Why Chelsea’s £22m superstar could be the victim of Matic’s arrival

In the final minutes of Chelsea’s 3-1 victory over Manchester United Jose Mourinho brought on Nemanja Matic for his second Chelsea debut. Ideally, the new signing probably would have wanted to play earlier, but he certainly will be given a longer spell in the team. However, this opens a question, when Matic starts, who will lose their place in the Chelsea side?

Against Man United, Adnan Januzaj’s intelligent running meant he was constantly finding gaps inbetween the lines. Mourinho was screaming at David Luiz to drop deeper all afternoon but a defensive midfielder he is not. Nor is Ramires so Matic’s arrival is a welcome one because now Mourinho can operate with an anchor man who is capable going forward too, something John Obi Mikel is unable to do.

Chelsea currently operate with four central midfielders, or five if you include David Luiz and now they have signed Matic. The Brazilian will now almost certainly not feature in midfield again this season barring an injury crisis of epic proportions. He will play second fiddle to John Terry and Gary Cahill at centre-back once again. Of the current five only two can start which means three will have to miss out.

John Obi Mikel would seem the most obvious candidate to lose his place, the Nigerian is the most similar to Matic and therefore he is the most under threat. Mikel has a Performance Score of 182 in sixteen appearances this season but to be fair to him he has only completed the full game in six of those matches. He’s won just 53% of his tackles, which isn’t really good enough considering his job to break up play. His pass accuracy is an impressive 90% but it pales in the light of his tackling. Mourinho clearly sees him as a bit of a liability because he normally comes on to shut out games rather than starting them.

Michael Essien would also seem under threat and since Matic’s arrival rumours have began to increase surrounding his future with a loan move mooted this January. He has appeared just five times in the league starting two and being subbed on three times. His pass accuracy is identical to Mikel’s and his tackling is similar too. The fact that he has played so irregularly surely indicates that Mourinho does not believe “the Bison” is capable of resurrecting former glory.

Then we have Frank Lampard and Ramires, arguably Chelsea’s first-choice midfield pairing. At the moment this isn’t really an issue because of Lampard’s injury but when he returns it will be interesting to see who plays. Ramires has the energy, capable of running his socks off for well beyond 90 minutes , while Lampard endless amounts of experience. The Chelsea legend also has the technique something that Ramires often seems to be missing. Lampard has a considerably higher Performance Score but that is probably because he has scored and assisted more. Neither are defensive midfielders and both offer something different to the team. However, Mourinho would probably use both alongside Matic in a 4-3-3 but when he plays the more customary 4-2-3-1 it will probably be a case-by-case affair.