Mails: Matic? He is what Man United and Pogba need…
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Matic is the cog that could make Man United machine work…
It would seem with the imminent arrival of Bakayoko at Chelsea, that Manchester United may indeed be about to sign (which if you believe Twitter) the rather unglamorous Nemanja Matic. But, I would like to make a case for the big Serbian against that backdrop of underwhelm, and Fabinho clamouring.
Firstly, let’s not forget that Matic has just played 35 league games in a side which won the title at a canter. Kante gets the plaudits for his eye catching ground coverage, but without the big Serb at his side doing the dirty work he would no doubt have been less impressive, as would Chelsea as a whole. In that sense, Matic is very much a ‘cog in the machine’ type player, which perhaps doesn’t do him full justice, but that’s exactly what United need for me. United’s conundrum all season long was how to get the best out of Pogba. In a midfield two, he’s bogged down by much of that aforementioned ‘dirty work’ and in a three Jose never quite got the right blend of teammates around him.
However, if you think about a three of Matic sitting deep protecting the back four, with Herrera (right) and Pogba (left) that for me feels a whole lot more balanced as a trio. Carrick undoubtedly has a much better range of passing than say Matic, but he’s not got the mobility he once had, and even when he did, still had a tendency to let players run off him at CDM. On paper, it’s not an awe-inspiring setup but any means, but it could just work in practice and I guess that’s the acid test for this purchase should it go through as rumoured.
Matic has also had a couple of seasons in the Premier League now, so he knows what it’s about and what’s required to win a title in what can be a slog of a campaign at times. He’s also big, strong and a bit of a s**thouse. So that really is all of the Jose boxes ticked I’m afraid. United have made a habit of buying names, rather than players to fill a specific role over the last few years, so hopefully Matic will be the cog that bucks that trend.
Dave (I think I even convinced myself there, MUFC)
History shows Jose cannot develop young players
When it comes to defending Mourinho over youth players, it’s difficult to justify. Unless a player is close to fulfilling his potential then he’s not the best manager of raw ability.
He opted to dump prodigious talents such as De Bruyne and Lukaku instead of developing them. Shaw, Martial, Lingard and Rashford were better under the tutelage of Van Gaal.
Dickie
…Stop kidding yourselves, Jose-lubbers.
Time and time again people try and defend Jose’s youth record – but it speaks for itself. He does not trust young players. With certain truly exceptional individuals there are arguments against but clearly he does not care for anyone he hasn’t signed for large fee.
It’s all very well arguing about his age or whatever but it’s often said in this country we write young players off far too soon. Harry Kane is a prime example of someone who didn’t look like becoming anything until he was given a proper chance just before his 21st birthday. If he’d been sold to any one of the lower-league clubs he was on loan at when he was 17, 18, 19 he’d probably never have come close to what he is now.
Last summer, José flogged a large number of our best U-23 prospects, including some who LvG considered to have potential. Regardless of their United record, only one of those managers can point to having nurtured some of the top players in the world.
Stop trying to justify everything Jose does. He’s not the special one, he’s a bit of a dick who gets away with it because his agent negotiates contracts that are too big to justify sacking him from.
Alex, Leeds
You can see why Spurs concentrate on kids…
Darren Bent – £16.5m (June 2007)
Paulinho – £17m (July 2013)
Roberto Soldado – £26m (August 2013)
Erik Lamela – £27.8m (August 2013)
Moussa Sissoko – £30m (September 2016)
Dan, Spurs
Well done to the mighty Terriers
Huddersfield Town’s record signing was Christopher Schindler for GBP 1.8 MN until last month? Beautiful. Who said money and money alone rules everything? Well done to them. Seriously. Well done.
Mukund Kannan (LFC) Manila, Philippines
Disgusted by this summer’s transfer valuations
I don’t know about anyone else, but I think this summer in particular, with these obscene transfer fees being quoted (and in all fairness, so far at least a lot of them are merely quotes, and not all that many of the huge deals seem to be going through), football’s just losing my interest.
