the scouser got banned for it...and rightly so.
having said that...Fellani was very stupid to do what he did and deserves the ban he will get.
27
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 31
- Goals
- 7
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 7
- Red cards
- 1
- Status
the scouser got banned for it...and rightly so.
having said that...Fellani was very stupid to do what he did and deserves the ban he will get.
If he's a consistent starter for United next season, I would expect Guardiola to be replacing LVG in the summer. He's not a player United should build the team around or work to accommodate. He's a useful plan B or squad player, but he's not what United need to be about. United will not win the league with him as a regular starter.
he is a versatile player..a top option to have.
I dont see a problem if he plays the majority of games.
I dont see a problem if he plays the majority of games.
I'm not so sure. He isn't the problem. Losing Carrick was the problem. We played some of our best football in years, with Fellaini in the team. The Spurs, Liverpool and City matches, were the best I've seen Man Utd play in years. Certainly it's the most dominant, in terms of possession I've ever seen us against big rivals. Fellaini was instrumental in that.
As long as Carrick, or a suitable replacement is in the team, I see no reason not to continue with that formation and personnel.
Don't forget, LVG doesn't pick players based on reputation or level of ability, but how well the fit his philosophy and follow his instructions.
Now, could we find a player better than Fellaini to fill his role? Most likely but he's done very well and there is no reason why he couldn't be a starter in a championship winning team.
Yes because of their overall contributions to the club. And they're not the same type of tackler, yes both made crunching tackles but Scholes' tackles were not on the levels of severity as Keane's. And that's not to say that the bad tackles they've made are pardoned, only outweighed by their positive contributions. Now that may not be right, but that's the way it is. The difference between Fellaini and the players you mentioned is they performed for more than 4 or 5 games in a row at a time.
This sums up your fanaticism. In your mind there was never any sort of case, but yet you still have a problem with people trying to look at a questionable incident. Spitting is a deplorable thing to do, and whether he did it or not (I can't even remember it happening) I have no problem with people, regardless of the club they support, seriously looking at it to find a verdict.
I do agree with you that the booing is terrible, although maybe I don't feel quite as strongly about it as you do.
I dont have anything against having him in the squad,he gives us other options,also even if opposition focus on how to stop him (take Chelsea game),we can learn how to use that situation as advantage for our other players to take,for example Zouma in that game left tones of space in front due him being glued to Afroman. I dont think he will be in 1st XI always next season but we will see i guess.
This seems a bit contradictory - you dont remember the incident but are calling me a fanatic based on a comment about it (the incident). Could it not be that the reason you dont remember it was because it was such a clear cut 'no case to answer' type of thing, and very little was made of it in the media? But if ole' Walrus says the same, then it is deemed fanaticism and me being so blinkered that I refuse to accept any opinion that contradicts my own.
Regarding Keane and Scholes, you say yourself that the bad tackles they have made are pardoned due to their positive contributions. That is fine, but it proves (if it needed proving) that the fans opinions of a player (with regard to how good they are, and how much they like them) will have an impact on their reaction to said player doing something stupid. If it sounds obvious then thats because it is. Apply this a bit further and it isnt really a stretch to then say that at the other end of the scale, if you have a player that a lot of the fans have had a historic dislike for, since day one, then this too will have an impact on how they react if that player does something stupid.
The short and simple version is what I said before, and is really all I have been trying to say over the last two pages - that Fellaini receives a disproportionate amount of criticism and abuse from the fans compared with other players. But apparently saying that makes me some sort of religious afro-fanatic.
your right that hes a versatile player but that is were the problem is, he'll be used for that versatility always regardless of other options.
People who keep saying he has been lucky and 'gotten away' with potential cards and stuff this season need to realise how often he (unfairly) got cards and fouls given against him purely because of his size. It more than evens out I would say. I hope he continues to start matches/performs next season just to continue to burn away at some of the posters in here.
anything over 15m and i pull the trigger. i dont want his skillset giving any ideas to the manager.
Spot on in my opinion. Carrick's injury was the key to our abysmal three losses in a row in my opinion, with him I'm confident we would have finished second or at least third.
You are putting far too much into this.
WOW this thread went out of control very quick.
I think wanting any player not just a United player crippled is appalling . We are not RAWK or Bluemoon.
But I see Snake Plissken has admitted it was an over reaction.
I think wanting any player not just a United player crippled is appalling . We are not RAWK or Bluemoon.
But I see Snake Plissken has admitted it was an over reaction.
His tackling is more often than not miss timed and his hold up play is generally very poor because his ball control is one of the worst I've ever seen from a United player. When the ball is played up to him, he invariably ends up chasing back up the pitch after his own first touch. If Fellaini has the ball, or if the ball is passed to him, and you see a team mate make a good run or take up a good position, you naturally expect Fellaini not to be able to find them. In fact you expect him not to even try to. He will ignore them and go backwards, or he'll control the ball off for a throw in on the opposite side of the pitch. This is not the sign of a good or effective player.
