I think both parties should find where his level in Europe is. Matt is good enough to succeed in Europe and Chelsea will want to flip or recoup as much of the transfer fee as possible.
Isn't tthat mostly due to his poor relationship with his manager and partly due to inadequate performances?
Players are reporting for pre-season in Toronto today. They have CCL games coming up in Feb 19 and 26th. He would be playing with Ciman and Mavinga in a 3 man back line, putatively. Their MLS season opens Mar 2. He already is familiar with Delgado. He would be playing with guys like Giovinco, Vazquez. VderWiel,... Then in summer Chelsea could take another look at what they want to do. Toronto would be thru the CCL period.
The poor relationship with the manager comes from the manager thinking he is not a very good defender and thus excluding him. That's not petulance, that's good business. Hard to have a good relationship with someone who doesn't respect what you do.
Another team in Ligue 1, an EL/CL challenging team in Holland or Belgium, a BL1 side, a promotion-challenger in BL2 or the Championship, etc.
Huh? I'm not 100% sure what this means, but if it suggests that MM having a "bad" relationship with the manager is good business for MM, I can't imagine how ( I don't think there is much evidence of serious "petulance", btw. Halilhodzic went out of his way to say the demotion was not due to to locker room issues, which suggests at the very least they have a "professional" relationship) If it mean that Nantes is doing "good business" by excluding MM - the results are less than clear, but it's also unclear MM helps them much and certainly there's no indication it's due to petulance. Just a managers choice. At Vitesse it was pretty obvious MM was an upgrade on van der Werff and Kruis when MM got regular game due to injuries. Kruis' age was showing and MM is simply a bit better in CD than vdW. But MM got chances due to injuries and suspension where he got to show his stuff. Teams have more incentive to play the guys they own, unless MM is a clear upgrade - but Nantes has also been inching down the table. They are still fairly safe as there's a cluster of mediocrity in the lower Ligue 1 table at the moment, but a few more unlucky results and Halili may decide he needs to shake things up. If that happens, MM may have a chance to show if he's an upgrade. The thing he can best add to Nantes game is a few header goals off set-pieces to snag the 1 or 3 points Nantes is dropping in tight 1goal games... Their last 3 league loses have been by 1 goal and 5 of their last 8 league games have been 1 goal losses or ties...
It's good business by the manager to exclude someone he believes doesn't have the quality to be in the side or for large swaths of the recent past, in the 18. I am not arguing that the manager is right in his beliefs. At this point I don't know if any of us really knows how Miazga can do in Ligue 1 as he has only had 8 matches in Ligue 1, after which his coached benched him. He's clearly not a standout success like he was at a lower level with Vitesse. That may be his level.
Got it. I just didn't get the petulance thing. 100% agree. if Halil thinks he can win more with MM, esp given MM is someone else's ride, there's 0 reason (Beyond keeping Chelski happy) to keep him. And likewise, we have an incomplete picture what MM's level in France is, based on his relatively few games. That said, MM had only 8 starts, 15 or so Apps his first loan to Vitesse. It was clear from that he could hold his own, if not excel at a mid-table Ered club. MM gets the same number of chances on the back 9 he'll have a similar year to his first Vitesse loan and I'd think his overall fit at this length will be fairly obvious.
Interested to see if Matt gets a run out in the starting 11 today in light of less than favorable results lately. Lineups coming soon...
He's a couple of shocker-bad results or an injury/suspension away. I hate hoping for injury so maybe Carlos has a burst of ill temper...
Coulibaly got a second yellow, so Nantes finishes the first half with 10. It's looking grim. They had already subbed one of their attacking mids (for same, so may be due to injury).
DNP in a 1-0 loss. Diego Carlos and Pallois both received yellow cards. Does anyone know the yellow card accumulation rules in Ligue 1? That puts Carlos at 6 for the season (he was already suspended once, after his fourth) and Pallois at 3.
A combination of 1) lack of options 2) there was a Cup match and league survival is a priority, so Matt was given PT to rest more important players 3) coach sticking too rigidly to his guns on Matt brands him as an objectively bad player, as opposed to a player he has problems working with
I would add that Matt started making the bench in the league after the Cup match, so presumably Vahid now has (marginally) more confidence in him.
I think it's 4 in 10 games? (Edit: 3 in 10 I think is correct from what I can find on webs.) @ArsenalMetro
Big game this weekend for Nantes. Lose to Angers and 1) It shows this slide is not an aberration but that they really are starting to suck. 2) Let's Angers' tie them on point (and even potentially jump them if the GD is big enough but if Nantes loses by 3 goals to Angers, MM better be starting next week! on the other hand, if Nantes can win one again they jump back up to 11 and have a worst a 0 GD. Still have a lot of crappy teams to fall behind to be in the worry zone, but Halil has to expect they start beating crappy teams like Angers. Have to figure MM gets game on Tues in the Cup. TBF to Nantes, they've had a pretty full little schedule. Played: 1/4 (Cup W 4-1) 1/8 (Ligue W 2-0) 1/13 (Ligue L 1-0) 1/16 (Ligue L 1-0) with games upcoming on: 1/20 (Angers) 1/22 (cup) 1/26 (St. E) Wouldn't be shocked to see MM get in a ligue game some point in the near future.
There's no doubt that playing poorly in a big game, e.g. the Bordeaux match, might be reason enough for one manager to banish a player to the deep end of the bench, another might have thrown the gauntlet down and given him the opportunity to work his way back. In either case, Nantes' progress has been a downward slide of late, hardly an argument for the defenders now playing ahead of Matt.
Their slide is on their attack, not their defense. In their last 4 league games (1 win, 3 losses), they've conceded a combined 3 goals and scored 2. That includes a 1-0 away loss to PSG. Their only goals came while up a man for 70 minutes against Montpellier. They've gone 271 league minutes without a goal during 11-v-11 play.
Fair enough. Nantes is not a club I can watch with any regularity, so I cannot speak to whether or not Miazga has a place on their team, but I do know it is often not such a binary choice for a coach.