[Freak]

Outplayed by zouma and matic today.

 

[Amadaeus]

Louis van gaal should have countered, the counter tactics by Mourinho. But, it is understandable that a player of Fellaini aerial proficiency will always be a treat when on the pitch.

 

[shamans]

I'm probably his biggest fan on here - defended him all throughout last season. But.. I have to say, he was outplayed today. Don't think it's a big issue. We're still a recovering team and we'll have off days/players will have off games. In the long run I still believe he's essential to us.

 

[Kostur]

This. Not a chance he should have finished the match. Should have been pulled at the 60 minute mark (you can understand why Falcao was kept on with our injuries). Should have been AdM for Fellaini, with Mata going central.

I really can't.

 

[Randall Flagg]

They did a job on him

He still had some decent moments

 

[Anustart89]

I'm probably his biggest fan on here - defended him all throughout last season. But.. I have to say, he was outplayed today. Don't think it's a big issue. We're still a recovering team and we'll have off days/players will have off games. In the long run I still believe he's essential to us.

Just shows how good he's been recently when the opponent sacrifices his team's ability to play the ball by putting a defender in midfield to counter his thread.

 

[Walrus]

He had a quiet game absolutely, but that is because Mourinho set up his entire team around countering him [Fellaini].

We dominated the entire game, and make no mistake that a big part of that was due to Mourinho's negative tactics - like putting Zouma at CM.

Yes, this nullified a lot of Fellaini's game but it
a) Also nullified Chelsea's ability to retain possession and actually play football.
b) [Should have] created space for our other players. Our left side was once again where all of our most promising moves came from - can anyone seriously say that this was just a coincidence?

To me it was obvious that Fellaini was occupying several Chelsea players, which freed up space for Young and Shaw to attack down the left.

 

[prateik]

They were all poor today. Chelsea were well organized. We had the ball. Couldnt do much with it.
Young was ineffective. Mata was ineffective. Ander made a few bad errors.

 

[Ish]

I really can't.

It seems RvP wasn't fit enough for even a 10 minute spell.

So for the sake of "balance", Rooney needed to stay in midfield.

Any idea where Wilson is? Injured?

 

[Kostur]

It seems RvP wasn't fit enough for even a 10 minute spell.

So for the sake of "balance", Rooney needed to stay in midfield.

Any idea where Wilson is? Injured?

Think Wilson was back in either reserves or u21s recently so he's probably gaining fitness. To be fair I'd put just anything up front, maybe even move Fellaini to #9 instead of keeping Falcao for so long.

As for Fellaini, as everybody has said so far, quiet game, still managed to make one or two chances (cross to Falcao in the box is the first one that comes to my mind), makes me wonder though why LVG didn't re-think everything when it was obvious since day one that Zouma will play and man-mark Fellaini, throw Matić on top and it's pretty much it.

 

[BigDunc9]

Just shows how good he's been recently when the opponent sacrifices his team's ability to play the ball by putting a defender in midfield to counter his thread.

Ferguson done it himself having Jones man mark him from midfield.

 

[Devil may care]

They muscled him out of the game and he doesn't really have the guile to counter that.

 

[wr8_utd]

Zouma had his number all game. Don't quite know how he finished that game

 

[Ekeke]

I thought he was okay despite Zouma being put on him. He still had a couple of decent turns and a pullback or two. I think for the most part the extra attention just meant he wasnt going to get many shots away

 

[DWelbz19]

Very poor performance. Just a bit more proof he shouldn't be a sure starter next season but a specialised squad option.

 

[Kostur]

Very poor performance. Just a bit more proof he shouldn't be a sure starter next season but more of an effective squad option.

Same goes for Mata, ADM, Young and Rooney then as well I guess?

 

[AllezLesDiables]

Can't lay too much blame on Fellaini he created two dynamic chances in the box. He was being shadowed around the field by Zouma.

Put a lot more on other players for failing to take advantage of the space

 

[DWelbz19]

Same goes for Mata, ADM, Young and Rooney then as well I guess?

If Rooney is going to be used in central midfield like that, yes. Mata is similarly as toothless without Ander in proximity, and I assume Di Maria was chucked in to further your point, as he barely saw the ball in the 15th minutes he got.

 

[FlawlessThaw]

To be honest given the line up Mourinho went with we should have countered that by playing Fellaini in the defensive midfield with Herrera further forward and possibly Di Maria in midfield with Rooney up front. May have been a good time to have changed the system given how Fergie himself worked out how to nullify the Fellaini up front threat and it was always obvious Mourinho would start Zouma.

 

[Kostur]

If Rooney is going to be used in central midfield like that, yes. Mata is similarly as toothless without Ander in proximity, and I assume Di Maria was chucked in to further your point, as he barely saw the ball in the 15th minutes he got.

So we're fecked and need to buy new 4 attacking players who are of better quality than those mentioned above?

 

[kps88]

Very poor performance. Just a bit more proof he shouldn't be a sure starter next season but more of an effective squad option.

He's not going to come up against Zouma and Matic every game.

 

[Raw]

Mourinho got it right by sticking Zouma on him all game. Didn't he do the same in another game? May have been Spurs in the League Cup final.

Nothing went right for him, Chelsea just had all our attacking outlets closed down effectively.

 

[DWelbz19]

So we're fecked and need to buy new 4 attacking players who are of better quality than those mentioned above?

If we are going to use Rooney in central midfield yes. An #8 is already on our agenda, as is another winger, who will rotate with Mata. Why four? I already touched on Di Maria and he will be key next season.

 

[R'hllor]

Zouma was on him 24/7 and by doing that he left so much space,space used by our CB,think if we had Carrick or Blind,we would exploit that space way better.

