[mazhar13]

Yaya Toure and Demichelis had so much trouble dealing with Fellaini. Fellaini did a great job in handling the pressure that both offered, and Fellaini's strength and composure on the ball created the spaces that Young, Blind, and Mata exploited very well. His presence on the pitch causes so much disruption to the opposition, and since he's no mug on the ball, teams can't just stand back and let him have the ball.

To think that this was a player who many (including I) thought that wouldn't suit van Gaal's system and style...

 

[Walters_19_MuFc]

Simply unplayable.

 

[Empire]

Oh go feck yourself, I've come back into this thread weeks ago and praised Fellaini and stated his form is proving doubters like myself very wrong already, not doing this again.

For what it's worth, I still believe I know people more technically gifted than him anyway, and yes, I do have their numbers if you want to ring them and have a random discussion about it too.

And you think a player's ability should be judged only on his technique?

No wonder your judgement was so off!

 

[#07]

Felli was immense today. City really had no answer to him when we needed to use the aerial ball to relieve pressure. Plus, when he got it down he used it intelligently and brought our other midfielders into the game. Really strong performance. A world away from his awol showing against City 13 months ago.

 

[Dave89]

I lost faith in him last year, for the first time in a long time (eg I was gutted when Anderson left, and I want Nani and Hernandez back if wages are affordable) but I'm incredibly glad to have been so wrong. He's unplayable at his best. And the fact that he sacrificed wages to play for us makes me love him even more.

 

[Shark]

There's no more words to really say at this stage, he's still doing what he does and it's fecking great. What a signing he's turned out to be.

 

[Rozay]

And you think a player's ability should be judged only on his technique?

No wonder your judgement was so off!

No, it should be judged on height and nuisance factor. I could have this discussion all over again, but it would need to be some other time.

This whole 'he is unplayable ' thing is all good. Fellaini can be unplayable. Hazard can be unplayable. The difference between them is blindingly obvious - and Hazard is considered to have 'more ability ' than Fellaini for those same very obvious reasons. Well done to Fellaini for making himself a very useful part of our set up, despite not being blessed with great footballing ability *.

If Shaqueille O'Neil was half decent at football, I imagine he would be very difficult to cope with, used in the right set up too. I am pretty sure you are aware, as a follower of football, why someone would consider Fellaini to not have great footballing ability, and are likely just seeking a argument based on pedantry.

*footballing ability as generally considered by most neutral observers of the game.

 

[Moonred]

He used to be unplayable for Everton as well. I remember the season opener against Everton when we last won the title and he terrified us , dominated and scored the winner. Glad he is doing it for us now.
Beast.

 

[shamans]

No, it should be judged on height and nuisance factor. I could have this discussion all over again, but it would need to be some other time.

This whole 'he is unplayable ' thing is all good. Fellaini can be unplayable. Hazard can be unplayable. The difference between them is blindingly obvious - and Hazard is considered to have 'more ability ' than Fellaini for those same very obvious reasons. Well done to Fellaini for making himself a very useful part of our set up, despite not being blessed with great footballing ability *.

If Shaqueille O'Neil was half decent at football, I imagine he would be very difficult to cope with, used in the right set up too. I am pretty sure you are aware, as a follower of football, why someone would consider Fellaini to not have great footballing ability, and are likely just seeking a argument based on pedantry.

*footballing ability as generally considered by most neutral observers of the game.

Can Hazard control the ball with his chest like Fellaini? Can Hazard head the ball like Fellaini? Can Hazard defend like Fellaini?

Point is this: Fellaini is very skillful in certain areas and not only a physical threat. Having that chest control and heading ability is "being blessed with great footballing ability". Or is that only stepovers?

 

[Rozay]

Can Hazard control the ball with his chest like Fellaini? Can Hazard head the ball like Fellaini? Can Hazard defend like Fellaini?

Point is this: Fellaini is very skillful in certain areas and not only a physical threat. Having that chest control and heading ability is "being blessed with great footballing ability". Or is that only stepovers?

Let's not be silly now. This football lark didn't start with us two on red cafe. Is Iniesta more skillful than Fellaini? Was Zidane? Or does it simply depend what skills we are talking about?

 

[m1y2]

Can Hazard control the ball with his chest like Fellaini? Can Hazard head the ball like Fellaini? Can Hazard defend like Fellaini?

Point is this: Fellaini is very skillful in certain areas and not only a physical threat. Having that chest control and heading ability is "being blessed with great footballing ability". Or is that only stepovers?

this

 

[pocco]

Just enjoy having the unplayable big guy on our team. He destroyed us when we played against us and now opposition fans will be dreading him like we did. He's a beast and he still hasn't hit top form that he showed at Everton yet.

