Chelsea's Nemanja Matic Shows Steven Gerrard and Liverpool What They Are Missing
The mantra of “what happens in the changing room stays in the changing room” must be taken very seriously at Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, because it’s taken us this long to find out about one of the Blues manager’s rituals.
As the Portuguese told the media in the Anfield tunnel prior to Saturday’s big kick-off against Liverpool, he leaves the final word before matches—even matches as big as this one—to one of his players, with Nemanja Matic given the honours this time.
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Without putting words in the giant Serbian’s mouth—you wouldn’t really want to do anything to anger him—it’s possible that he mentioned Chelsea’s last visit to Anfield in late April in his speech. After all, the football world has barely stopped talking about it since it happened.
But instead of focusing on Steven Gerrard’s slip, Mourinho’s touchline posturing and Liverpool suffering a fatal wound to their title aspirations, Matic could have talked about the midfield battle he won that day. He ended up emphatically winning this one too.
It didn’t look like it was going to be that way in the first 10 minutes, though.
Giving the briefest of glimpses of their famously fast starts last season, Liverpool flew out of the blocks against Chelsea. Mario Balotelli was actually moving, Raheem Sterling was running, Philippe Coutinho was scheming and it was all garnished by an Emre Can goal, which threatened to restore a feel-good factor. Then Matic turned it on.
With Cesc Fabregas struggling to deal with Can and others—Mourinho later told Chelsea's website that he played with an injury—Matic decided to take over and delivered the latest in a string of top-quality performances this season.
The former Benfica man hasn’t really picked up the headlines in a team featuring Fabregas, Eden Hazard and the lethal Diego Costa, but his displays in front of the back four have been one of the key factors in Chelsea’s presence at the top of the Premier League table, while he’s also responsible for four of their eight Champions League points thanks to a couple of rare goals.
Though the tweets, Vines and memes of Gerrard’s error in April might still be doing the rounds, it was Matic who did more than anyone to end Liverpool’s title dreams by shutting down their midfield creativity alongside John Obi Mikel and Frank Lampard.
Gerrard was left a broken and frustrated man, and there was a lot of the latter on display from the Liverpool captain and his team-mates this weekend too.
The question of just what to do with his skipper might be one that is dominating Brendan Rodgers’ mind at the moment, but one look at Chelsea and Matic suggests that stationing him in defensive midfield surely isn’t the way to go.
Athletic, mobile and willing to cover every blade of grass in front of his back four, Matic was by far the best midfielder on show at Anfield on Saturday, and he highlighted an area of the pitch where Liverpool need to make improvements.
Lucas Leiva played there as part of the much-discussed team selection in Madrid and did a pretty decent job, but if Matic is the prototype to what Liverpool need, then the Brazilian doesn’t fit it. Injuries have taken their toll on him, just as age has with Gerrard, while Joe Allen, Jordan Henderson and Can are all better going forward.
With each passing week, it becomes clearer and clearer why Chelsea were happy to part with £21 million to bring back a player they’d originally signed for £1.5 million four-and-a-half years earlier. He has become Mourinho’s general in the centre of the pitch, outranking Mikel and forcing Ramires further forward.
Identifying and signing such a player should be a priority for Rodgers as he bids to protect the most suspect of defences, but they of course are incredibly difficult to come by.
In Matic, Chelsea appear to have one who can deliver a pretty good team talk and someone who is driving his side toward a title success after effectively ending Liverpool’s chances last season.
It’s no wonder he’s a popular figure among the club's supporters.