Over the past two seasons I’ve found myself watching less and less football, or more accurately, less and less elite football. Let’s compare Stoke and Man City, and a hypothetical live TV match between the two. Now on the one hand I can’t help but be excited to see brilliant players like Shaqiri and Arnautovic strutting their stuff for Stoke and the likes of David Silva, De Bruyne and Sergio Aguero doing the same for City. Who doesn’t get excited by high-profile signings for any team? I sure do. However 70-odd minutes in to a hard-fought 1-1 stalemate I now find myself switching off when City can bring on Sterling and Gabriel Jesus and Yaya Toure, and the inevitable 1-2, 1-3 and then 1-4 happens and City eventually steamroller Stoke due to having a bench that’s stronger than Stoke’s first team.
These insane transfer fees being quoted are a reflection of the massive TV deal the English clubs have now got, so average players like Ederson and Salah go for £30m+, and Kylian Mbappe (a player with little more than a season under his belt) is being touted for £100m at the very least. We live in an era where £100m, according to Tottenham Hotspur, won’t even get you little more than a derisory snort for Harry Kane.
Now I’m not blind, pretty much all transfers are based on what the last guy went for. If so-and-so went for £40m, then this guy is worth £50m, and that guy is worth £60m in return. Still though, I’ve never started feeling any more distant from the sport I love than I do now.
In one of the comments sections today (forget which story, sorry), someone has very blithely put a comment along the lines of, ‘Jose wants Kane for £100m and Spurs want £200m – I reckon if we just go to £140m then we’ll have a deal’. Really? Wow! Do you think? He’s probably right, by the way, I’m fairly sure if Man Utd went to £140m for Harry Kane then they’d get him! But that’s not what disenfranchises me about the whole thing. What gets to me is the whole ‘what’s an extra £40m anyway?’ vibe that I see. Let’s just find £40m shall we? Forget the huge mountain of debt that leveraged against Man Utd (which seems to be forgotten) and forget that LAST SUMMER they went and broke the transfer record for a player they released on a free about three seasons before that…let’s just break our own transfer record by £10m, no, by £50m again this summer! Seeing as they only finished sixth this year.
Even as a staunch FFP-loving dyed-in-the-wool disciple of Wengernomics, I couldn’t help but get a little giddy when we paid off that stadium and then splashed £43m on Mesut Ozil. However there’s something wrong – horrible and wrong – about seeing Andre ‘could he be the next Kezman?’ Lacazette being talked about as a circa-£50m player. It, frankly, disgusts me, and it turns me away from the sport.
Dale May, Swindon Wengerite
The kids have always been alright…
After a summer of (to date) successful tournaments for the England youth sides, and following on from Daniel Storey’s article, I was intrigued to see quite how successful Germany had been since implementing their ETPP plan in 2002, and in comparison how optimistic it is worth being about England’s prospects in the next decade.
Before launching into results, I will just highlight that the Toulon Tournament is excluded, as Germany don’t really seem to bother (I haven’t checked but they either don’t enter, or don’t try hard if they do). England obviously do try, and have had 6 tournaments where they have reached at least the semi-finals since 2002.
Firstly, youth level (since 2002);
GERMANY = 11 semi-finals or better across age groups u17-u21. In four of those cases they have won the competition.
ENGLAND = 16 semi-finals or better across age groups u17-u21. In three of those cases they have won the competition.
What is quite interesting is that not only have England youth been comparably (if not more) successful, but that actually it is not all recent, with good results fairly evenly spread in the years since 2002. My unexpected conclusion is that actually the quality of coaching and standard of play at youth level is really comparable between the two countries. I hadn’t expected this at all. Many of the changes made and mooted are great, but actually we’re doing alright at this level.
Where it gets really different is obviously at senior level. Again since 2002:
GERMANY = 7 semi-finals or better. In one case (WC 2014) they were winners.
ENGLAND = 0. Big fat zero. No challenge at all in the latter stages of competitions.
