lordfalcao:
wait I never knew Matic had this fine touches in that game vs arsenal... Him and Alonso are two players who are really good but are overlooked...

hensben:
Again if this people understand football as they claim Alonso is doing a fine job in that LWB. Although, he's not a.cole, evra or Carlos but very intelligent at reading the game, his aerial capability is top notch.

Ibime:


I don't discuss with hothead over one game. I'm known for taking long positions, not shaking over one game. I'm one of the only nigga who never said a bad word against Pedro last season because I know what situation he came into while Conteddicted was cursing his mother up and down. I'm the only one who backed Matic last season whilst people were talking nonsense about Mikel. This season came and went, Mikel did not see one minute of action.

A hothead raving over Swansea does not change my opinion of our most robust midfield. I would have played Fabregas today if I'm manager! Next week Conte will decide that West Ham midfield is too physical for Fabregas and they have too many tall players for set pieces. He will drop Fabregas and all that will happen is Conteddicted will curse his mother.

Any Stevie Wonder who claims Matic was not a key part of those wins should watch the video of his performance vs Arsenal in this link.

http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2017/2/8/14545954/nemanja-matic-has-been-the-best-midfielder-in-england-this-season

dyabman:
Even against man utd , he had a fantastic game and a sweet assist to hazard likened to Xavi's

hensben:
I just tire for some guys here. Calling matic useless just because fab shone against Swansea and wolves. Smh.

CONTEDDICTED:

He excluded City, Arsenal and Liverpool

CONTEDDICTED:

Sweet assist

Are we talking about a 5 yard pass?

hensben:
Even if, is that enough to term matic useless huh. Let's be reasonable please.

hensben:
what did fab gave Pedro to score in today's match that you guys are callling matic head for.

CONTEDDICTED:

OK let's be reasonable

You might have point so I wanna hear it

What do you think Matic brings to the team that we can't do without

CONTEDDICTED:

If it's about assists. ..I don't wanna go there, You don't wanna go there (in Chris Brown's voice)

hensben:
physical presence, aerial duels, ticking of the ball(though he lacks foresight/vision while doing this and I understand, he started as a DM or rather, established himself as a DM unlike fab).

CONTEDDICTED:

Aerial duels? How many has he won this season?
Tackles?
Interception??

Whatever you think he does, there must be a stat for it somewhere. ...
Let's measure it quantitatively

hensben:
Now I'm not a fan of stat, I watch our games and know what I am saying.

CONTEDDICTED:

Whatever you see, there is a stat for it.. .You just have to look closing

Stats are facts

CONTEDDICTED:

Aerial duels? How many has he won this season?
Tackles?
Interception??

Whatever you think he does, there must be a stat for it somewhere. ...
Let's measure it quantitatively

hensben:
stats is deceiving and don't tell it all. I'll rather watch the game and so far, matic has been doing a good job required from the coach. Mind you I am not comparing matic and fab but just correcting a notion that matic is useless to the team m.

It's wrong to term him useless. Same reason some person think iniesta is carry along.

Sensational doesn’t even begin to cover it if any of this report is actually true from French outlet SFR Sport, but they claim that the offer that Chelsea rejected from Tianjin Quanjian for Diego Costa back in January was to the tune of £90m (€107m), with wages to match for Diego over the course of a three-year contract (€30-35m annually). This is presumably the offer that was part-catalyst to the supposed “BLAZING ROW” between Costa and Conte last month, which has long since been smoothed over.

But the story doesn’t end there. SFR then claim that while Chelsea rebuffed that outrageous offer — partly due to the impossibility of finding a replacement for Costa in the winter transfer window — the Blues told Tianjin to come back in the summer with €150m.

And that’s not all, because apparently Tianjin “intend” to do so, even though there are now new financial (and squad) regulations in the Chinese Super League, which were put in place precisely to curb spending in this overinflated market.
The €150m would be a new world record transfer and while it sounds utterly unbelievable, if some team were actually willing to give Chelsea this much for Costa, we could surely secure a proper replacement or two. Meanwhile, Costa seems quite happy at Chelsea and we have even brought forward talks for a contract extension.
So, again, this SFR report sounds far too sensational for public consumption, but maybe there’s a nugget of truth in there somewhere. The next chapter of the Diego Costa contract saga is just beginning.

hensben:
If not for the introduction of matic that game could've ended a draw. Now, I am not saying matic>>fab but for the sake of the team it is risky to play fab with Kante in every game.