 

[JPRouve]

Can Hazard control the ball with his chest like Fellaini? Can Hazard head the ball like Fellaini? Can Hazard defend like Fellaini?

Point is this: Fellaini is very skillful in certain areas and not only a physical threat. Having that chest control and heading ability is "being blessed with great footballing ability". Or is that only stepovers?

I have no proof of what I am going to state but we would be a better with team Rakitic, Pogba, Verratti or Modric playing instead of Fellaini. We are making a good use of his qualities but against teams who are better than City, Liverpool or Tottenham, Arsenal for example, we need more control and Fellaini doesn't help us much for that. When the opposition know how to keep and use the ball, we struggle severely.

 

[...aka Las Cortinas]

How has he only got a 6.3 season rating? There must be some serious agenda voting going on for it to be so low. He's arguably been our best player.

 

[shamans]

I have no proof of what I am going to state but we would be a better with team Rakitic, Pogba, Verratti or Modric playing instead of Fellaini. We are making a good use of his qualities but against teams who are better than City, Liverpool or Tottenham, Arsenal for example, we need more control and Fellaini doesn't help us much for that. When the opposition know how to keep and use the ball, we struggle severely.

Maybe you think all of those players are better than Fellaini which they might be. My point was just regarding Fellaini; he isn't just some physical presence.

 

[thepolice123]

This guy is an absolute weapon to have in the team. Won 9 aerial duels, used the ball well and ran non-stop. Toure just couldn't cope with the workrate.

 

[Earthquake]

How has he only got a 6.3 season rating? There must be some serious agenda voting going on for it to be so low. He's arguably been our best player.

The ratings haven't been great, Mata's also 6.3, Rooney 6.2, the best is De Gea on 6.8.

 

[DWelbz19]

How has he only got a 6.3 season rating? There must be some serious agenda voting going on for it to be so low. He's arguably been our best player.

Everyone is fairly low, there's no agenda. We had a very slow start and we were all pretty critical.

 

[JPRouve]

Maybe you think all of those players are better than Fellaini which they might be. My point was just regarding Fellaini; he isn't just some physical presence.

Yes, he isn't a physical presence, that's why I'm sure that the players mentioned could be better for us, because we would lose the physical abilities but we would gain drastically in the technical department.

 

[Walrus]

From last season:



I can't believe I spent time trying to convince this guy that Fellaini was better than the random blokes he plays football with.

It's amazing how much bull people spread, just to think not that long ago I was trying to convince posters on here that it's too soon to call for the manager to be sacked! I think it's best to ignore people when they say stupid things.

I think I remember that post! Plenty others like it as well to be fair.

 

[BennyBlanco]

I have no proof of what I am going to state but we would be a better with team Rakitic, Pogba, Verratti or Modric playing instead of Fellaini. We are making a good use of his qualities but against teams who are better than City, Liverpool or Tottenham, Arsenal for example, we need more control and Fellaini doesn't help us much for that. When the opposition know how to keep and use the ball, we struggle severely.

In fairness there are only 2-3 teams in the world comfortably better than the likes of City and Arsenal, if Fellaini is more than useful vs 97% of our opposition.. i'd take that?

 

[Hojoon]

He's a fantastic outlet for De Gea. Wins just about every aerial duel and can probably chest a grenade under control.

 

[JPRouve]

In fairness there are only 2-3 teams in the world comfortably better than the likes of City and Arsenal, if Fellaini is more than useful vs 97% of our opposition.. i'd take that?

Arsenal are better than City, in my opinion. And there is 10 teams who I think are better than City, IMO again.

 

[Attila]

In fairness there are only 2-3 teams in the world comfortably better than the likes of City and Arsenal, if Fellaini is more than useful vs 97% of our opposition.. i'd take that?

You will be facing those teams every year in the champions league though so it would be nice to have a complete CM who can compete with them. However we do need to keep Fellaini now considering he manages to dominate so many sides and is a very unique player. We have plenty of room for those two midfield spots anyway as we only have Herrera and Fellaini for them anyway I think?

 

[tom33]

If Shaqueille O'Neil was half decent at football, I imagine he would be very difficult to cope with, used in the right set up too. I am pretty sure you are aware, as a follower of football, why someone would consider Fellaini to not have great footballing ability, and are likely just seeking a argument based on pedantry.

*footballing ability as generally considered by most neutral observers of the game.

Interesting that you'd bring up Shaq. If you compare Shaq's ball handling ability to someone like Kyrie Irving or Stephen Curry, there'd be no competition, but I dont think there are many that would question Shaq's ability to play basketball.

