The main role of a Defensive Midfielder is to provide cover to the back four and initiate swift attacks. In Nemanja Matic, Chelsea finally have a proper, textbook Defensive Midfielder, a kind of player Chelsea have missed in the past two or three seasons. In the past couple of seasons we have usually seen the pairing of Ramires with either Mikel or Lampard in the pivotal role. Both Mikel and Lampard usually complement Ramires well but they do have some loopholes.
Firstly, i’ll talk about Mikel. Mikel is a good tackler, he has good strength and awareness, he is good in marking his opponents and calm when in possession. Basically, his defensive skills are very sound. Mikel’s weaknesses lie in his attacking attributes. For a defensive midfielder you don’t need to have very good attacking attributes but there is still a minimum requirement, specially when it comes to his passing range. A DM should be able to make long passes. Mikel doesn’t have a long passing range. Due to his inability to make long passes a lot of Chelsea’s counterattacks are rendered useless. Given the counterattacking style of play Jose prefers this is a very important attribute. Along with this, Mikel’s finishing is poor as well, which we have seen on so many occasions.
Now coming to Lampard. Lampard has transformed from a CAM to a DM over the years. He is exactly the opposite of what Mikel is. He is great going forward, has an amazing vision and has marvellous passing capabilities. The Flaw in playing Lampard as a DM is his defending skills. His tackling and marking is okay at best and when he makes those instinctive runs into the opponents half, he completely exposes our back four and due to his lack of pace he takes time to track back which has costed us on numerous occasions. This problem becomes even bigger when he is playing alongside Ramires as both of them like to venture forward from time to time, leaving our backline helpless.
So, what Chelsea needed was a DM who has the defensive attributes of Mikel and the attacking attributes of Lampard and in Matic they have exactly what they wanted. From a defensive point of view, Matic is tall(6′ 4″), he is strong, he is a very good tackler. From an attacking point of view, he has a very good passing range, he is also good going forward and he can score a few goals too which is evident as he was the runner up to Ibrahimovic for the goal of the year. Along with that his tall physique will help Chelsea reduce their problems in defending against set-pieces from which they have conceded quite a few goals this season and it also makes him lethal during set-pieces for Chelsea.
Best DM pairing:
Amongst Matic, Mikel, Ramires and Lampard if I was given the job of picking the best possible pairing for the pivotal role, I will go for the partnership of Matic and Ramires with Mikel and Lampard on the bench. Ramires is a very dynamic player and a tire-less runner who I think will complement Matic the best. If the team is leading in the second half, to provide more defensive stability and to see out the match Mikel can be brought on. While if Chelsea are in need of a goal, Lampard can be brought on as an impact substitute to provide more attacking edge.
So, under Jose one can expect Matic to replicate his form at Benfica or even do better as is usually the case with the players playing for The Special One. Since he has been a part of the Chelsea family before, one can expect him to settle down quickly and help Chelsea win the title they have missed out on for the past three seasons. With the signing of Matic, Chelsea’s DM woes should be over for the next few years at least.