Mini Ballack

How much has he got to be worth now? If pogba and the like are priced at 77 million, then matic has to be around 50-60 considering his age and ability.

How much has he got to be worth now? If pogba and the like are priced at 77 million, then matic has to be around 50-60 considering his age and ability.

If Bony is worth 30m then Matic is worth 100m at least!

Edited January 10, 201511 yr by Jezz

Getting a bit concerned now by quite how much we rely on the big man. You'd have to think Jose will be looking for another player in a similar mold to replace Mikel at the end of the season.

Ake always plays well in DM, but he's never given much of a chance. I'd be happy to have him as backup for Matic.

Would you be happy to put Ake in at DM for a vital game against City or Liverpool? I'm fairly sure I wouldn't at the moment, much as I hope he becomes the player we all want him to be.

The young players won't ever get anywhere if you don't show faith in them. Kalas was thrown in against a freescoring Liverpool team on course for the title and did fine, i seem to recall.

Would you be happy to put Ake in at DM for a vital game against City or Liverpool? I'm fairly sure I wouldn't at the moment, much as I hope he becomes the player we all want him to be.

 

Just give him a chance, Ake can stand against big teams as well.

The young players won't ever get anywhere if you don't show faith in them. Kalas was thrown in against a freescoring Liverpool team on course for the title and did fine, i seem to recall.

 

We're a team with aspirations for the title and the Champions League, you can't just throw kids on and hope they do ok. Sure you could argue that we need to be bringing them through better (and I wouldn't argue) but relying on them performing at the very highest level if our first choice gets injured is just mental, and far too much pressure to put on them. Say Matic gets injured, and we have a run of 5 games where Ake has to play DM in must win matches, and he doesn't play well. What is that going to do to his development when the media and some 'fans' start getting on his back? What does it do to the club when we lose the league or CL as a result? Do we just say 'well at least we trust our kids' and everything is ok?

But if you sign 2 world class players for each position, how the hell are the youngsters ever going to get even a few minutes on the pitch? The idea is supposed to be to produce our own players eventually, so we don't have to go out and spend spend spend all the time, can't do that if they never play.

Getting a bit concerned now by quite how much we rely on the big man. You'd have to think Jose will be looking for another player in a similar mold to replace Mikel at the end of the season.

I don't really understand how you're getting concerned after today exactly. 

 

Hazard, Costa, Willian, Ivanovic, Courtois, Terry and Fabregas didn't start as well and that all together makes us weaker. I agree we rely on Matic, but he is not the only important player of our squad.

You don't need two world class players for every position, just preferably one world class, one younger but still proven player as backup and then the youngsters. Then as the younger proven player develops to be world class to replace the original world class player over time, the youngsters can move up to the 'younger but proven' backup category and so on. At the moment our backup there is Mikel though, and faithful servant of the club though he is, when he steps in for Matic we look a much worse side.

I don't really understand how you're getting concerned after today exactly. 

 

Hazard, Costa, Willian, Ivanovic, Courtois, Terry and Fabregas didn't start as well and that all together makes us weaker. I agree we rely on Matic, but he is not the only important player of our squad.

 

Just because the Matic thing is becoming a bit of a theme now. He misses a match, and we seem to inevitably lose.

I think maybe that shows how important that anchor man role is in our midfield, We may have to look in the market at the end of the season for a back up for Matic if Jose doesn't fancy Ake/Mikel

We were fine with mikel there. Once he came off the wheels fell off.

We didn't miss matic yesterday. At 2-0 up against Bradford there are 0 excuses.

Missed him massively yesterday both shielding the defence and moving the ball with pace but he can't play every match apparently so needs a rest.

We need better replacements to deal with the likes of Bradford and Shrewsbury apparently.

Missed him at Anfield last Tuesday as well, hopefully hes back against Liverpool at home.

With that said, we shouldnt need a world class defensive mid to "shield" our defense against f**king Bradford at home.

Exactly

Missed him at Anfield last Tuesday as well, hopefully hes back against Liverpool at home.

With that said, we shouldnt need a world class defensive mid to "shield" our defense against f**king Bradford at home.

Maybe not world class but we still need a fulcrum, someone who sets the tempo, controls the play and leads the team. We missed that.

Gotta say, i haven't seen a better midfield performance this year from anyone.

 

Was immense, excellent positioning, great tackling, just all over the pitch.

 

Without Cesc he took it upon himself to push the team forward and try to create - Very keane like.

 

As a Benfica fan i'm super proud.

Noticed he mentioned the team being tired at this stage because of their exertions thus far, and his expectation that it will remain as such for the remainder of the season. A little worrying if that's the case, with the huge European games that are likely to be played.

Very Good performance from him though tonight.

Terry, Zouma, Cech, Azpi all excellent too. Whole team put in a real shift.

What a reaction by him. Could f**k up our rest of the season. We haven't got any other player who can play the role he plays. Especially against Spurs, who thrashed us in January will now even get more space.

 

Well done Nemanja Matic.

Ake to the rescue. Would rather see him play there than Mikel or Ramires at the moment.

He's been imperious all season. The guy could have smashed him up. Bad reaction but I can understand his anger. It's one of a very small amount of mistakes he's made this season. Let's cut him some slack.