Matic was poor last season, but not sure why his lack of form has seen him more of a target for moans and groans than anyone else...think he's played well against West Ham and Burnley in particular and showed he's getting back to the player we saw in first 18 months...arrival of conte and Kante is clearly having a positive effect on his game

Good game from him. People still complaining for some reason. Been putting in some good 7.5 performances so far this season. 

Just now, Kante Conte said:

Good game from him. People still complaining for some reason. Been putting in some good 7.5 performances so far this season. 

I still think he looks slow and clumsy on the ball at times and he struggles in tight spaces. These are his biggest issues. He seem's incapable of instantly controlling the ball and playing a decent pass too. He needs too much time to shift the ball on to the left foot. These are huge weaknesses in his game that he doesn't seem to be able to get on top of. He's looked better than last season i'll give him that, but he still isn't as good as we need him to be.

Best game for well over a year.  He does look clumsy but I think that is a misconception because of his height/length of arms.  I think he can be quite intelligent in tight.

On 8/28/2016 at 12:18, The Brit said:

Matic was poor last season, but not sure why his lack of form has seen him more of a target for moans and groans than anyone else...think he's played well against West Ham and Burnley in particular and showed he's getting back to the player we saw in first 18 months...arrival of conte and Kante is clearly having a positive effect on his game

The trouble is that Matic was consistently our worst player for his first 18 months. He was consistently outperformed by Mikel; a player with perhaps more skill and finesse than most players at the club, but nonetheless some geniuses online consider surplus to requirements. 

Mikel for me all day long over Matic, and even Kante. Not quite sure what everyone sees in Kante. He is not half the player Mikel is. 

5 hours ago, Droy was my hero said:

The trouble is that Matic was consistently our worst player for his first 18 months. He was consistently outperformed by Mikel; a player with perhaps more skill and finesse than most players at the club, but nonetheless some geniuses online consider surplus to requirements. 

Mikel for me all day long over Matic, and even Kante. Not quite sure what everyone sees in Kante. He is not half the player Mikel is. 

Nayjirian Powa!

(You can't be serious. Matic was awful last season but he has improved.

Kante had one bad game against Liverpool and even in that he was one of the better performers.)

I'm surprised to see people saying they think Matic is back to his best this year.

 

He's certainly improved on last season, but that didn't take much, but I still don't think he's anywhere near the level he was when he was at his peak for us.

 

There's an obvious improvement, but the whole team has improved but I still don't see him as the first name on the team sheet like he was at his peak with us.

Yeah he's been pretty average so far, better than last season but still well short of where he was when he first came back.

He's been poor for over a year now. I see a lot of online chat about his fitness but could be anything - maybe he's not settled in London; personal problems; family illness; the list can go on and on. For this long, for a supposedly fit player, I don't think it's got anything to do with football.

11 hours ago, Kante Conte said:

Nayjirian Powa!

(You can't be serious. Matic was awful last season but he has improved.

Kante had one bad game against Liverpool and even in that he was one of the better performers.)

 

 

17 hours ago, Droy was my hero said:

The trouble is that Matic was consistently our worst player for his first 18 months. He was consistently outperformed by Mikel; a player with perhaps more skill and finesse than most players at the club, but nonetheless some geniuses online consider surplus to requirements. 

Mikel for me all day long over Matic, and even Kante. Not quite sure what everyone sees in Kante. He is not half the player Mikel is. 

This plonker is a troll, ignore him. 

Where has the spider gone? 

2 hours ago, EdinburghBlue said:

I'm surprised to see people saying they think Matic is back to his best this year.

 

He's certainly improved on last season, but that didn't take much, but I still don't think he's anywhere near the level he was when he was at his peak for us.

 

There's an obvious improvement, but the whole team has improved but I still don't see him as the first name on the team sheet like he was at his peak with us.

This is half correct. The idea that he was ever good enough for a club like Chelsea is a falsehood. He made his name in a Micky Mouse league, at a club that would struggle to compete in League 1. Mikel on the other hand has won us cup final after cup final on his own (see 2012), but is slated by the fans because he doesn't score fancy goals or do flippy tricks.

40 minutes ago, Droy was my hero said:

This is half correct. The idea that he was ever good enough for a club like Chelsea is a falsehood. He made his name in a Micky Mouse league, at a club that would struggle to compete in League 1. Mikel on the other hand has won us cup final after cup final on his own (see 2012), but is slated by the fans because he doesn't score fancy goals or do flippy tricks.

Mikel is responsible for our success 

 

What a clown.

