He really was absolutely abysmal last season. I honestly don't have a clue where he will fit this season if he stays. We paid well over the odds for him and he was a panic buy and most likely a last resort.
Marouane Fellaini | 2013/14 Performances
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Better than Carrick? No way. Even in a down season last year Carrick was far better than him.
Well Carrick is actually a footballer which helps, he can make us tick with his vision and passing from deep.
Everton fans I know wouldn't take Fellaini back for £5m, they're playing a much better style without him, although they have their own worries about replacing Lukaku.
wait, so he cut off the only thing that made him any good 
Would Tony Pulis want him on loan?
Use him to take points off our competitors.
Use him to take points off our competitors.
We probably have to keep him now Carrick is injured.
We'll have kept him anyway. Van Gaal will work with him and make him a much better player. He excels in a challenge. And I'd much rather have Fellaini on the pitch than Carrick to be honest. Carrick is vastly overrated here, he slows the game down too much and not in a good way.
Or just sign Song and de Jong and be rid of him. I really don't see how Fellaini will fit van Gaal's system, I don't see him surviving this summer.
What has Fellaini got to do with midfield?
Think he'll be sold regardless of Carrick's injury. He doesn't suit anything other then teams like Stoke or West Ham really.
I'm glad you're not our manager if you prefer Fellaini to Carrick, a player who can actually pass the ball and has proven through the years that he has what it takes to help us win top trophies.
Seriously does anyone see how he can be utilised in a van Gaal system? I don't. The writings on the wall, especially after van Gaal's press conference.
Never forget.
Nowhere. He's anti-football and will have no place in a LVG side.
How many assists has Carrick got last season? It's easy to have a high percentage passing rate if all you do is pass it backwards and Sidewards.
Fellaini for Everton in 12/13 was Better than all of our midfielders. That's the season we signed him for. If people would actually wait till next season, he might actually regain that form.
Carrick on the other hand is old and past it. He needs replacing and Alex Song or Strootman look like the likely candidates for me. Both I which I rate over him by a good bit, btw.
Ah right, so it's only based on stats then? We won't base anything on what we actually see week in, week out? Fellaini had a good season for Everton because he was playing far more forward than he does / should be for us, and because Everton played that absolutely appalling Moyes style of football. This is not good enough in any shape or form for Manchester United.
Carrick has proven for years that he will play in sides that play attractive football, winning titles, a European Champions League etc, and being an integral member of those sides, as evidenced by the fact that over the course of his career he has always been one of our most regular players.
Is he the greatest player in the league? No. Are there midfielders out there who play his position far better than him? Definitely. Is Fellaini one of them? God no. Imagine him playing that position throughout the years we have had Carrick! I dare say we wouldn't have had the success we did.
Carrick sits there, plays deep. Does a lot of good work defensively through some great positioning, something Fellaini is sorely lacking. He passes the ball well and consistently, again, something Fellaini is lacking.
Fellaini is simply not a good enough footballer at the style of football I want to see Manchester United to play to be in the side. Carrick is a far, far better player. He has proven it down the years, and even in a down year last year was far better than Fellaini.
But hey, Fellaini got some assists. He must be a great player! Good Lord.
You know the saying, a broken clock is right twice a day? That's Fellaini.
It's always difficult to predict how these players will step up playing for a big club. Fellaini isn't like your normal midfielder of course. At Everton, I thought he was top class and big clubs were linked with him, and I thought he will be a top top midfielder for a big club but his position at Everton was much different, he played with his back to goal but even when he played in a deeper role and then one he does for Belgium, he still shone.
People are saying we should buy De Jong etc but he's even more of a limited footballer than Fellaini, if most were asked who's the better footballer two years ago, most would vouch for Fellaini. A season is not long enough to prove himself, I think most of the frustration comes from his style of play that no matter what he will never succeed and I can see fans' point but many players have not shone first season before going onto have great careers and proving themselves.
These players tend to show glimpses which Fellaini hasn't done, he didn't do anything in his first season to think "yeah he looks like he can come good".
He will have a full pre-season now, be used to the United pressure and will be playing under a better style, we may see an improved Fellaini at least, whether this will be good enough to continue his career at United is difficult to say.
