Sofa Manager

Have to admit to having mixed feelings on this. Don’t get me wrong, Fabregas is a fantastic player and would seem to fit the bill as a perfect replacement for Lamps. He won’t get the sheer number of goals as Lamps, but there are areas of his game where he is stronger – his ability to hit that intricate defence splitting pass being the main one.
 
BUT the downside for me is his Arsenal connection and the fact they made him the player he was and that deep-down he would have liked to have gone back there. When players are so strongly affiliated with another English club, it has always put me off wanting them, no matter how good they might be. That’s why I never wanted Gerrard or Rooney when we were linked with them.
 
Great signing and he will improve us but I still long for the day when we produce ONE OF OUR OWN.

Blimey what's this bit all about?
 
"Fàbregas’s lack of pace and dynamism, but believes such shortcomings can be offset by his commitment and intelligence, and regards his versatility as potentially invaluable. The initial plan is for Fàbregas to start alongside Nemanja Matic as one of two holding midfield players to take advantage of his impressive range of passing, which the Serb lacks, but he can also operate as an alternative to Oscar. "
 
Matic lacks impressive passing? Did they watch him after he signed?
 

 
As for Fabregas lacking pace, I wouldn't exactly say he's a slouch and I'm not sure rapid pace is an asset you would associate with many good central midfield players. 

There's this misguided rumour going round that Arsenal inserted a clause stating that they receive 50% of the transfer fee when Fabregas is sold. It's actually 50% of the profit. As they sold him for £30m and we bought him for £27m, they actually get 50% of nothing.

The rumours of players disliking another player or manager are laregely media driven in their quest for a story.  I pay them little regard. of course it happens most in football due to the sheer popularity of the sport but it also happens in other sports.  Fabregas would come to Chelsea if the money was right and he felt it was a good career move for him, both in terms of potential success and also how he would be played etc etc.  I find it hugely unlikely that a personal relationship issue exists between him and Jose to the extent it would stop himm cmoing to Chelsea if he felt all the other factors were in his favour.
 
For what it is worth he would undobtedly improve us.

Eto'o vowed he'd never play for Mourinho back in his Barca days. After that he played under Jose at Inter and CFC. Players say all kinds of things.

And rightly so. We were told he was the Egyptian Messi.
 
 
 
Not the Egyptian Torres.
 
 
 
 
 
In all seriousness, I didn't see any criticism apart from "he missed a good chance, probably should've done better". That's not harsh it's pointing out the obvious. We don't all need to be blind cheerleaders, that's why we here on The Shed End and not CFCNet.

I don't know what you guys are on about. He's just came in and already he bested the best(beat Toure). He is a versatile CM and I'm pretty sure Wenger, Pellegrini, Moyes and Rodgers would have all taken him in with open arms. Probably Pep and Carlo as well.
It is a bit early to really assess him but so far he's singlehandedly upped the level of our midfield. He needs time to get used to the blistering speed of Prem, he is still wasting passes but he'll get there.

Mods can we change the title of this thread please? It's kind of depressing to keep logging in and seeing "Gary Cahill - Must improve" especially after he has been playing this season! 

Ramires has 100% pass success rate, if a player is not there then that is their fault.

I've got a problem with people who feel the need to bring politics into every single discussion, almost as-if to say "Hey, look at me! I'm smart because I'm talking about politics!"
 
In my book there's no faster and better conversation and/or buzz killer than politics.
Keep that sh*t out of football.

Agree with this 100%
http://www.chelsea.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=540336

I won't compare the two otherwise it'll start a war but I will say what I saw from Matic today and people can compare it to Mikel's attributes. 1. Quick, at times one touch, passing opening the play or settling it down.
2. Intercepted all sorts of balls, floor, body height, aerial with strength and quick thinking/movement
3. Covered a lot of the pitch, seemingly doubling up for whoever was marking/tracking back
4. Kept calm but showed urgency, he wasn't carelessly casual with it.
I don't think I've gone too OTT either, he looked at home and slotted in beautifully. I'm sure he has weaknesses but his positives crushingly outweighed them today. Sterner opposition to come of course so we'll see, very good performance today though.

This guy has been an absolute beast today. Calm without being careless or casual, what a fantastic signing.
And yes, I'm well aware it's only one game and against Stoke, still impressed.

If he were to sign I don't imagine he would be pushing for a first team place any time soon but with JT turning 34 next season I suppose the club need to think about defensive recruitment at some point soon. 