He was useful for a bit when he played him in an advanced role on the left, just inside Young, because opposition teams didn't seem to know what to do about it and their fullback would end up trying to mark him and Young at the same time....but it worked for like, three games, and then teams just started putting an extra man over there and letting us hoof the ball to him. As soon as he stopped being left in an acre of space for half of each game he went back to being oafish and ineffective.
He's also useful at heading in crosses, which is a good thing, but I don't consider that a few headed goals a season offsets the many negatives he brings to the team. Maybe if he got 30 goals a year doing this, instead of, you know, about 4, but he doesn't. Instead you have things like that run of games where we stopped playing football entirely in order to punt crosses at him when he was stood too wide to do anything with them anyway. Or the many games where he's been the least useful player on the pitch and offered nothing. Or the countless times in every game where one of our attacks is stifled because Fellaini doesn't know how to play a forward pass. Or the lingering threat that he might do something incredibly thick and get sent off (in fairness, this seems to apply to about half our team).
The hoof ball tactics work as a variation where there's something about them to catch the opposition out, but you can't actualy play Fellaini up front because he isn't good enough, and you can't play him in midfield because he isn't good enough there either. So he ends up being given some special role where he just sort of stands there challenging for headers, as if he were a tree. I'd rather we just put a footballer in the team personally. We're not a pub side.
I'm probably being a bit harsh but I've given him 2 years and I've not seen anything to suggest he should be a United player...he becomes a United player if we drop our standards enough to allow him to be, basically.
@noodlehair in my opinion you are exaggerating his weaknesses and undervaluing his strengths there. Not going to type up a long drawn out post because it has all been said before, but;
For example, where you say that he is "good at heading in crosses", I would say that he adds a whole new angle to our attack, and that we have seen plenty of times in the past that without any genuine aerial threat, teams are happy to just show us down the flanks and defend the central areas, and we cannot break it down regardless of how many crosses we put in. Furthermore, his aerial strength has been a major asset for us on defending set pieces and corners.
You are saying we stopped playing football in order to punt crosses at him - but this is simply not true, and I suspect you probably know that as well and are just saying it for dramatic effect.
You say that there has been several games where he has been the least useful player on the pitch and offered nothing - but I dont think that is true either, as like I said, even when he isnt directly involved, he is an asset on defending set pieces and his aerial presence forces opponents to defend wide areas, which creates space for other players. If anything, I generally apportion more of the blame on those other players, who have not had opponents specifically man marking them, have not had the opposition pretty much setting out to stop them, and have still failed to produce anything (I am primarily referring to the three games without scoring).
Your description of his "special role" is also pretty biased as well, as it was this "special role" which was crucial to our success in most of our best periods this season. Where you seem to think it is a problem for us to have a unique player, I see it as a benefit to have that in the squad, and that it gives the manager options that other teams do not have.
His ball control, there isnt much I can really say here except that if Fellaini's ball control is the worst you have ever seen, I would question how many players you have actually seen. If you are interested, skip back through this thread and you will see absolutely loads of comments by posters who are/were pleasantly surprised by his technical ability on the ball.
Basically you are just being massively biased - you say yourself that you are probably being "a bit harsh" and I think the reality is that it is a lot more than "a bit".
For example, where you say that he is "good at heading in crosses", I would say that he adds a whole new angle to our attack, and that we have seen plenty of times in the past that without any genuine aerial threat, teams are happy to just show us down the flanks and defend the central areas, and we cannot break it down regardless of how many crosses we put in. Furthermore, his aerial strength has been a major asset for us on defending set pieces and corners.
You are saying we stopped playing football in order to punt crosses at him - but this is simply not true, and I suspect you probably know that as well and are just saying it for dramatic effect.
You say that there has been several games where he has been the least useful player on the pitch and offered nothing - but I dont think that is true either, as like I said, even when he isnt directly involved, he is an asset on defending set pieces and his aerial presence forces opponents to defend wide areas, which creates space for other players. If anything, I generally apportion more of the blame on those other players, who have not had opponents specifically man marking them, have not had the opposition pretty much setting out to stop them, and have still failed to produce anything (I am primarily referring to the three games without scoring).
Your description of his "special role" is also pretty biased as well, as it was this "special role" which was crucial to our success in most of our best periods this season. Where you seem to think it is a problem for us to have a unique player, I see it as a benefit to have that in the squad, and that it gives the manager options that other teams do not have.
His ball control, there isnt much I can really say here except that if Fellaini's ball control is the worst you have ever seen, I would question how many players you have actually seen. If you are interested, skip back through this thread and you will see absolutely loads of comments by posters who are/were pleasantly surprised by his technical ability on the ball.
