27
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 31
- Goals
- 7
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 7
- Red cards
- 1
- Status
Both goals from his weaker foot, second one's a beauty, happy as feck for him.
He's really two-footed. Only noticed that this season.
We have to give Moyes's some credit for bringing him to United but I feel that it is Van Gaal's influence that is advancing the player. Whatever the case, he will always be a very useful player, at the least, for us.
Tbf it's pretty easy. Beautiful goal and he is in a great form right now, but he isn't the most likable character.
Brimming with confidence at the moment. Really making me eat my words. Last season, I honestly rated his footballing ability no higher than a League One player. In great form right now, brilliant goal tonight.
His attitude is spot on and an example to other players of getting your head down and working hard. I find him very likeable, personally.
Goal!
He is finally showing the sort of form we saw at Everton for a couple of seasons that made a lot of people stand up and take notice, credit to him for completely changing my mind on him.
Yeah, but he is a dirty player and a very frustrating one when he is off-form. We should give him credit for his attitude, this is spot-on, after all this abuse (he didn't deserve one from his own fans, no-one does, yet the critique was justified) he pulled himself together and become a useful player for us. But I still don't like him
I can't believe there is still people who wants him sold in the summer. The way he has worked himself back into the team after being booed by our own fans deserves a lot of credit and he is becoming one of my favorite United players.
He had a decent run around this time last year in a defensive midfield role. Seemed Moyes was going with a 4-5-1 / 4-4-1-1. A tough 10 months with circumstances like being the symbol of Moyes, plus being quite injury prone didn't help. He proved himself at Everton to be considered here though.
I don't see him as a dirty player myself. He is physical and combative - so was Roy Keane. The crap about his elbows has been massively exaggerated on here - probably so people could use it as yet another stick to beat him with last season. His height causes problems in this respect but I don't think he does anything intentionally, and since he has been at the club there haven't really been any such 'incidents'.
Of course you are welcome to your opinion on him, as am I and everyone else - but I find your assertion of him as not likeable to be wide of the mark.
He still fouls a lot but I feel the darker side of his game is disappearing under Van Gaal. I think the way that he has come back this season really emphasises the strength of his character. These are the types of players that you need a top club.
I posted probably a dozen times in this very thread to that effect - there were a lot of mitigating circumstances for Fellaini last season. Whilst his performances were poor, the fans turned on him basically immediately.
They fans turned on him before he kicked a ball last season
And then he was the butt of many jokes
hope he tells other red devils de Bruyne, Naingollan and Witsel to join the Red devils army of Manchester
He wasn't playing much worse than many others in the squad though. But he was Moyes' buy and cost too much, so he became a scapegoat for everything that went wrong it seems.
He didn't really. He had some OK performances against mediocre opposition, which some people got excited about because he was comically bad otherwise especially in the bigger games last season.
I always thought that he was the target, the stooge if you like, for what the fans really thought of Moyes. It was almost a religious mantra for some fans loyal to Fergie that they couldn't criticise the new manager no matter what, thus the anger was directed at the next most logical target.
Chuffed for him. He's playing with such confidence at the moment, it's fantastic.
This.
This.
I still liked him more when he was playing in midfield this season. When he plays behind the striker, other than the last two games, it becomes quite an easy option for our players just to look for him when we can do much with passing the ball around with the players we have.
I'm with you for the most part but the last two games I think he's been playing more between the lines, or box to box as opposed to a direct focal point like he was against Arsenal and Swansea.
He is no Roy Keane - there is a difference, imo, you have players that foul for a reason (and that reason can even be a criminal one, like when Keane fouled Haaland) and you have players that just foul - foul constantly and, often, meaninglessly. Fellaini is the latter - though he is doing better under Van Gaal, I have to give him credit for that. My definition of a "likable" player is a player that opposition fans can and do like. I didn't like him at Everton because of his dirty/stupid/clumsy side and very few did, iirc - same logic applies here, I don't think that many opposition fans like him now.
I don't think he is majorly a dirty or cynical player, my main gripe is that he'd give away so many clumsy and unnecessary fouls at times.
That's simply not true. Before he came to United there were a number of incidents, notably those 3 with Shawcross which are undeniably terrible assaults. Then when he arrived, he commited two bad ones on Zabaleta (which was awful) and Gosling. The one against Allen I'm willing to accept the height argument but the other two certainly don't fall under that umbrella.
Aside from "that tackle", I don't remember Keane doing anything where it wasn't either a hard tackle or a reply to a bad tackle. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't remember him making leg breaking tackles or elbowing players.
Although on a positive note, Fellaini seems to have cut it out of his game too under Van Gaal. He still gives away a lot of silly needless fouls and gets booked due a totting up process but he's certainly toned down his negative physicality this season which is good to see.
Cleverley is a much better footballer........ Fellaini has really revived and looks like a certainty for club en country, happy for him.
never been a fan of the player but he really is likable.
fecking hell, those goals are amazing.
SIGN HIM UP!!!
SIGN HIM UP!!!