People are saying we should buy De Jong etc but he's even more of a limited footballer than Fellaini, if most were asked who's the better footballer two years ago, most would vouch for Fellaini. A season is not long enough to prove himself, I think most of the frustration comes from his style of play that no matter what he will never succeed and I can see fans' point but many players have not shone first season before going onto have great careers and proving themselves.
These players tend to show glimpses which Fellaini hasn't done, he didn't do anything in his first season to think "yeah he looks like he can come good".
He will have a full pre-season now, be used to the United pressure and will be playing under a better style, we may see an improved Fellaini at least, whether this will be good enough to continue his career at United is difficult to say.
This pages has some posts which take each side of an argument to ridiculous extremes. It's ridiculous to claim that Fellaini the midfielder is clearly better than Carrick but the narrative abound on here of Fellaini as a despicable anti-footballer than no decent manager would go anywhere near is also ridiculous.
He's by no means a brilliant passer but he's underrated in that respect, as in many others. People forget that he had some very impressive games as a defensive midfielder for Everton before their lack of a decent striker saw Moyes push him into that weird target-man attacking midfield role where many on here will have gotten their first impressions of him. My feeling is that without that tampering he'd have grown into a pretty impressive DM by now and that if he was given a decent run back in a deep midfield position with a 'win the ball and give it to <more creative player>' kind of brief he could be a good player.
Whether Van Gaal sees room for that role in the new-look United team is another matter altogether.
He's by no means a brilliant passer but he's underrated in that respect, as in many others. People forget that he had some very impressive games as a defensive midfielder for Everton before their lack of a decent striker saw Moyes push him into that weird target-man attacking midfield role where many on here will have gotten their first impressions of him. My feeling is that without that tampering he'd have grown into a pretty impressive DM by now and that if he was given a decent run back in a deep midfield position with a 'win the ball and give it to <more creative player>' kind of brief he could be a good player.
Whether Van Gaal sees room for that role in the new-look United team is another matter altogether.
Interesting. I'd agree with you that people take it to the extreme. But I personally would disagree that he was an impressive defensive midfielder for Everton, or that he would be a good "win the ball" player. For all his size, I don't think he's very physically imposing, his positional sense is pretty poor and I haven't seen him be great in the tackle.
But if it's there, Louis will get it out of him. Fingers crossed.
You're vastly overrating Carrick and underrating Fellaini. But we're just gonna have to agree to disagree cause I'm under the belief that ANY style of play is the United way once we WIN. If LVG wants to park the bus and play endless long balls and crosses to Fellaini's head, then I'm happy to watch that. As long as it works.
I'm still encouraged that we are in the 13/14 thread and not the 14/15 thread.
Ah, ok. This is where we definitely differ because I want my United side to play with style. That's what the club is about, beyond anything else, in my personal opinion. Obviously I'd rather the team won, but I think games should be played with style.
As for over-rating Carrick, maybe I am. All I've really said is that I think he's a much better player than Fellaini, despite an off season last year. Haven't said he's great etc, and have said that he was integral to our title / CL wins. I don't think that can be in doubt, seeing as he played most games in those seasons. He wouldn't have been playing had he not been doing things right (I think we can both safely bow down to the fact that Fergie knew what he was doing more so than either of us).
If saying Carrick is far better than Fellaini means I'm over-rating him, then I guess I am.
Never forget.
Like a confused child on sports day running to his daddy at the side instead of the finish line, despite everyone else shouting and pointing him the right way.
Never forget.
If he hadn't have done this, we'd have won. I'm certain of it.
I don't think he was a deciding factor in our success all those years... He played a part but that's about it. Hargreaves and Scholes were much more influential than him in our CL win. You won't see Carrick picking out a killer pass or scoring a wonder goal therefore I think he's useless in the team. I've had this opinion for a few years now. In order for a to become world class again, we need a system. We can't have average English players in there. Especially ones that are past it.
Without looking it up, I'd be pretty confident that Carrick has generally been a top 3-5 player with regard to the number of appearances in the side throughout his time. Not too many players played more games than him. Yep, I'll agree he doesn't do anything too flashy, but he kept the engine ticking over there and did a really important job.
