@Garrincha made a few comments about not being creative but to me that's not his job. If you play a double pivot in the 4-2-3-1 then one of those players needs to be a CM (that's where ramires and fabregas have come in) so they can push the ball forward while the other pivot needs to be a proper CDM who's priority is to sweep the ball up and protect the back 4 so they don't lose shape and get run past. I'm going to go out and say Matic is a large part of why Chelsea don't get beaten too often defensively is because JT and Cahill are able to stay level because Matic cleans up the balls in front of them.
With that in mind, I think yes there are more flair players and not every team plays with a proper CMD but if they do, I think Matic is the best in the world in that position.
Decent but nowhere near world-class. He's one of those midfielders who has a good 'engine' and uses physical characteristics to compensate for his relative lack of technical ability or passing quality. He's a decent enough midfielder but there's dozens of better midfielders scattered across Europe.
They sat back and looked better against better teams, but they struggled to break down the lesser teams last year. It's because guys like Matic aren't creative and aren't tempo setters - they are worse when the onus is actually on Chelsea to create. In saying that, he will probably look better in these smaller games this season now that he has the more creative Fabregas alongside him - it lets him to the dirty stuff rather than having to be the creative player in the double pivot.
Matic is a typical Mourinho mf- strong, athletic, powerful, but not particularly creative. He fits well in a Mourinho system, nothing more and nothing less. Mourinho has only really ever used one creative player in his mf at clubs (Deco, Sneijder, Alonso). That player is now Fabregas.
" Probably the best pure CDM in the league"
That's not saying a lot - the midfield standard in England is generally much lower than in Spain. I'd probably rather have Fernandinho anyway.
Bleacher Report is a pointless site.
He's quality, strong, big and his passing, dribbling and tackling are all very good. I think give it 1 more season then he will be World class
He is a good player. But he have to work hard to be a world class midfielder.
Quality player for sure. Rarely makes mistakes. Big and quite fast. In his own role world class absolutely.
He performs pretty good. But not world class.
hes good but i think he needs to score a few more goals like yaya toure
I rate him, I think he's pretty good. Probably the best pure CDM in the league, but World class? I don't think so. But this article does apparently.
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2173719-20-things-you-need-to-know-about-transfer-deadline-day/page/11
