compared with matic esp physically in tight spaces (as seen in the fa cup match).

Matic is a good player. We have a lot of good players on the squad, but not many great players.

[LondonsFinest 692]

He didn't have that good of a game. He was okay. Again, highlighting the fact, that we have no midfield presence given the massive holes he leaves to be exploited.  Any decent attacking side would benefit from it. He managed to missplace a lot of simple passes too. Goal has given him some confidence, but he has to be moved/improved on.

[The Skipper 20,609]

If this was a "class" performance, people do really set the boundaries low for him. 

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

9 hours ago, Robguima said:

 

No not great in possession, only Ok. Though he deserves a lot of credit for the dominance we had in midfield today.

 

Disagree, we dominated the midfield because of Koeman's decision to have Gueye man mark Hazard and leave the midfield battle up to players like Barkley and Davies.

[TheWiz 109]

12 hours ago, kellzfresh said:

I think he was just okay. Nothing like a great performance from what I was watching. A good performance is what wayanma did against arsenal today, not giving away easy passes and looking slow on the ball. 

Wanyama always looks slow on the Ball to me. Comes naturally, when someones a chunky Athlete I believe.

Wanyama is a classic Strongman, I like that ... but he lacks the Vision, Technique and Creativity of Matic.

Everyone has good and bad games .. But Matic is the DM whos going to lead his Team to EPL Glory this Season.

Just as he did in 14/15.

[mashimaru161 77]

We are not going to "dominate" any team with Matic on the midfield. He looks clueless with the ball most of the time and be easily pushed off the ball or misplaced simple pass. The only completed pass is back pass...

[robsblubot 3,595]

1 hour ago, Belgiannutt said:

Disagree, we dominated the midfield because of Koeman's decision to have Gueye man mark Hazard and leave the midfield battle up to players like Barkley and Davies.

They are not mutually exclusive. (Doesn't our golden boy hate man-marking?)

weekend before matic did similar against spurs. A couple of seasons back and he did it for us to win the league - no kante either.

I can certainly understand the wish to improve on him, but he's a good Who gets a lot of imo undeserved criticism.

[TheWiz 109]

32 minutes ago, mashimaru161 said:

We are not going to "dominate" any team ...

It's not necessary.

Dominating the League is more than enough fore us.