NEMANJA MATIC has promised Manchester United: I’m close to hitting top form.
The £40million midfielder suffered a disrupted pre-season after only joining United from Chelsea at the end of July. He trained alone to start with and admitted getting match-fit and used to his new team-mates has taken time.
Matic said: “I didn’t have pre-season, I trained alone and I can feel it in some parts of the game.
“My body is not ready yet and I have some difficulty, of course.
“But I try to hide that and to play simple. I will be better.”
Matic, 29, will be able to build his fitness with the Serbian national team over the next fortnight.
They have World Cup qualifiers against Austria and Georgia. And that extra game-time should help him get close to his peak in time for United’s trip to Liverpool on October 14.
United are level on 19 points with leaders Manchester City after a storming start to the season.
And Matic says the club have shown they have what it takes to compete at the very top. He claimed: “As you know, we’ve won almost every game, we only drew at Stoke, and in the Premier League it is very hard to do this.
“This can only be done by big teams, so we showed that we are a big team and we have to continue like this.”
United’s challenge has been made tougher by what manager Jose Mourinho calls a “long-term” injury to star midfielder Paul Pogba.
The Frenchman’s excellent start to the season came thanks partly to Matic’s contribution. Matic added: “Everyone knows that Paul is very important for Manchester United. But we also have great players to play instead of him.
“We showed in the last few games that everyone in Manchester is ready to play and everyone can help us.”
From The Sun
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