I'm not saying he is. But to say he's a quick passer is not true. He is slow on the ball and takes ages to get it under control. He's also far too quick to throw his elbows in my opinion and simply not good enough for us. He can cause teams trouble when used correctly but he's a mid table player. And not one with a good touch and quick passing.
Marouane Fellaini | 2013/14 Performances
- Thread starter RonaldoVII
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I'm sorry but that is wrong. I've seen him quite often take one touch and quickly pass the ball forwards to the creative players numerous times this season. As his confidence was eroded he probably started taking more touches. People underestimate his ability on the ball though.
Was there a defender within 10 metres of him when this happened?
Yes. I'm not saying he's Scholes or anything with his first touch and control, but he's pretty handy at playing the simple passes. I've seen him move it efficiently and quickly quite often. With players around him. That's just my view though. Obviously there have been games where he has struggled to do it against good opposition. I think it's more confidence than anything else though.
He has been pretty good against the smaller teams. It's against the big boys that he suddenly loses all confidence. I still feel he can offer something as a squa player.
his fan bois?
No. He might prove wrong the ones who call him utterly useless. I am not a Fellaini fan and I think he is not Manchester United first team quality. But I do believe that with a bit of confidence, he will do very well under a tactically good manager. He has certain good qualities like good short passing, physical presence and believe it or not, he is goodish at tackling; I saw him sometimes last season. And as we all know, he is good at scoring goals in set pieces. This year it has mainly been down to confidence. That step up under a beleaguered manager had its detrimental effect. Confidence and lesser pressure now is the key.
You're letting your low opinion of him cloud what you see. He's quite good at receiving the ball, taking a quick look forward and playing it simply to one of the attackers. Its the more expansive stuff that he cant do and the fact that he isnt great when pressurized which is a problem with almost all our CMs.
And considering we've already paid 27mil for him, your last statement makes no sense. He's too expensive to be a squad player so we should sell him for peanuts and then do what? Again go out and buy a squad player for CM.
I've said it before, yes, we overpaid for him but that ship sailed. He's easily good enough to be a squad player specially considering he can play both as the CM that screens the defence or the one that partners that guy. Not good enough to hold either spot on his own as a starter but easily good enough to be a squad player for both roles. Unless we get 15mil+ for him, there's no point selling him.
Agree. I too have observed his quick short passing through crowded areas this season. I think it was the bayern game first half where he played a very good pass on the turn through to rooney to launch a counter attack. People are really very harsh on him.
Agreed. It is unfortunate that he came in on a star's transfer fee but he is never going to be one. He showed glimpses of good play when used in the right situations so hopefully he gets a consistent run in the side to show if he can make it here. Selling him now would mean he is going for probably less than 50 cents on the dollar. At the least we should try to get his transfer value back up...
I think we all accept that he isn't the guy to drive us into the new era, he isn't the leader of our midfield but if we remove his price tag he is a useful player to have and we haven't seen what he can offer in a positive setting, under a positive manager ! We should at least give next season to see how he will be when the whole team is actually trying to play football .
I think we will sell him this summer. There will be plenty of midtable teams with £15m+ to take him. He's no United player but he'd be an ideal signing for West Ham or Stoke.
It's funny how so many people don't even want him to succeed at United. He was a key player at Everton, who are a regular "top 6/7" team, and suddenly he's only good enough for lower to mid-table at best. I remember him handily holding the ball against our players in past seasons, and now we make it out as though any random footballer in the general vicinity can just nick it off him at will.
Ok he had a bad season. He came to us off-form and carrying an injury, joining a team that was about to go on a downward spiral anyway, managed by a floundering boss.
But instead of talking about cutting losses etc, why not give him a chance under the new manager before deciding on that? He's a United player right now, and I'd love to see him flourish. If he doesn't improve after another season, there'll be plenty of time to sell him. It's not as though our squad is bursting with midfield talent, even if we bring in one or two additions this summer.
Ok he had a bad season. He came to us off-form and carrying an injury, joining a team that was about to go on a downward spiral anyway, managed by a floundering boss.
But instead of talking about cutting losses etc, why not give him a chance under the new manager before deciding on that? He's a United player right now, and I'd love to see him flourish. If he doesn't improve after another season, there'll be plenty of time to sell him. It's not as though our squad is bursting with midfield talent, even if we bring in one or two additions this summer.
No, it's not a joke, because as you can see many others agree with what I can see. It's just incredibly biased people like you who can't admit to these sort of traits that Fellaini actually does possess. When he plays with confidence he is a very good passer, and very direct towards the opposition's goal, yet people only have the memory of the bad games with him.
Can't believe the justifications from some people for keeping this useless overpriced lump. I couldn't see any reason to sign him last summer and that hasn't changed one bit.
Better than Cleverley? Maybe better than Fletcher and Carrick? I beg to differ. He has been just as ineffectual as the rest of our midfield, if not worse. But at least 2 of them cost us nothing. Jeez, our 40 year old player/interim manager/former winger has done better than Fellini in midfield!! And if anyone knew his role in Moyes' team Fellaini should have, at least the other players needed to adjust to a new manager. His shortcomings are longer than your arm. Never a top midfielder.
Failed in some of the big games? Try all of them. And even against teams lower down. Defeating a few poor sides doesn't mean his performances were good either. In fact, was he ever MotM in any of those games? Where is this quality you speak of? Cos a lot of people just do not see it, myself included.
He has already gone down as one of our worst ever signings and he should be out of the club ASAP.