.

lalaboi:


Before i start. . Fabregas was outstanding today, no doubt

Just came online and to see the expected deliberately blind Hijo de putas running their mouth.

MAn.. We were on our way to drawing that game until Matic came on doing basically what Fabregas does when he comes on.

His first contribution was to create a chance on the left side for Kante to [i]buude [/i]well over the bar.

2 contribution was collecting the loose ball and starting the move that killed off the game (3goal)

Now, lets play the deliberately blind game here. . Fabregas didnt exactly play Pedro thorugh on goal did he? Now replace pedro with willian in that 2nd goal and tell me if we have a 2nd goal. That goal was made possible the brilliance of Pedro.
Matic does unlucky assist they say but tell me exactly what special thing fabregas did in this case to deserve this orgasm over an assist. You want to be blinf to Matic's contribution i will be blind over this one too.

Games Fabregas has started and shone with goals and assist. . . Sunderland, Bournemouth, Leicester, Swansea, Hull. .

Not exactly the top bunch of teams are they?

lalaboi:


Before i start. . Fabregas was outstanding today, no doubt

Just came online and to see the expected deliberately blind Hijo de putas running their mouth.

MAn.. We were on our way to drawing that game until Matic came on doing basically what Fabregas does when he comes on.

donjazet:
.

However against the big teams, it would be much better to use matic, as we would need his energy, ball recovery techniques and Ariel ability much more or we could tweak our formation to a 352 to accommodate all 3 midfielders and sacrifice one of our attackers since we tend to be overrun in the midfield against the big teams.

Nihilist:


This is a myth.

List the big games we've played this season and highlight Matic's defensive effectiveness in those games.

I've been saying all season that there is a difference between what Matic is supposed to do, and what he actually does on the pitch.

That's why in all my arguments with Ibime, I've asked specifically what he does and not he is supposed to do.

When you see a quant refusing to apply numbers to Matic's defensive output instead taking a qualitative approach, then you know there is an actual problem.

Nihilist:


This is a myth.

List the big games we've played this season and highlight Matic's defensive effectiveness in those games.
I've been saying all season that there is a difference between what Matic is supposed to do, and what he actually does on the pitch.
That's why in all my arguments with Ibime, I've asked specifically what he does and not he is supposed to do.
When you see a quant refusing to apply numbers to Matic's defensive output instead taking a qualitative approach, then you know there is an actual problem.

Ibime:


Arsenal home, Everton home, Southampton away, Spurs home, Manure home, Liverpool away.

All top defensive performances.

I only apply quants to 4 metrics - GS, ASS, PassesPerGame and Kmpergame. It would be disrespectful to my profession to lend any weight to analysing 2.3 and 1.7 tackles per game.

Nihilist:


Oh please.

Arsenal, Liverpool from a defensive standpoint cannot be held as a defensive success because we were breached.

Southampton are the joint 5th lowest scorers in the league so I don't see how that is a 'big game' when there is obviously no real offensive threat from them.

I won't even dignify your Spurs listing.

Nihilist:


Yes, and NOT one of those 4 metrics is related to defensive output. Not 1.

So like I said, when a quant who has been leading the eunuch campaign based on numbers, has to resort to a qualitative approach to defend Matic, then there is a problem.

Ibime:




No of tackles is no indication of defensive solidity and defensive solidity cannot be caused by having high no of tackles. If not Aston Villa would not be relegated last season with the worst defensive record despite Gueyes record number of tackles. In stats this is called false casuality.
.

Nihilist:

Conte literally said in his post match interview yesterday that playing Fabregas is a balance between the added quality he gives, and the amount lost in Matic's height.

Note that Conte's emphasis was on Matic's physical attributes rather than his defensive attributes. This is the clearest indication that Matic is only making the team based on what he is supposed to offer, NOT because of his defensive attributes anything, because this season he hasn't offered a lot in terms of defence.

This is also a clear counter to them Nateevs who believe that Conte has space in his formation for small technical creators like Fabregas and Veratti. Like I said a few weeks ago, if we sign Veratti today, Conte will still bench him for Matic and not because of any defensive quality bs.

Ibime:


Nope, he is just highlighting one aspect. He has spoken on the other aspects many times.

If I tell you Lampard brings more goals to a team than Iniesta, that does not mean that is the only thing unless I use the word ONLY. He also brings more assists for example.