Can't make my mind up about Matic.

I much prefer him as a defensive midfielder, alongside Fabregas like the title winning season. This season Conte seems to be trying to mould him into an all rounder midfielder and I don't think he's any good at that. His best attribute is tackling, intercepting passes but his attacking game is pretty awful! His assist for Costa was very random. If he is going to play with Kante then I think he should be a defensive midfielder alongside Kante, and let everyone else attack. I don't see any point in him supporting attacks because he isn't going to offer much.

12 hours ago, Nibs said:

Mikel is responsible for our success 

 

What a clown.

just ignore him/her mate, they'll get bored eventually and return to their mothers basement to eat Cheetos & abuse people on WoW message boards.

 

Kinda like this guy...

Has been quite good so far. And not just in relative sense. PLaying in a completely different role.

In my opinion, he has been very good and benching him would kill any and all confidence he has left. And why would we even bench him? For whom? We have oscar who continously underperforms. Matic is the least of our problems currently. 

He needs to get back to the level he has showed in his time here and be consistant,or he will be replaced.

22 minutes ago, Hemel Blue said:

He needs to get back to the level he has showed in his time here and be consistant,or he will be replaced.

When Matic returned, for a while he played like an absolute beast and he was bossing games and one game in particular against City where he owned Toure. Now I'm beginning to wonder if he just had a purple patch players sometimes get and what we have seen for the past season or so is the actual Matic - decent enough but not top level. Certainly not another Essien.

It's not uncommon for players to have one really good season but never return to such heights and my gut feeling is that is the situation with Matic.

 

16 hours ago, Droy was my hero said:

This is half correct. The idea that he was ever good enough for a club like Chelsea is a falsehood. He made his name in a Micky Mouse league, at a club that would struggle to compete in League 1. Mikel on the other hand has won us cup final after cup final on his own (see 2012), but is slated by the fans because he doesn't score fancy goals or do flippy tricks.

Are you taking the piss? 

I mean yeah he obviously is....

2 hours ago, Nibs said:

When Matic returned, for a while he played like an absolute beast and he was bossing games and one game in particular against City where he owned Toure. Now I'm beginning to wonder if he just had a purple patch players sometimes get and what we have seen for the past season or so is the actual Matic - decent enough but not top level. Certainly not another Essien.

It's not uncommon for players to have one really good season but never return to such heights and my gut feeling is that is the situation with Matic.

 

I think this is spot on. Expecting him to play at the Level he showed when he got here might be the reason people are moaning, we might have to temper ourselves and just come to terms With the fact that he is an average player and the performances he is putting in now is the norm for him. Which is not to say he is a bad player, he is in fact quite useful to have, but not someone who has a very Limited skillset that should be starting week in week out if we want to consistently challenge the top teams in the world. In the same bracket as Mikel for me

2 hours ago, Xfaxtor said:

I think this is spot on. Expecting him to play at the Level he showed when he got here might be the reason people are moaning, we might have to temper ourselves and just come to terms With the fact that he is an average player and the performances he is putting in now is the norm for him. Which is not to say he is a bad player, he is in fact quite useful to have, but not someone who has a very Limited skillset that should be starting week in week out if we want to consistently challenge the top teams in the world. In the same bracket as Mikel for me

Surely with great coaching and belief from the player himself, he should be able to reach that high level consistently again?  If he is unable to maintain that level, which is what we bought him back for, then questions have to be asked about his commitment

Edited September 23, 20169 yr by Van Butsen

Matic and Kante are both being played incorrectly. If you play both, Matic needs to be holding and Kante box to box. Conte is doing the opposite at the moment.

Kanté has been the best holding midfielder in the country for the past year.

Edited September 23, 20169 yr by PloKoon13
Missing definite article

6 minutes ago, Rusty-Man said:

Matic and Kante are both being played incorrectly. If you play both, Matic needs to be holding and Kante box to box. Conte is doing the opposite at the moment.

Really, really dont share that opinion. And honestly, I can find many who do. Matic doesnt have the discipline, the positional awereness or the ability to read the game required to play as a holding mid. Kante does, hes an absolute beast at it. 

 

1 hour ago, Van Butsen said:

Surely with great coaching and belief from the player himself, he should be able to reach that high level consistently again?  If he is unable to maintain that level, which is what we bought him back for, then questions have to be asked about his commitment

As @Nibs said, sometime players just have purple patches of great form. Theres numerous examples of players that has had a season or half a season of excellent play before returning to the norm. For me, Matic has returned to the norm. A lot better then last year, but still an average player