Therefore whilst we might commend the changes made at St Georges Park, the only way we can get improvement at senior level is if the FA find a way of convincing the Premier League clubs to get on board with really bringing their homegrown players through rather than keeping them on the bench to make up the numbers. That is the major difference between Germany and England; the clubs there came together and resolved to make this happen, ensuring the transition into senior football happens early. But the desire for instant success in England currently prevents this from happening.
Players such as Chalobah, Baker, Chambers etc. are good enough, they just need to be trusted by their clubs and actually played. Holding has been excellent for Arsenal, but is behind Chambers for the u21’s. Maybe, just maybe, if both are given the chance for Arsenal they could form a formidable central defence for club and country. If they don’t get this chance soon however then they won’t develop to their full potential.
Until the clubs realise to give these players a chance, I don’t have much optimism. If they do however, then just maybe we might surprise ourselves! I continue to hope that it’ll happen, but I’m sceptical that it will.
Phil (bored at lunch), Devon
Man United ex-player as manager XI (nearly)
Thinking this morning I was surprised at how many ex Man Utd players in the Premiership era have gone on to manage clubs, esp in the Best League In The World (are we still using that lie?) Have any other clubs come close? I am close to a full XI though cheating just a little, can anyone help or suggest other clubs that might have done a full team or indeed why- is it something instilled by Sir Alex or a character trait in winners that drives them?
GK- Stuck on the first hurdle though Ed Van Der Saar is close in his role in Ajax
RB- G Nev – Valencia and bust
CB- Laurent Blanc – okay not in long but has gone on to manage France and PSG.
CB- Steve Bruce – most of the Championship
LB- Phil Neville – England Under-21s (must be someone else?)
RW- Bryan Robson – Captain Marvel became Manager Marvel at West Brom and Middlesborough was…interesting
CM – Roy Keane – back when Sunderland were in the Premiership.
CM – Paul Ince – made me laugh, Celtic and Blackburn, remember that!
LW- Ryan Giggs – Man Utd if only for a few games, who knows in future though.
CF- Ole Gunnar Solskjaer – yet to prove himself after disappointment at Cardiff, however back at Molde where he enjoyed great success previously.
CF- Mark Hughes – very underrated IMO, solid job at Stoke, decent without being outstanding at Man City but very good spells with Blackburn and the Welsh National side
Honourable mentions:
Darren Ferguson – the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, PNE, Peterborough and Doncaster Rovers to date.
Jaap Stam – so close with Reading.
Teddy “and Sheringham has won it!” Sheringham – Stevenage. Enough of this now.
Bryn (run out of brackets), Belfast
De Boer at de Palace!
Frank de Boer, multiple title winner at Ajax has turned up at Selhurst. Whether he got lost or simply wanted to see where his managerial idols of George Burley, Trevor Francis and Iain Dowie once sat I couldn’t care less!
I’m way too excited about this but in the absence of any proper competitive football I think I’m okay to indulge. His tactics might not be an exact match with the personnel we have, from what I’ve read he likes to play out from the back and also press high up the pitch, but it is his history with the young players that provides the most optimism. As any club is, we have always been proud of our academy products and hopefully we can get a full contract term out of a manager and see some improvements throughout our whole set-up. Frank’s experience of basically living his football life at the elite level is something completely new to us and likewise us to him. Hopefully he embraces it, gets the results needed to settle in comfortably and then goes on from strength to strength.
It really is the hope that kills you.
Ant, CPFC
Sweatshops are good
John Nic on politics again. I don’t want to add to the noise of political discussion on a football website, but his outrageous assertion needs answering.
Sweatshops are what increased the average wage in China from $1k/yr to $7k/yr in a couple of decades. It’s what will lift the whole of Asia and eventually Africa out of mind-boggling poverty – to the point where sweatshops aren’t economical anymore.
If you care about reducing poverty, you should be buying *more* clothes made in sweatshops.
Matt (Can we stop with the politics now please JC )