I'm not English, but even I'd rather an average Englishman in the Manchester United team to a below average (in my opinion) Belgian.
I think a lot of the criticism of Fellaini's defensive attributes stem from his use by Moyes by which he was put in a lot of situations where he was never going to look good.
Given that he was used as an AM for Everton for the couple of seasons prior to us signing him I was unsurprised that his positional sense was off when Moyes played him as a CM last season, especially in a box-to-box role where being in the right place at the right time is absolutely key. His more advanced positioning also exposed his lack of pace when the opposition broke meaning he committed a lot of clumsy fouls trying to chase back. Obviously these things were compounded by him putting in some pretty poor individual performances, although that's something you could say of basically all our players last season.
Ultimately last season he was asked by Moyes to play in roles he obviously didn't have the attributes to perform well in and consequently got a lot of stick for stuff that wasn't really his fault (as well as some justified stick for things that were his fault). A deeper midfield role plays to his strengths rather well as he copes very well with players dribbling at him, tackles very well in-front of the centre-backs and distributes the ball neatly, if not particularly adventurously.
Fingers definitely crossed, although I have a suspicion that some people less sensible than you would be unhappy to see him at the club regardless of whether he proves himself under Van Gaal.
Criticising carrick for passing sideways/backwards and slowing the game down, it's a fair point to some extent but not when you are saying replace him with fellaini, his passing range is the worst of any of our midfielders and he will be more guilty than any of them in terms of only passing to the nearest player to him and slowing the game down.
Truth is carrick is going downhill, as is fletcher but Cleverley, fellaini and anderson aren't any better and carrick is still without doubt the best of them which sums up why our midfield is such a mess.
Ah, people can be very fickle though. Put in a few good performances and they'll love him. Sure look at last year, I saw people going on about how they'd be happy if RVP was sold etc, after he had a few poor games and did in fairness show a bit of a petulant attitude. Now that Moyes is gone and RVP had a good world cup, those people are quite quiet.
Maybe you'll be right and if he sits there he'll do a good job. Interesting to see all the same. He will likely get a chance now with the Carrick injury.
Yeah at the very least it'll be interesting to see how Van Gaal goes forward with him. All-in-all I can't wait for the season to start!
Sorry, I remember him playing dm for everton.
He wasn't good at it. At all.
Think arteta was next to him so he wasn't even being asked to do that much but he was woeful.
Teams like newcastle ran riot against them with him playing there.
That had as much if not more to do with him being pushed forward than the lack of a striker. Even then it was obvious he was a no.10
I disagree that he copes well with players dribbling at him, i think he struggles badly against it. Same with tackling - they tend to look clumsy to me.
I agree that hes not a cm though and i just cant imagine a universe were fellaini is preferable to mata or kagawa.
It that's your opinion I'm not gonna try and change it. He did get quite a few plaudits in that position for Everton though, man of the match awards etc. It's absolutely no coincidence that the games for United where Fellaini has looked best are those where he's been given a defensive brief. His effectiveness as an AM and his ineffectiveness as a CM shouldn't be used to take away from his worth as a DM.
Fellaini didn't even play in midfield that season, he played off the striker. Carrick was far far far better than Fellaini that season - unanimous players' player of the season in a season we pissed over the league & also was in the team of the year. I don't know how you can invent nonsense like that.
He's on a windup, has to be.
I like to defend the microphone on here, but he's obviously not better than Carrick.
He was not, and he didn't even play in midfield, he played up top. Do you even watch football?
Right..32 is old and past it for a playmaker? Tell that to Pirlo.
He's a shit player, and Strootman is injured.Please stop. Please.
EDIT :
This myth can be very easily debunked.
Fellaini makes fewer forward passes than the "woeful duo" of Carrick and Cleverley per game.
Fellaini makes more backward passes than "Backwards" Carrick and "Sidewards" Cleverley per game.
Carrick makes more interceptions than "got great interceptions" Fellaini and Cleverley is just behind
Both of them are better in contested duels than Mr. "people underrate his defensive contribution".
Both of them are more creative than Marouanne.
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Fellaini
I'm all for discussing anything on here but, he will not be featuring in an LVG team....
I'm all for discussing anything on here but, he will not be featuring in an LVG team....
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