You have stated yourself that you dont like him, so it doesnt surprise me that you are coming off a bit biased here. Most have agreed that Fellaini (just like other tall players) gets unfairly penalised a lot of the time simply due to the height advantage he holds.
There have been a few games this season where he has commited too many fouls, but these were primarily when he was being played as a DM - which with hindsight we can see is clearly not his best position. In his last few games when he has been in a more attacking role, he doesnt tend to concede anything like as many fouls - and again, some of those given against him are largely regarded to be poor decisions from the ref.
None of the incidents you have mentioned really stick out in my memory, to be honest. I have noticed that during his time here though, the fans have had a tendency of making a mountain out of a molehill whenever Fellaini becomes involved - like the 'spitting' incident (against Chelsea I think? Could be wrong) where the 'fans' on here were going out of their way to try to argue that Fellaini had done something wrong, even when all evidence pointed to the contrary.
Again, I think Fellaini gets penalised a lot due to his height and because he sometimes appears awkward. When your arms are at the same height as other players heads though then I think you have to accept that accidents will happen sometimes. Fellaini definitely doesnt strike me as a dirty, malicious or cynical player - combative, physical and occasionally aggressive yes, but not dirty. Frankly we have needed a bit of bite in our midfield for years, so I for one have no problem with him acting a bit of a hard man at times, as long as he doesnt get himself sent off.
I actually do quite like the guy, but you seem ridiculously biased towards him. He doesn't add a lot of "bite" in the sense of making hard, fair tackles. He's done well this season in becoming a lot more defensively aware and has started really using his physicality in a legal way, but last season he was almost useless in midfield in terms of "bite" as he was too slow to even cover the ground.
Having a problem with this is not making a mountain out of a molehill.
Having a problem with this is not making a mountain out of a molehill.
Can't disagree with you about me being biased, obviously - I am. But, then, so are you - you've stated yourself that you do like him. It's hard to find a non-biased opinion here, and the truth is probably somewhere in between. To blame his height for his elbow shenanigans is like blaming Ivanovic's shoulder for being in the way of Suarez's jaws, it's absurd, really.
@Joemo has some good points - about the difference between combative and dirty players and about his disciplinary/mental progress under Van Gaal. Most of his fouls comes from him being too slow/stupid in the first place (I'm talking about football intelligence here, of course) and then trying to make up for it with his hands. A childish behaviour. But Van Gaal seems to be a very good influence on him.
I have no problem with him as long as he plays good and doesn't do our club any harm - and he is certainly a success so far in this season. But in the future/ideal United I don't want such players in the team - I want intelligent players without the occasional brainfarts to have the main roles in our team - ergo, I don't "like" him - and it's pretty easy to don't like him, as I stated in my original point. I want comment here more probably, it's not fair to the guy, he doesn't deserve to be criticized right now
I actually do quite like the guy, but you seem ridiculously biased towards him. He doesn't add a lot of "bite" in the sense of making hard, fair tackles. He's done well this season in becoming a lot more defensively aware and has started really using his physicality in a legal way, but last season he was almost useless in midfield in terms of "bite" as he was too slow to even cover the ground.
Having a problem with this is not making a mountain out of a molehill.
Only just noticed the guy in the crowd (bottom right) giving Fellaini an small applause for that elbow. Good challenge.
I actually do quite like the guy, but you seem ridiculously biased towards him. He doesn't add a lot of "bite" in the sense of making hard, fair tackles. He's done well this season in becoming a lot more defensively aware and has started really using his physicality in a legal way, but last season he was almost useless in midfield in terms of "bite" as he was too slow to even cover the ground.
Having a problem with this is not making a mountain out of a molehill.
As you said - this season he has been using his physicality in a legal way. He has bullied opposition midfielders and defenders plenty of times, just look at his highlight reel against arsenal, for example.
He's quite good with his left foot isn't he? Something that doesn't get mentioned much.
I will be furious if we sell him. For now, he should be a starter. If he continues like this, give him a starting place next season.
What a great aand useful player he turns out to be.
What a great aand useful player he turns out to be.
Definitely. It's one of his many positive traits that were forgetten in the midst of last season's calamity. It was evident at Everton and remains so now at United.
Another one of his best - and woefully understated - strengths is passing the ball, often very simply, behind opposition lines and into attacking space. He might not be be able to ping balls out wide like a Carrick or Scholes, but his passing is very, very consistent and almost always played at the correct weight and speed.
Anybody surprised by what we're seeing right now just didn't follow him closely enough at Everton. His box to box strengths were always clear to see.
Which is why I hated him for a dozen of minutes against Arsenal.
Fellaini had some good games last season, suggesting otherwise is grossly unfair. His lumbering performances in bigger games were used as a microcosm of the perennial averageness we succumbed to under Moyes. Fellaini, unsurprisingly, bore the brunt of the frustration. He was Moyes' man and somewhat representative of our woeful record in the transfer market.
Our entire midfield was terrible last season, and Fellaini wasn't much worse than Carrick, if worse at all. They were left out to dry by Moyes' tactics. A defence that defends on the 18 yard box and two strikers holding hands at the other end of the field leaves a static midfield two up shit creek, irrespective of who plays there.
- Status