Remember when Sami outran him?
Nonsense. Sell our most important mid (together with Pjanic). The people on here ffs
I think the problem itself is that Matuidi is important for our midfield. He must be if only because he has probably most minutes of all them mids. Matuidi (of the last 2 years) must be a 4th midfielder at best and even then he is too limited to cover anything else than the runner position. Maybe he can do LB too, but Max never played him there. Given Cuadrado's experiment took 3 years (right?) it isn't too surprising and doesn't say much.
Wat? SMS a replacement for Matuidi? Dude has nowhere near the athleticism of Matuidi. His selling point is his ability with the ball at his feet.
SMS is anything, but a technical midfielder. The more I look into his game the more I see his first touch is good, but his passing is average. IMHO even Pogba doesn't have top-notch passing, but SMS is far from him too. He is strong, has good offensive (very good) movements and so forth, but it would have to be seen if he can utilize his large framework to be effective in defense.
Surely SMS has a ceiling that makes Matuidi look bang average, especially if you discount stamina. The fact SMS is far from the player we want him to be and yet is streets ahead of Matuidi says it all.
The biggest advantage our french star brings is cover for CR7 and AS. Very, very important. But, on the other hand, htis gives us less options and a somehow simplistic game plan.