 

[Kazi]

He set up good chances for Rooney and Falcao, and made some good clearances from their set pieces. But a below average game overall.

Rooney and Herrera should have made better use of the space he created. Mata too. Most of the time, we just elected to go for a shot from 25+ yards out.

 

[Kostur]

If we are going to use Rooney in central midfield yes. An #8 is already on our agenda, as is another winger, who will rotate with Mata. Why four? I already touched on Di Maria and he will be key next season.

I mention di Maria because I have no certainty that he'll be a key player next season, as it stands he can't really displace Young from the XI. Other than that, fair enough, can't see us spunking so much cash because if we're about to get players who are certainly of better quality than Mata, Rooney (even if we're talking about CM here), Fellaini and ADM(?) it will cost us feckloads of money.

 

[Ace of Spades]

He was ineffective, they did a good job on him.

 

[beergod]

He had a quiet game absolutely, but that is because Mourinho set up his entire team around countering him [Fellaini].

We dominated the entire game, and make no mistake that a big part of that was due to Mourinho's negative tactics - like putting Zouma at CM.

Yes, this nullified a lot of Fellaini's game but it
a) Also nullified Chelsea's ability to retain possession and actually play football.
b) [Should have] created space for our other players. Our left side was once again where all of our most promising moves came from - can anyone seriously say that this was just a coincidence?

To me it was obvious that Fellaini was occupying several Chelsea players, which freed up space for Young and Shaw to attack down the left.

Chelsea's tactics left us with a lot of space in midfield. We just didn't have the midfielders available to take advantage of it. If we had Carrick/Blind and Herrera isolated against Matic/Fabregas it could have been a much different game. He had a decent enough game despite all of the attention he received.

 

[Unlikely lad]

I can't fathom why we didn't try finding him more often?

 

[Boycott]

Maybe we could have switched him with Herrera for a bit. Herrera's energy could have split the defence up to allow Falcao and Fellaini/Rooney to take up spaces. We didn't really need a holding player as Chelsea were taking the game down to their tempo in possession.

 

[Walrus]

Chelsea's tactics left us with a lot of space in midfield. We just didn't have the midfielders available to take advantage of it. If we had Carrick/Blind and Herrera isolated against Matic/Fabregas it could have been a much different game. He had a decent enough game despite all of the attention he received.

I agree - Rooney and Herrera found themselves quite a bit of space in the middle, and likewise Young and Shaw got into some good positions on the left. Basically space opened up all around Fellaini, and only a fool would think that he had no part in that.

 

[MadDogg]

He had a quiet game absolutely, but that is because Mourinho set up his entire team around countering him [Fellaini].

We dominated the entire game, and make no mistake that a big part of that was due to Mourinho's negative tactics - like putting Zouma at CM.

Yes, this nullified a lot of Fellaini's game but it
a) Also nullified Chelsea's ability to retain possession and actually play football.
b) [Should have] created space for our other players. Our left side was once again where all of our most promising moves came from - can anyone seriously say that this was just a coincidence?

To me it was obvious that Fellaini was occupying several Chelsea players, which freed up space for Young and Shaw to attack down the left.

Agreed. Fellaini struggled a little for the first 10 minutes or so, and there was a period around the 80th minute where his head seemed to drop and he struggled for a while, but for the rest of the match he was creating significant space for everyone else in there. Even though he wasn't able to dominate in the air like he normally does, he played a good part in passing and movement and allowing us to keep such good control of the midfield.

Was it a great match by him? Of course not. But it certainly wasn't a bad match either.

 

[NotoriousISSY]

I can't fathom why we didn't try finding him more often?

Because Zouma. Chelsea were happy to let him try drift to the channels where he wasn't ever going to hurt them.

They set up to counter the Fellaini threat.

 

[Revan]

PhaseOfPlay has been saying for a long time that rival teams should man-mark Fellaini.

I think it was quite a bad performance from him today, but no harm on that. You can't always be Fellainho.

 

[Chorley1974]

Was outplayed and out danced all day, you could say he was out Zumbad

 

[Earthquake]

Seemed like Zouma had permission to foul him at will.

 

[Walrus]

PhaseOfPlay has been saying for a long time that rival teams should man-mark Fellaini.

I think it was quite a bad performance from him today, but no harm on that. You can't always be Fellainho.

I always think that if the opposition is playing such close attention to one of our players that they need to alter their tactics substantially to counter that player, it is already job done. As in, Fellaini didnt have a great game but I am not going to blame him when Chelsea set up to counter him specifically - it meant that other players around him should have been able to utilise the extra space etc, which they did not (or if they did, we as a team did not capitalise on it).

 

[berbatrick]

It would've made sense to switch the midfield around after a while -- Herrera-Mata was not longer there since Herrera was the DM and Fellaini had Zouma + Ivanovic. Putting him against Azpilicueta + Matic/Zouma would've been interesting.

 

[Revan]

I always think that if the opposition is playing such close attention to one of our players that they need to alter their tactics substantially to counter that player, it is already job done. As in, Fellaini didnt have a great game but I am not going to blame him when Chelsea set up to counter him specifically - it meant that other players around him should have been able to utilise the extra space etc, which they did not (or if they did, we as a team did not capitalise on it).

I am not blaming him though. Just that I am saying that he wasn't good today (or was poor today), especially compared with some of his latest performances when he has been excellent.

 

[Walrus]

I am not blaming him though. Just that I am saying that he wasn't good today (or was poor today), especially compared with some of his latest performances when he has been excellent.

Its fair enough, I just wouldnt have really expected much else today from Fellaini, given that Mourinho set out specifically to nullify him. Only the very best players in the world are going to be able to deliver in such circumstances.