Your bitterness is incredibly dull, you may as well just copy and paste the same post to make your point; will save you a lot of time.
After 1 season, half of which was curtailed by injury ?
A worse buy than 35m for Andy Carroll. At least you could argue a case he represents a Plan B.
He probably has failed in all of the big games. So has Cleverley and Carrick though. Carrick was woeful against Bayern in the 2nd leg. Fellaini was my MOTM against West Brom. That was our best CM performance for the season IMO, if not first then most definitely in the top 2 or 3. I know, they aren't a good side or whatever, but he still did the business. Everyone has been poor against the top sides. So then you look at the games against the decent and poor sides where he has played quite well. He deserves another season I think. He certainly deserved to be in the squad over Tom Cleverley against Norwich too, who can't play well even against woeful opposition.
You could say Fellaini represents a plan B.
I disagree that my last statement makes no sense. Do I think we're going to see his price increase while he sits on the bench for us? No, it'll only go down. We should sell him now while some team still remembers that he can be a disruptive force in a team. We could probably get 12-15 million for him now. A year sitting on the bench and that will just go down. My last statement makes perfect sense in my opinion.
I'd rather have some of the young lads coming through as squad players. Or even Tom Cleverley, who I'm also not the biggest fan of, because he has the club at heart.
Ah yeah, I'm incredibly biased simply because I don't see the same as what you see. Many others agree with you, I've seen 5 or 6 people on this forum agree, indeed that's true. I've seen numerous others disagree however. I hope you're right. Because if you are, we have a huge piece of our midfield going forward. But i really don't think you are. What Fellaini is good at is playing up near the front and being a nuisance. He's not a box to box midfielder, he's not a great tackler or physical presence despite his size, and I personally don't feel he's good at fast passing. Has he done it at times? Obviously. Is he good at it? I don't think so. More often than not, he has taken too many touches on the ball, even when in space, and gone on to lose the ball. Is that because of a lack of confidence? I really hope so. But I don't think it is.
But what do I know? All I know is that in picking his first side, in a side where Giggs said he wanted tempo, fast play - Fellaini didn't even make the bench.
Yes, and not just based on one season with our club. I've seen him at Everton, Liege and Belgium.
When was Fellaini ever good enough for our club before he signed for us? Did SAF ever express any real interest in him, or any clubs for that matter? If we were drawing up a shopping list of players to sign last year, since we knew midfield was a priority, can you say 100% that he was even in the top 5 or 10 choices?
It's all well and good saying that he hasn't had a chance due to injury, but then maybe he was never the right player for our side to begin with.
So he did well in a nothing game against a poor WBA team who couldn't buy a win. That's cos he is an average midfielder at best. I'm not questioning Cleverley's inclusion in our squad either, he's had his chance and should be gone. But he's not a big money international signing, is he? And Giggsy must disagree with you, probably cos he knows Fellaini is detrimental to our attacking style of play
A sensible post amidst the usual hyperbolic criticism Fellaini seems to attract.
He's clearly a better player than we've seen this season and there has been some decent performances amongst all the poor ones. Which is not something you can say about everyone in our squad, even some of the more highly rated ones.
I would very much like to see a Fellaini - Cleverley midfield before the season is out. I think they'd dovetail quite well.
Why?
Neither is very good so they won't be in awe of each other and will be aware that if they feck up, the other is unlikely to clean up after them.
I'm not sure as I haven't seen it, just a feeling.
I think maybe because it would clearly define their roles, Fellaini is the one to sit and Cleverley has carte blanche to get involved a little further up the pitch.
And feck it, nothing else has worked there this season, might as well roll the dice on it and see what we come back with.
They're potentially the most useless centre-midfield pairing in the league, based on this season.
I suppose the fact our midfield has been extremely poor this season once again could allow this partnership an appearance.
Problem is, neither footballer is very good.
It's by far the most mobile midfield combination we have at the moment. Could allow to play a higher line and faster paced football (on paper at least).
Oscar Pistorius is more mobile than Fellaini.
Compared to Carrick and Fletcher they're like Torvill and Dean.
They are better footballers than what they have shown this season in my opinion I was a fan of Fellaini's midfield displays for Everton rather than his escapades as a target man
Fellaini - Cleverley
Kag/Val - Rooney - Mata
Welbeck
Go attacking in one of the home games, I know that set up is a bit unlikely under Giggs but I'd be happy to see that once in the run in.Kag/Val - Rooney - Mata
Welbeck
Or Rooney up top with Mata in behind and Welbeck on the left...either way, something involving that 6.
Fletcher is more mobile than Fellaini, I'd say. And there wouldn't be much difference between Carrick and Fellaini, with Carrick possessing intelligence too.
Fellaini gets ahead of the halfway line quite a bit, Carrick and Fletcher don't. I'm not going to argue that MF is the next coming of Keane, but he deserves a chance in a more expansive team.
Well I mean, that's because Fellaini has been deployed as a box-to-box midfielder for the most part, Fletcher and Carrick have played as holding midfielders. I'm sure Fellaini will get another chance next season, mainly because of how weak our midfield still is.
Just sell him, he will not work for our future plans and is acummulating an extra midfield slot. There's no shame in having a player for one season and it not working out no matter what the value. See Zlatan and Barca.
He's also better at shooting too
Ooohhh.How many CMs do you want us to buy at one go? And no, he wont be sitting on the bench all year, he's at United competing with the likes of Carrick, Clev and Fletch. Not at Bayern. He'l get plenty of games.
And which are these young lads that are ready to make the step up to the 1st team?
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