I can't believe he is playing for us at all, let alone has somehow managed to become integral to the way we play.
27
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 31
- Goals
- 7
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 7
- Red cards
- 1
- Status
Thats just because we have so many small and technical types that hes the one one with strength
People are (typically) being overly harsh. Aside from the fouls he didn't do anything wrong at all IMO. Some of the fouls were harsh and paid just because he is Fellaini too. He contributed more than Herrera, Blind, and Young anyway. His passing was fine too, aside from one lay-off to Young which was just slightly overhit. I genuinely think people are seeing what they want to see.
Yeah, he played ok. Two through balls that were better than anything from Hererr et al anyway.
He did alright but anything over £15m for him in the summer and I'd bite their hand off.
That is what sticks out in my mind too. People are calling for Mata but honestly, when is the last time he played a ball through to the strikers? If anything, Mata is just as defensive in his passing than Fellaini. Fellaini's passing was fine.
He was ok today but I'm sick of him. Just seeing his name at 10 on our team sheet fills me with despair. He's not a United player and never will be.
I really don't think so. Most people can recognise that he's had a fairly useful contribution at times this season, but it remains that he's not a very gifted footballer for this level, yet has somehow become integral to our playing style as of late. A lot don't like that, which is fair enough.
He was effective and did what a good physical player does. Reason why he looks good in this team is because we create nothing outside of this style, we have no quick interplay, no great crossing or wing play, nothing at all just punting the ball up to the big man.
I keep reading that but I did not see anything from him that showed he wasn't on the level technically. His passing was fine.
We used to make jokes before Moyes started his job that we would sign him and use him like we currently do. I don't like or dislike him and he was't bad today, but it shows, how much standards overall have dropped that he and this style of play with him is integral to how we currently play.
The Tottenham game alone he played like 3 or 4. How many has he started since then?
Think you have summarised my view of it pretty well. He didn't play bad, but fact of the matter is we as a team seem to play pretty bad and with a style of football that is god awful to watch.
He is a percentage footballer in the role he played tonight. The odd time it will work and we will score.
Id much rather Mata,Herrera,Rooney or even Januzaj in his position tonight.
Id much rather Mata,Herrera,Rooney or even Januzaj in his position tonight.
For all the abuse, he created several good chances for us today - both from aerial balls and from good through balls on the ground.
For me, he was much more effective than Herrera in the first half, and with Herrera being on a yellow I could see why LVG chose to take him off rather than Fellaini.
Ultimately there are a lot of posters on here who simply cannot and will not accept Fellaini irrespective of his performances. He was OK today, he gives another angle to our attack and created more chances than most, and yet still people call for his head while excusing far worse performers.
For me, he was much more effective than Herrera in the first half, and with Herrera being on a yellow I could see why LVG chose to take him off rather than Fellaini.
Ultimately there are a lot of posters on here who simply cannot and will not accept Fellaini irrespective of his performances. He was OK today, he gives another angle to our attack and created more chances than most, and yet still people call for his head while excusing far worse performers.
IMHO: He is a waste of a starting place for a creative Mata or whoever … it kills me to watch him pointing out other players to pass to rather than him, he seems to have no faith in himself any more. I was excited when we signed him as I thought we'd be inheriting a Keane-type midfield enforcer but we've got an unconfident, ball-shy player who seems to think that hiding in the mediocrity of this team will further his career … we'd be better off with Crouch! When he hit that ball back towards DdG with 30 seconds left to go tonight I just gave up … he's playing to make sure LvG doesn't rip him a new one NOT TO WIN!
He did contribute more than a lot of players but that isn't really the problem, I think.
He will always be a threat in that sort of game given his rather unique talents. However, if we're looking to build beyond this point into a team that plays with coherency, rhythm and excellent technical quality then Fellaini's presence becomes more of a hindrance. He just isn't that sort of player.