 

[Darwin09]

I have a chuckle every time I read that we still need to bring in someone next season to replace Fellaini if we want to "reach the next level".

The guy is proving not only that he belongs here, but that he is a force that opponents simply cannot deal with. He lets the little creative guys like Young, Mata and Herrera do their work.

 

[BennyBlanco]

You will be facing those teams every year in the champions league though so it would be nice to have a complete CM who can compete with them. However we do need to keep Fellaini now considering he manages to dominate so many sides and is a very unique player. We have plenty of room for those two midfield spots anyway as we only have Herrera and Fellaini for them anyway I think?

Think its pretty clear LvG will buy a midfielder this summer, hes already said as much a couple months back, but I really dont get this talk of "useful vs some but against so many others he wont be" because the likes of City have gone head to head with Chelsea this season and looked comfortably their equal both games for example.
The only teams miles ahead of everyone in the pack is Barca, Bayern & Real.

Now considering those 3 teams, and the fact we've been in the CL almost 20 years running (prior Moyes), how many times have we actually met those 3?.... Real 2x since 2003-2014, Barca 3x 2000-2014 etc, my point being.. those type of clubs are very few and far between, and secondly.. they're not games you're even certain to matched at all in a season.

 

[Annihilate Now!]

Oh go feck yourself, I've come back into this thread weeks ago and praised Fellaini and stated his form is proving doubters like myself very wrong already, not doing this again.

For what it's worth, I still believe I know people more technically gifted than him anyway, and yes, I do have their numbers if you want to ring them and have a random discussion about it too.

Does the man's peerless chest control not count as technique?!

 

[Attila]

Think its pretty clear LvG will buy a midfielder this summer, hes already said as much a couple months back, but I really dont get this talk of "useful vs some but against so many others he wont be" because the likes of City have gone head to head with Chelsea this season and looked comfortably their equal for example.
The only teams miles ahead of everyone is Barca, Bayern & Real.

Now considering those 3 teams, and the fact we've been in the CL almost 20 years running, how many times have we met those 3, Real 2x since 2003-2014, Barca 3x 2000-2014 etc, my point being.. those type of clubs are very few and far between, and secondly.. they're not games you're even certain to matched with every season.

I just think that these days if you reach the Champions League final you are going to run into Bayern, Madrid, Barcelona and PSG somewhere along the line. Would be very lucky to avoid them. City got absolutely outclassed by Barca in both games and Chelsea were far behind PSG in technical terms.

Also when you say how little we've met some great midfields in 20 years you need to remember that we've met other great midfields like AC Milan back in the day and got knocked out by lesser teams quite a few times. I'm not sure on how many times we've actually reached the Semi's.

 

[Dante]

Tiki-taka mitigates his weaknesses on the ball. It allows him to play the easy pass, whereas in the past he'd be a passenger if he didn't try to be a bit more creative. The fact he's so strong on the ball makes him a huge asset in a system where you receive the ball so often in tight spaces.

I thought Toure had the beating of Fellaini when the two came together. Luckily for us, Toure couldn't be arsed today.

 

[JPRouve]

I have a chuckle every time I read that we still need to bring in someone next season to replace Fellaini if we want to "reach the next level".

The guy is proving not only that he belongs here, but that he is a force that opponents simply cannot deal with. He lets the little creative guys like Young, Mata and Herrera do their work.

We have to bring someone numerically, therefore we should aim for better than Herrera and better than Fellaini. When the new players are there, they will have to fight for the places, obviously.

 

[Attila]

@BennyBlanco

2014 - Bayern (Quarter)
2013 - Madrid (Last 16)
2011 - Barcelona (Final)
2010 - Bayern (Quarter)
2009 - Barcelona (Final)
2007 - Milan (Semi)

Those are the only ones I remember watching as I only started watching United in 2003 or 2004.

 

[BennyBlanco]

@BennyBlanco

2014 - Bayern (Quarter)
2013 - Madrid (Last 16)
2011 - Barcelona (Final)
2010 - Bayern (Quarter)
2009 - Barcelona (Final)
2007 - Milan (Semi)

Those are the only ones I remember watching as I only started watching United in 2003 or 2004.

We've also not run into those type of teams in the past and been knocked out vs the likes of Monaco, Porto, Bayer Leverkusen, without playing the elite sides.
We're basically saying, we're in need of a much better midfielder due to potentially coming up against.. on average 0-1 team a season, are we not?
So I stand by my claim, even going on the fact he may not be good enough vs the cream of world football.. (A claim, not yet fact.. mind) Fellaini should, and proving he is useful for 97% of games we play in an average season?

