[ad_pod ]

This article is part of Football FanCast's Transfer Focus series, which provides opinion and analysis on recent transfer news...

According to The Manchester Evening News, Nemanja Matic could be released from Manchester United next summer once his contract expires.

What's the word?

The Serbia international has been a Premier League stalwart in his time at Chelsea and United, but was restricted to 28 appearances in the top-flight last season.

Now, The Manchester Evening News claim Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is in the midst of "phasing out the physical figureheads Jose Mourinho relied upon", and Matic could be one of the casualties.

Watch Manchester United Live Streams With StreamFootball.tv Below

The report adds the 31-year-old could "feasibly" be released once the season is over, and thus allow United to continue their midfield overhaul.

The end of Mourinho

Whilst United's former Portuguese boss may have been sacked last December, the remnants of his reign still exist at Old Trafford. Matic is the archetypal Mourinho player, a defensive rock in his prime and a physical specimen standing at 6 foot 4.

Solskjaer on the other hand is keen on implementing a new high-intensity approach where players press from the front and work extremely hard off the ball. Matic however, doesn't quite fit that criteria. In United's 4-0 destruction of Chelsea on Sunday, the likes of Scott McTominay, Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard covered the ground well in central areas and suffocated the Blues in midfield.

In Solskjaer's style of play, Matic simply doesn't have a role within it. Indeed, at 31, he is on the opposite end of the age spectrum of what United are looking to buy and develop. So if the Serbian does get released at the end of the season, it will truly be the nail in the coffin for the Mourinho era at Old Trafford.

[ad_pod ]