Or, to put it another way, Fellaini may be more effective right now given we're playing poorly but he also makes it less likely that we'll see any really change in that standard of play.
I'm not blaming him though, it's just one of a whole list of factors feeding in to how underwhelming we've been.
He was good in the Spurs game I will agree, but other than that Mata is not the creative master that people seem to think he is. People canbe critical of Fellaini for not creating if they want, but it is not like anyone else really creates much more than him in this system anyway.
Again, I don't think that Mata creates that much more than Fellaini does.
There is no excuse for a man of his size to be bullied off the ball by anyone, let alone Francis Coquelin and Laurent Koscielny... No matter what he did or didn't create or whatever, to get muscled out of the way by someone half your size is ridiculous.
I mean, he wasn't bad today, in fact this season he'd be in the top 5 performers this season, but the fact he's being used as our 'number 10', our 'advanced playmaker' is a damning indictment of the state the club is currently in.
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His overall game is often incredibly slow and clumsy.
He's an odd one this season. He's undoubtably playing well. One of our best performers in fact. Yet I still can't shake the feeling he's holding us back by simply existing.
The defensive subs today, for example, seemed engineered to keep him on the pitch. Bringing Carrick on for the more forward minded of our CMs, to form the most low lying defensive partnership we could, was basically commiting to the idea that Fellaini is our default, go to No10. Which is understandable, albeit a bit worrying, in an away game we're losing, but very concerning in a home game we're doing well in. Doubly so in a squad that has Rooney, Mata, Januzaj and Di Maria all capable of playing in that position. There's no use pretending he's acting as some kind of physical midfield enforcer either when we're playing him in a 3 with Carrick and Blind. The only reason we could possibly need both of them on is to allow him to roam forward with gay abandon. Which he always seems to do anyway.
We're now in a situation where he's playing well, at least by his standards, so on the surface seems a sensible pick. Yet however well he plays, his influence on the team is reductive. He encourages us to seek him out from most of our crosses, and look for high balls when breaking out of defence rather than a potentially cleverer pass.
I can't fault the guy personally, because he's doing everything he can, but his strengths are limited to chesting down punts and then doing little creatively with them. Even the argument that someone like Mata is too easily bullied seems unconvincing considering Fellaini provides little to no cover himself. He basically just fouls people whenever he tracks back beyond the center circle. Which is why neither LVG nor Moyes have used him effectively as a DM, and why we needed to play both our holding CMs tonight to allow him to stay on.
The only thing he provides that none of our more natural No 10s do is an aerial threat in the final 3rd. But you can't help but wonder if the players we have could come up with something better if they weren't instinctively reliant on that tactic as a fall back. It's not like we don't have the options.
I can't blame him, cos he's doing his best, but with the talent we have, playing to the strengths of our least talented players just seems like a completely mad thing to do.
The defensive subs today, for example, seemed engineered to keep him on the pitch. Bringing Carrick on for the more forward minded of our CMs, to form the most low lying defensive partnership we could, was basically commiting to the idea that Fellaini is our default, go to No10. Which is understandable, albeit a bit worrying, in an away game we're losing, but very concerning in a home game we're doing well in. Doubly so in a squad that has Rooney, Mata, Januzaj and Di Maria all capable of playing in that position. There's no use pretending he's acting as some kind of physical midfield enforcer either when we're playing him in a 3 with Carrick and Blind. The only reason we could possibly need both of them on is to allow him to roam forward with gay abandon. Which he always seems to do anyway.
We're now in a situation where he's playing well, at least by his standards, so on the surface seems a sensible pick. Yet however well he plays, his influence on the team is reductive. He encourages us to seek him out from most of our crosses, and look for high balls when breaking out of defence rather than a potentially cleverer pass.
I can't fault the guy personally, because he's doing everything he can, but his strengths are limited to chesting down punts and then doing little creatively with them. Even the argument that someone like Mata is too easily bullied seems unconvincing considering Fellaini provides little to no cover himself. He basically just fouls people whenever he tracks back beyond the center circle. Which is why neither LVG nor Moyes have used him effectively as a DM, and why we needed to play both our holding CMs tonight to allow him to stay on.
