Since rejoining us in January 2013, Nemanja Matic has quickly cemented his status as a key player and one of the first names on the team sheet. After initially selling Matic in 2011, as part of the deal to bring in David Luiz, it took a £21m fee to prize him away from Benfica and into the heart of our midfield. As of late December, our game stats with and without Matic are frightening, to say the least: a win rate of 73% with him and just 40% without him highlights just how vital a role he plays within the team.
The role that Matic plays within the starting 11 is easy enough to understand: break up opposition attacks, then look forwards with the ball and set up counter attacks. This was something that we struggled with before the introduction of Matic to the team. With one of Mikel, Ramires or Lampard being given the task, there was always something clearly missing from our game. Mikel has always had the ability to break up the play; however his weakness comes through his lack of forward thinking when it comes to utilizing possession. Ramires, a much better athlete in comparison, has the pace to break forward, yet makes rash decisions and his defensive ability is more than questionable. Lampard, now of course at Manchester City (via a strange trip to New York), struggled to adapt to the deeper role with natural goal scoring and attacking ability being his main strength.
When comparing Matic to the other options that we could fill the defensive midfield position with, he comes out far superior, clearly ahead on many of the aspects that are important in his role of both breaking up the play and looking to start counter attacks. Nemanja has now started to gain the praise that he deserves after an extremely impressive first year back at the Blues. BT’s John Cross has recently referred to the Matic deal as ‘one of the best January deals of all time’, which shows how highly regarded our defensive midfielder now is.
One thing for sure is that with Matic playing in front of our back four, the fans and players alike feel a lot more confident than without him there.
