According to 90min: ‘West Ham United are eyeing a move for Manchester United midfielder Nemanja Matic.’
Matic has a Transfermarkt value of £22.5m and has won the Premier League three times, so adding a player of his calibre would be a huge boost to West Ham. There is a big possibility of this move happening as he ‘is thought to be ready to leave if the club are willing to sanction a mid-season transfer’ – according to The Telegraph.
Although one setback maybe is that any move might have to rely on ‘Solskjaer’s ability to recruit a midfielder‘ before the Serbian leaves Manchester United.
TIF Tactics – Do West Ham need Nemanja Matic?
Although Matic hasn’t had much game time, we feel it’s important to judge a player on how they are playing now, rather than what they have done in the past.
The 31-year-old has played five competitive games for Manchester United this season, three in the Premier League and two in the UEFA Europa League.
When looking at his European performances against Astana and AZ Alkmaar you can see that he played well in the centre-defensive-midfielder role alongside Fred on both occasions. Seen as he saw much more of the ball in the Astana match it’s best to judge him on this performance, where he had 132 touches of the ball and kept a pass success ratio of 93% which is extremely impressive.
Compared to Mark Noble who is of similar age and plays in the same position, the Serbian has been dispossessed seven fewer times in the Premier League this season, although Noble has played more games.
Verdict
We feel that this would be a great bit of business should West Ham be able to make it happen, however, there is likely to be a lot of competition for the 31-year-old and according to The Telegraph, Italy is his ‘most likely‘ destination, which could make this move a little bit tougher.