Aye, well you seemed to have missed something rather obvious too.
27
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 31
- Goals
- 7
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 7
- Red cards
- 1
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Aye, well you seemed to have missed something rather obvious too.
Such a poor first half on Sunday. Just shocking. At half time I actually said we were winning despite him. His passing was completely shit, his efforts to win the ball back were clumsy and mistimed and his inability to deal with being pressed (both against Southampton and Liverpool) is a real cause for concern. He needs to take a touch and decide what to do and when he isn't given the time and space to do that it means possession is lost far too easily.
The past few games have highlighted his limitations - which most of us knew anyway. He's ok for certain jobs in certain games but he can be terrible outside of that.
The past few games have highlighted his limitations - which most of us knew anyway. He's ok for certain jobs in certain games but he can be terrible outside of that.
No mention of the second half?
Slightly better, as the game grew out of Liverpool's reach.
He was considerably better but like you've stated Liverpool had more or less given up and thrown in the towel by this point. I watched the game again and it wasn't the entire first half in which he was shocking in, more like the first 20-30 mins or so. He got markedly better as the game progressed. Not downplaying the fact that he was shite for some periods in both these games but kudos to him for bouncing back at least.
I guess his poor showings have a lot to do with Southampton and Liverpool's early high intensity games which tend to progressively fade away. He's limited technically and doesn't deal well with being pressed. Tbf to him most of the team shat their pants as well.
His passing doesn't inspire confidence at all and I don't think he should be a first choice midfielder from next season onwards. We should look to get a more all round physical presence if we truly want to improve in midfield. In saying that, he has deserved his place in the first team so far on the basis of his decent performances and he's the only player who really offers any kind of physicality and ability to cause disruption in midfield.
That's exactly what am saying. He does a job and is very useful, once people understand this, they'll stop expecting him to be Busquets or Xavi. I'm not sure about Strootman, he'll have to prove his fitness first, then recapture his form before we even think about it, and even then, if we want an absolute world class CM, there's a better one in Italy that we should be pulling out all stops for. But that's for another day.
Not sure he should be advertising this before the starting XI is announced, mind.
A United without Fellaini, we better win, otherwise people will think we lost because Fellaini wasn't playing 
nothing wrong with that, LVG said in the presser yesterday that Fellainin was ill and not in the squad for the Villa game
Love him or hate him hes really imposed himself in midfield the last 6+ games.A United without Fellaini, we better win, otherwise people will think we lost because Fellaini wasn't playing
Going to be strange not seeing Fellaini in the team. He's arguably been our most consistent outfield player over the last 7/8 games. He also provides us with a great balance.
In term of performances or presence ?
Both
A United without Fellaini, we better win, otherwise people will think we lost because Fellaini wasn't playing
I am certain we will win today without Fellaini. Villa have been/are shite, have 8 players unavailable and we are on a great run of form. The likes of Herrera should have a field day against this lot.
under normal circumstances, but he has this match fixing stuff in his head.
Well then I guess it is up to LVG to decide whether Herrera is in the right frame of mind for the game. Personally I would expect him to be fine though, he (Herrera) certainly hasnt seemed at all concerned by all this match fixing stuff in his social media posts.
Some people will look for any reason to bash the lad. Lvg already confirmed he wasn't playing.
A United without Fellaini, we better win, otherwise people will think we lost because Fellaini wasn't playing
Might have stopped their goal
We missed the "sack of shit" that was supposedly holding us back.
Games like this are why we miss him when he's not in the team. His presence at set-pieces could've been the difference today, even as an impact sub.
Or won some balls in the middle.
ouch!
He wouldn't have had any bearing on the result, we didn't win because we didn't do anything with all of the possession we had and he passes it as slowly and as sideways as the rest, we weren't bullied or out-muscled either.
Yes, yes and more yes.
Fellaini wouldn't have done anything to change the actual game plan we have. Said it time and time again, you need players like Silva/Aguero/Nasri who constantly move and pick up positions to play a possession based game in the PL. Teams are happy to sit back and give us the ball because we're so static they know we wont hurt them...
I think you cursed it...A United without Fellaini, we better win, otherwise people will think we lost because Fellaini wasn't playing
If you've really taken notice of him, you'll find that he's actually done this alot more this season. But yes, we require a new playmaker instead of Mata. Really unfortunate that our injuries held us back. Blind, Afro, Ander were all out while ADM was coming back unfit.
Yes, he is very good with his back to goal releasing players but I don't think it would have helped much today because everyone was just so slow at moving around. Guess they were still feeling the effects of that post-Liverpool party.
What? I never said anything about playing with his back to goal. Go rewatch entire games of us so far with him. Watch him closely. He has gotten way better at not only breaking up play and holding the ball, but at finding pockets of space in midfield and making himself an outlet for the short pass as well as making offensive runs.
The short passing is what I mean. I can't say I've noticed him driving with the ball but I've definitely seen him receive the ball with his back facing goal and play somebody in.
Needed him to nick the ball. Delph gave our CM the run around.
We also put a lot of crosses in...
I'd agree with this. His absence shouldn't have made such a big difference, and others should stand up and be counted for but with the amount of attacking players we were getting turned over quite often when Villa nicked the ball.
Fellaini in the side has made us more compactful and this is probably more important at this moment then it will ever be where we're playing wingers as wing backs, defenders in and out and an attacking unit still not fully clicked.
Lol apologies guys! Shouldn't have said it, as it has now come true
Still think if Herrera was fit to play ahead of Fletch, we wouldn't be missing Marouane too much.
Still think if Herrera was fit to play ahead of Fletch, we wouldn't be missing Marouane too much.
Falcao and RvP are more than capable of heading them as well.
Aye and Villa were set up to deal with them. Put someone like Fellaini in the box who is good at causing trouble and we'll get more chances.
You really think we would not have had a better chance of winning the game with Fellaini starting instead of Fletcher? I mean Fletcher was by far our worst player and on top of that Fellaini is our most threatening player at set pieces.
Well then how about LvG uses the two #10's and Di Maria to open up some chances on the floor for our strikers? Trying to cite the absence of one player for that result is wrong, if we now actually rely on Fellaini to beat teams like Aston Villa we are fecked.
You could say the same with Blind or Herrera in place of Fletcher, my point was that this notion that if Fellaini or either of the other 2 started we would have won is simplistic and wrong. If anything Herrera was the bigger miss as he quickens up our passing in the final third and would have added the dynamism we lacked with Mata up there. However what we had on should have gotten the job done, player A, B C being missing is no excuse.
wow...look at the theads last season about Fellaini....everyone was catatonic about getting rid of him....hated him...now, he's like...well..someone we need? Fickle fans eh?
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