Player focus: Who is Jose Mourinho’s best transfer yet at Chelsea?

Nemanja Matic has been crucial for Jose Mourinho’s side this season.

Jose Mourinho has signed some great players for Chelsea in his time but in his second stint at the club, few will be more important than the signing of Nemanja Matic.

The Serbian international was signed in January for a reported fee of £21 million, a bargain these days for the qualities he possesses.

Matic’s first few months in his second period at the club were average, but after the summer the 26-year-old has come to life.

Say what you want about our summer signings Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas and Filipe Luis – they have all been fantastic. But the attacking players, i.e. Eden Hazard, Oscar and Fabregas, have been allowed quite a free role because Matic is in the team.

Back in 2004 Mourinho built a side that on paper looked like the best team Chelsea have ever had. The characters and types of players are similar now, with a strong core through the centre of the pitch, with quick wingers and fullbacks that are just as good in attack as in defence. The difference is that this team looks to be better than the 2004/05 edition.

Today, Matic covers much of the same role as Claude Makelele did ten years ago. He is the player that doesn’t create the biggest headlines, but the one that does the invisible job – the dirty work, if you like.

With his intelligence, tackling ability and passing repertoire, Matic controls the game, its pace and his presence enables Fabregas and Oscar to bomb forward knowing that Matic is covering for them from his holding midfield position.

Different to Makelele, who arguably was one of the best defensive midfielders ever to grace the beautiful game, Matic is more.

Matic is stronger, he is bigger and he is a greater threat inside and around the opposition’s box. He can score from range and with his 193 cm he is also a force to be reckoned with in the aerial battles both defensively and in attack. Defensively he breaks up the opposition’s attacks with clever fouls and interceptions. In other words, he deals with a problem before it actually becomes a problem.

Imagine a scenario without Matic in today’s Chelsea team. With all due respect to John Obi Mikel, he’s no Nemanja Matic, and he is possibly the only other defensive midfielder at the club. Without Matic, Fabregas would play deeper, sacrificing his extreme eye for key passes, and the team would be rather unbalanced both quality-wise and tactically.

At the moment, there aren’t many players with the ability and variety of skills that Matic has in his position. Sergio Busquets at Barcelona might be one, Andrea Pirlo at Juventus controls matches close to perfection and Fernandinho at Manchester City is a third decent option. Bayern Munich have Javi Martinez and Xabi Alonso, Roma’s Daniele De Rossi is top-class and Luis Gustavo does well at Wolfsburg, but I would take Matic over any of them any day of the week.

In hindsight, it seems Mourinho planned his transfer business in 2014 down to the smallest of details. In the summer of 2013, he must have highlighted the weakest areas of the team and found the players he wanted to fill those gaps.

Mourinho’s genius never fails to impress, as signing Matic in January was key to balance the team when Fabregas and Costa came in during the summer. Matic had already been at the club for six months before Fabregas and Costa came in, which gave Matic time to settle before this season where the Premier League crown is well within the grasp. Had Matic come in this summer instead, he would have needed time to settle. With three key players in key positions needing to settle at the same, it could affect the performances of the whole team. Two key players settling at the same time is doable, but Matic’s arrival in January prevented that possible problem.

The fact that we only spent about the same amount of money on Matic, Fabregas and Costa as we received for the players we sold, David Luiz and Juan Mata, makes it even better. Compared to a year ago, today’s Chelsea team looks like a team that can battle it out for trophies in all tournaments, and in the centre of all this action is one Serbian midfielder that was dismissed by Carlo Ancelotti in 2010 – Nemanja Matic.

Do you agree that Matic deserves more praise for his efforts and that he is Mourinho’s best signing yet?

Published with permission from ChelseaTalk.