Matic: ‘I came back a better player after my time with Vitesse and Benfica”

Everybody knows the impact Nemanja Matic has had since his return to Chelsea some 18 months ago.

Re-signed  by Jose Mourinho three years after being allowed to join Benfica as part of the David Luiz signing, Matic returned to Chelsea seemingly a different player, as a physically imposing midfield enforcer, with strength and power added to the guile he had shown as a young playmaker.

In a recent interview with the official Chelsea magazine, the 26-year-old Serbian discussed his development.

Matic: Practice makes perfect

‘When you come to Chelsea, you are at the top level and, if you are playing here, you know the best players in the world are with you,’ he said. ‘It’s something special and I came back a better player after my time with Vitesse and Benfica. I already had some experience of top football in Portugal and I felt different.

‘I learned a lot in my first time here – just to train with midfielders like Lampard, Essien and Ballack, you learn a lot. I was very young when I first came here and I was injured for five months as well, so I think the players here helped me a lot at that time.’
There was one area in particular Matic was told he had to improve.

‘All my coaches said to me that I knew how to play football – I was great technically, but when I was young, I wasn’t very strong. I knew I had to improve physically and I had to be stronger, so I worked very hard on that.

‘It’s an important part of my game because you have to be strong in midfield and you have to do these things. The Premier League is very hard, it’s a physical league and I think I have improved in that respect since coming back here.’
 

ChelseFC / Foto’s SV