As a Benfica fan, devastated.  
 
The Benfica forums are in a state of disbelief, anger and depression.  If you want to see what a great deal Chelsea got just go on to the forums.  Everybody's saying daylight robbery.
 
The thing is the Matic-Perez partnership is so central to how we play, allowing our wingers to bomb forward and it let's us play two attackers. 
 
Perez has been superb recently but there is no one to replace Matic.  All we have is limited destroyer types ala Javi Garcia which would probably mean we have to switch to 4-3-3. It's just a pity because Benfica fans felt that once injury free and if our coach stopped tinkering we were on the verge of becoming a special side.  
 
This will set us back big time and i think we may not win anything this year.
 
Having said that as a fan of Chelsea also i'm excited to see what he can do here.

The thing is nowadays to be a top team i believe you need all your players to be technical especially in centre midfield. 
 
I believe that Javi Garcia, although a good player in Portugal, will never be in a starting eleven for a top team, he's just too limited.
 
That's where Matic is different.  He provided the same defensive coverage but with the ability to hold on to the ball under pressure, play his way out of trouble (often through dribbling) and he was able to spray passes as well as work tight triangles with others, things Javi is not good at.
 
Before Benfica were playing a 4-3-3 with Garcia, Witsel and Aimar in the centre.  What we saw last year was that Matic was so good that he effectively did the job of both Witsel and Garcia forming a great partnership with Enzo Perez and allowing Benfica to play 4-4-2 or 4-2-4.
 
Now i'm not advocating a 4-4-2, especially since Mourinho is not a fan, but some truly great midfields have 2 centre mids like Keane-Scholes and Vieira-Petit.
 
I love Ramires workrate and i believe with Matic Chelsea could press really high up the pitch and win the ball back quickly which is what Mourinho wants.  However i can't help but think that Ramires let's the side down sometmes with his passing and with someone more gifted technically alongside Matic the Chelsea midfiled could be immense.
 
If Busquets didn't exist i reckon Barcelona would choose Matic in that position.  That's how highly i rate him.

As a Chelsea supporter but primarily a Benfica fan i've watched him more than most.
 
For those that are not sure about his quality especially given the strength of the portuguese league i understand your doubts.
 
However Matic was player of the year ahead of Joao Moutinho and it often looked like he was a man amongst boys.
 
In Europe he was very good, often dominating games, and there's a vid showing him keeping the ball and handling the Barca pressure well.
 
To give you a little idea of how he is rated, generally Benfica fans consider him to be top 5 in the world in his position and i agree.  I wouldn't swap him for Khedira let's say (although they play slightly different positions) 
 
On top of that Matic would probably rank as the BEST player that has played for Benfica performance wise in the last ten years alongside probaby Di Maria.
 
He performed better than Luiz, better than Ramires, better than Witsel and much better than Javi Garcia.
 
For those saying to play Luiz next to him i reckon it makes Luiz redundant.  Matic is already a good passer and covers the ground.  You want someone with energy who is technical, creative and likes to get forward.  I imagine someone like his current partner Enzo Perez to be a good fit.  Someone like Modric would be perfect.  Maybe in the future Willian or Oscar could do the job.  Van Ginkel could be a good partner
 
I have no doubts in my mind he will be a success and he's exactly what Chelsea have been missing in the centre of the park.  I woudn't be surprised if he started against ManU, afterall Jose played sneijder without even a training session at Inter and i reckon Jose sees him as a very important piece for now and the future.

He'll be an autoMatic starter

Matic is a lot better on the ball then Fellaini. Hes no Pirlo, but he has a lot of ability on the ball

Aside from the financial aspect, no poster here seems to have a negative word to say about this signing - prayers answered with this one? I'm very happy about it too, Rambo needs licence and a calm figure next to him - Matic can bring the best out of him.

Decent Article on what Matic brings to the team:
 
http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2892/transfer-zone/2014/01/15/4546929/strong-tireless-technically-brilliant-meet-chelsea-new-boy?ICID=SP

Few videos 
 


 


 

Matic and Ramires will cover alot of ground in central midfield :)

So does this count has having successfully got a youth product into our first team? 

Welcome back.
 
Looking forward to seeing him again in a Chelsea shirt.
 
I have a feeling he is the player that'll surprise a lot of people. Those, who watched him regularly for Benfica, think very highly of Matic.