The only thing he provides that none of our more natural No 10s do is an aerial threat in the final 3rd. But you can't help but wonder if the players we have could come up with something better if they weren't instinctively reliant on that tactic as a fall back. It's not like we don't have the options.
I can't blame him, cos he's doing his best, but with the talent we have, playing to the strengths of our least talented players just seems like a completely mad thing to do.
He's not even that good as a hold-up target man, especially when the ball's played along the ground. The ball just bounces off him, and he has to chase it and end up barging into an opposition player.
Spot on. Absolutely spot on.
Seconded, great post by Mockney
Exactly this. He's doing well individually, but he's more of a problem then help because him being there is a huge reason why we so quickly revert to hoofing it forward instead of playing it calmly, and as the #10 position is supposed to be the creative hub of the team, it's hurting us by having a target man be there instead of an actual playmaker.
Apparently he had 8 fouls and 38% aerials won (against fecking Coquelin for the most part as well) though today. So I don't think he played well at all today. Ruined most things that went his way apart from a couple of decent things.
Thirded, spot on
Not exactly happy with performance but he seems to be doing what's asked of him. I'm not really a fan for his style of football but I can't really criticise him for the long balls up to him. That's LVG's job to sort out how we play.
He's done very well all season and has turned his United career from a horrific travesty into something we can look back on confused about. I hope he gets the goal that secures 4th place, then gets a move for 15 million to a club where he can start every week, elbowing smaller opponents in the head and running around like a dog sent from the city to go live on the farm.
He needs to leave and we need to start playing football again, but I will happily cheer for him at his next stop.
Some team in La Liga that wants to buck the trend and emulate Simeone's physical style should buy him. He'd dominate there if Sevilla or something decided to go direct. Or the inevitable West Ham move. Kevin Nolan's 1100 minutes are just sitting there.
He needs to leave and we need to start playing football again, but I will happily cheer for him at his next stop.
Some team in La Liga that wants to buck the trend and emulate Simeone's physical style should buy him. He'd dominate there if Sevilla or something decided to go direct. Or the inevitable West Ham move. Kevin Nolan's 1100 minutes are just sitting there.
People saying he did better than Herrera with his through passes etc....Maybe if Herrera was afforded the freedom to play Fellaini's role, he'd do similar? I've not seen Ander make a risky pass ever since he came back from being dropped.
Not saying he was poor, but with him in the team, the likelihood of us going route one when things get desperate really annoys me. It's not as if we're any good at that supposed plan B.
Not saying he was poor, but with him in the team, the likelihood of us going route one when things get desperate really annoys me. It's not as if we're any good at that supposed plan B.
I agree with all of that and still can't make out if we use that tactic because we have him or that's the tactic LVG wants and he's glad we have him. Either way, if he is one our main routes to scoring, we are fecked.
The one thing that annoys me the most about him is the constant fouling. 99% of the time it's obvious when he will foul someone.
Man Utd 3:0 Tottenham
Playing well, no hoofball involved.
I don't think he's ever looked as good for us with a ball at his feet as he has today. He's still got that physical presence which he's always going to naturally have, but his passing has been good and accurate, and not only has he not slowed down the play, but he's been one of the best players in a game where we've been pulling off some impressive and direct passing. And with a good finish for the goal too, it's been a really good day for him thus far.
MOTM so far for me. Best I've seen him. So useful in the final third.
Marouane "Thomas Muller" Fellaini
Trequaristista
Fellaininho!
To balance out most of my other posts in this thread; great first half. Took the goal very well, played some good passes and made some very good runs as well.
I love it when we actually treat him like a footballer and not a one-dimensional battering ram. He plays so much better and has been lot more decisive in attacking areas today.
He's been excellent alright.
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