 

[Attila]

We've also not run into those type of teams in the past and been knocked out vs the likes of Monaco, Porto, Bayer Leverkusen, without playing the elite sides.
We're basically saying, we're in need of a much better midfielder due to potentially coming up against.. on average 0-1 team a season, are we not?
So I stand by my claim, even going on the fact he may not be good enough vs the cream of world football.. (claim not fact.. yet) Fellaini should, and proving he is useful for 97% of games we play in an average season?

I was trying to show that when you get into the latter stages of the champions league you usually run into one of the true superpowers of European football and that we should build a midfield that will be able to handle them and help us become a proper strong team that will go deep into the champions league every year with a view of winning it.

Yes I know we haven't always ran into those teams and have been knocked out against the likes of Porto etc but I hope that isn't the extent of our ambition. I have nothing against Fellaini staying here and being a vital member of the squad but I think united should aim to become a member of the 'cream of world football' and sign players in that bracket too. The Pogba's, Koke's and Herrera's (I think he is going to be very good).

 

[BennyBlanco]

I was trying to show that when you get into the latter stages of the champions league you usually run into one of the true superpowers of European football and that we should build a midfield that will be able to handle them and help us become a proper strong team that will go deep into the champions league every year with a view of winning it.

Yes I know we haven't always ran into those teams and have been knocked out against the likes of Porto etc but I hope that isn't the extent of our ambition. I have nothing against Fellaini staying here and being a vital member of the squad but I think united should aim to become a member of the 'cream of world football' and sign players in that bracket too. The Pogba's, Koke's and Herrera's (I think he is going to be very good).

Yea, I get you, If we can get players that could potentially take us to that next bracket then we should go for them, for what its worth I do believe LvG will buy a midfielder this summer, but I'm just really rather sick of coming on here, even in a time where Fellaini has proven himself not only as a capeable United player in his own right, and lately vs our rivals to whom at this point last year we were being spanked to 0-3, 0-3 at OT, he's been immense, and yet we're still stuck in the mindset of talking about replacing the guy?

Just think its a bit of a farce really, lets give him some credit at some point? Sir Alex knocked out the likes of the Milan team you're talking about by utilising Ji-sung Park, you know its possible to win Premier League crowns & CL titles without 11 world superstars.

 

[Walrus]

I find it amusing, but also really quite embarrassing that even now, there are still people who feel the need to temper any sort of praise with phrases like "despite his limitations" or "going through a good patch" or other such nonsense.

They try to praise him, but just cant quite manage to hide some of the vitriol still. It must be a pretty hard time to be a Fellaini-hater.

 

[2cents]

Should he be a starter next year?

One of the first names on the team sheet as it stands. Really looking forward to seeing how teams cope with him in the Champion's League next season. He's just a quality football player with some quite unique attributes.

 

[Attila]

Yea, I get you, If we can get players that could potentially take us to that next bracket then we should go for them, for what its worth I do believe LvG will buy a midfielder this summer, but I'm just really rather sick of coming on here, even in a time where Fellaini has proven himself not only as a capeable United player in his own right, and lately vs our rivals to whom at this point last year we were being spanked to 0-3, 0-3 at OT, he's been immense, and yet we're still stuck in the mindset of talking about replacing the guy?

Just think its a bit of a farce really, lets give him some credit at some point? Sir Alex knocked out the likes of the Milan team you're talking about by utilising Ji-sung Park, you know its possible to win Premier League crowns & CL titles without 11 world superstars.

Yeah I don't understand people who want him sold after this season. He's been magnificent against Liverpool away in our biggest game of the season...and now he's helped us finally beat Man City! Helped save our season pretty much and that deserves some loyalty from United and the fans.

 

[Darwin09]

One of the first names on the team sheet as it stands. Really looking forward to seeing how teams cope with him in the Champion's League next season. He's just a quality football player with some quite unique attributes.

YES. Thank you. There is simply no need for any more qualifying statements when talking about Fellaini's contributions. He has been a huge part of a relatively successful season and we should continue to build around him and others, not as replacements but as complements.

 

[ZDwyr]

His chest control is just amazing. Any angle, any power, any distance - he just caresses it down like it's nothing. Delighted for him to get the standing ovation, well deserved. From being jeered in a pre-season game to this is a remarkable turnaround. His character can never be questioned.

I think LvG will buy another midfielder and that Fellaini will have to fight really hard for his place (which he is capable of doing), but with CL and the league there is no doubt that he will be an important player for us in some capacity. He's so difficult to defend against and is vital for us at set-pieces.