Maybe Jose feels he is more effective in a more advanced role that allows him to break up the opposition play more. As we all know Jose is no mug and if a player is not performing or capable of doing a job, he will replace him with someone who can. Maybe that's why Matic was brought in, maybe Jose knows what he's doing. All I know is that we've been winning games and not conceding as many goals since he was moved into CM.
Time will tell but I think we'll see Matic and Ramires as the first choice pairing and he'll continue with Cahill JT as his first choice cb pairing with Luiz as 3rd choice cb and 4th behind Mikel dm.
Matic is a very good example of what is wrong with our youth system. All he ever needed was game time and ,presto, 15 mill added to his value and a very good experienced midfielder emerges. We now sell De Bruyne, who in my opinion is more talented than Matic at the same stage. The difference ?? Search me, maybe Lukaku knows the answer ?? Man Utd did the same with Pogba, now worth 40 mill Euro, but constantly play Janzaj who looks the business. Jose has an appalling record of blooding or bringing on youngsters, despite some of the worlds best being on our books. His record is based on proven, very high cost stars, so don't expect any changes anytime soon. Hazard, Oscar and Schurrle go out week after week and show what young legs can do, but no new kids get a run. Willian does, but again, he cost a fortune. Jose will win everything, but never with youth from our Club involved. Our system seems to be there purely to satisfy the new financial rules.
At the time Matic was with us who do you think we should have been dropping for him to get game time? And who should we be benching for KDB to play? It's all well and good moaning that people don't play but for them to play you have to bench someone else. You never say who though.
I don't see Jose changing from 4231 now so it'll be 2 of those 3 pretty much all the time I would think. I think this signing confirms that lamps won't get an extension.
It's not as simple as "who should be dropped", but how do we rotate !! Other teams manage it ,we never do except under RDM and even Rafa. But for starters, Bertrand should have been played instead of Azpi. The future is all I'm worried about. Jose has 3 years at least to sort it out and as you say often, it's early days. Jose doesn't need to win everything every year to succeed at his new task, just keep us in the top 4 and update the team is his task. That means, or should mean, blending some kids with new experienced players and keep the buying relevant. That's what I would like to see, and I suspect, so would most fans.
Which players do you want blended in? Oscar Hazard and Willian are all young. And which positions do you think we should keep buying in?
Some very good points. It's happening all over European football, insane really. We have a similar example (on a much smaller scale though), Tom Ince, we pretty much gave away, when he had so much promise, probably the most promising youngster we had. Now clubs are reporting wanting to pay 7-10mil for him. He's still very young and that price looks like it will only go up. Why on earth didn't we just keep hold of him, and start playing him in 'smaller' games? It baffles me sometimes.
I guess to an extent he never has to blood youngsters. It's all well and good everyone creaming themselves over say Southampton at the moment but the level of money they have to fund new transfers and the expectation of that club is completely different. I agree youngsters should be given a bit more of a chance but ultimately Jose wants to win games and if he picks say KDB, that means dropping our best player in Hazard. Matic 3 years ago was never going to get a run of games with the midfielders we had in front of him. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and for every Matic there is a Scott Sinclair or Carlton Cole who left and hasn't got anywhere near the heights required to play for a club like us regularly. Essentially the money we've lost on him has funded his terrific development at a top European club and in the meantime we've won European and domestic competitions by not having to blood or take chances with fringe players. FFP may ultimately put an end to this way of doing things but as it stands, we've done ok. United are only playing Janzaj because of how average their other attacking mids have been this year. United have let just as many good players go like Pogba, Rossi and Pique.
That's true. Since all the mega rich owners have come in, teams like City and Chelsea simply can't afford to risk playing their youngsters. You can kind of understand why - if you can simply go out and spend **** loads of cash and buy the best, then there is no need to bring youngsters in. Although it's a shame it's completely understandable from a business point of view. These clubs want instant success, and building a team bringing youngsters through simply won't cut it. Unfortunately that's the way the game has gone, and unless the youngster is an incredible player he'll either waste his career hoping for a break or simply get shipped out. The last big crop of youngsters to all come through the ranks at a big club was probably Beckham and the bum bandits. I can't see it changing back to those days even with the implementation of FFP. So although it's bad for the game and stunts the development of youngsters, it's just how football has evolved, and to honest is understandable in todays game.
Cesc Fabregas (free to £30m) Paul Pogba (free to £30m??) Juan Mata (1.1m to 26m) Just 3 big examples of a player not being used and then increasing to huge amounts of value
Exactly. The loan system (whilst flawed) helps the big clubs too cos they can ship all these players out and if they perform well they can come back better for the experience (Wilshire, Welbeck, Lukaku hopefully) or like De Bruyne, be sold (in his case for profit too).
Our youth system is fine, it's the fact we're sacking managers left right and centre who are too scared to risk young players as their job will be in jepardy. Our biggest mistake will always be getting rid of Carlo as he looked to be the only manager who seemed to play younger players in the odd game. Hopefully Jose will be here long enough to do so. Matic was ****e whenever I saw him for Chelsea and was sold because of this, we've bought him back and he's obviously come on leaps and bounds, hopefully he can do a job.
Also doesn't help when these players don't take their chances. Chalobah we have high hopes for but has struggled to get games at Forest. How can we then expect to play him in the P.L?
I think sending him to Forest was such a ridiculous decision, especially after the season he had at Watford! We should've kept him here and given him every domestic cup game under the sun and a handful of league appearances. Then loaned him to a Premier League club this month. With Van Ginkel out he could've made some kind of impact.
