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Matic

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.

 
sergio7 said:
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.
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Great, informative post mate.

Glad to hear he's a lot better than Javi Garcia too, because he's looked very ordinary at City since he's joined.

 
sergio7 said:
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.
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Thanks for posting! Sounds good. How do you feel now that he's gone? How will it affect your season?
 
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.

 
evissy said:
Thanks for posting! Sounds good. How do you feel now that he's gone? How will it affect your season?
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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.

 
sergio7 said:
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.
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Agree about Ramires... He's absolutely vital to our team now but our midfield was crying out for some good incisive passing and he's one of the most limited passers in the team. If MVG can step up, ramires can be used more as a weapon while chasing games.

 
sergio7 said:
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.
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Oh stop it. You're getting me much too excited about this signing. Thanks for all the info!

 
Matic adds some height to our midfield which is welcome indeed.

Buy back signings are they the way forward? £40 million for Danny Sturridge in two years time?

PS: Don't think this signing is good news for David Luiz and possibly takes him a step a closer to a summer move.

 
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I just like to look at the actual numbers every time someone claims something.

I don't trust any of you, ever ;)

 
Jose's confirmed he's not playing on Sunday (Matic that is, not Jose!)

 
I thought Jose said he wont start the game. I didnt read anything about him not taking part at all.

 
Sorry Uno, you're right, he said he wouldn't start not wouldn't play.

 
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