Basically you are just being massively biased - you say yourself that you are probably being "a bit harsh" and I think the reality is that it is a lot more than "a bit".
Didn't realise McShane was hurt that bad.
He's a Peter Crouch, Niall Quinn, Tony Cascarino clone.........He's every mid-table managers wet dream......he doesn't really have a position apart from attacking set pieces and crosses and he is the best in the business at that.....defenders hate playing against him as they get lumps kicked out of them when they face him........Fellaini is probably the reason that Moyes got the Utd gig as Fellaini won Everton so many points for so many years from crosses and set pieces that he was practically a one man team there which possibly made Moyes out to look a lot better than he was....Fellaini is a wonderful option for us to come off the bench for the last 10 minutes if we need to go route one but he should never be more than a last 10 minute player at a club like Utd...I think we'll snap the hands off anyone willing to pay 15 million for him but Van Gaal might see him as a super sub for next season
Didn't realise McShane was hurt that bad.
That's weird. Did he get stitched up when he was still on the pitch? Surely not. They'd have to give it a good clean first. So why's he still wearing socks/shorts in that photo?
Nasty gash though. Brave bloke to finish the game with a hole that big in his thigh.
I feel bad for really wanting him to leave the club, he's been good this season and has scored some vital goals but I agree with a lot of other posters in this thread that we need to move on and if we want to dominate European football again I don't see him as part of the plans unless he is used in a plan B bit part role. Barcelona passing us off the park, throw him on and lump it..see how they deal with that.
Should have stuck with that. Fecking Mad Walrus.
https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news...-marouane-fellainis-stamp-060617116--sow.html
Yeah, looks like he was stitched up on the pitch and he suffered a nasty head injury too. Even though it was an extremely important match, it was extremely courageous of him to stay on, with a cut on the head and a huge gash on his legs.
They used staples?! Christ. You normally only use them in scalp wounds. He's gonna have a doozy of a scar.
Good stuff, and it's hard to disagree with majority of it.
I am bit lazy to check, I might do it tomorrow, but it would be interesting to see Fellaini's passing, the percentage of his forward passes, passes longer than 2 meters, those graphics that show his all passes on the pitch and stuff like that. I bet it's easily the worst in the team. Probably the least impressive from any player out of top4 teams. Or top 10. I think someone like Cleverley is Xavi esque in comparision with him when it comes to ceative passing.
Fellaini should just go. It's become the hipster thing to rate him, and claim he's under rated. No other top European side would entertain the idea of having a player like him in the squad.
Seriously, name one top European side Fellaini would get a game for? That's the level we aspire to be at.
Seriously, name one top European side Fellaini would get a game for? That's the level we aspire to be at.
I don't think he's god's gift but this is over the top. We had worse players in the squad when we won our last 2 UCLs. Hell Barcelona had Seydou Keita in the squad both times they schooled us in the UCL, he even played against us in the final in 2009. Not a bad player by any means but in terms of talent and impact he was no better than Fellaini. A well over the hill Guðjohnsen was also in the squad that night and played 34 games for Barcelona that season (scoring 4 goals). Fellaini's contribution this season has far outweighed that, he's comfortably good enough and useful enough to warrant a squad place. That's all the vast majority of the people defending him are saying, very few, if any, are claiming that he's the quality of player who'll win us UCLs as a starter.
There is no reason why he can't improve on his weaknesses this off season, and come back with a bigger chip on his shoulder.
I've read the last few pages of this thread. Jesus, every goal he scored must have been twisting the dagger even more in the hearts of his detractors.
I've read the last few pages of this thread. Jesus, every goal he scored must have been twisting the dagger even more in the hearts of his detractors.
The fact that several teams felt the need to change their entire system to deal with Fellaini shows that he is nowhere near as ineffective as you make out - you dont bother doing that for players who cant control the ball or pass. It is no coincidence that Young played his best football towards the end of the season - he directly benefited from teams putting a man on Fellaini as it gave him a lot more space and opportunity to go 1 vs 1 against the fullback.
When we played our best football of the whole season, Fellaini was integral to it and that wasnt any form of hoof ball either.
@jeff_goldblum @Pentame @adexkola @Rood
Finally some sense - I was starting to lose my mind in here.
Finally some sense - I was starting to lose my mind in here.
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I'd ignored this thread for a while because it seemed most people had finally realised that Fellaini was an important member of the squad, but reading the past few pages it seems a lot of the same bullshit myths about Fellaini that I thought were forgotten are coming back again.
Ye he made a ridiculous challenge on Sunday and deserves some stick for that, but he's had a very good season and been one of our more consistent performers scoring and making some vital goals along the way. He'll be here next season, and to those who arent happy about that - tough shit!
He get's sent off in a dead rubber game and should be sold and is now crap? Where were all of you during his run of form, and when he scored the goal that got us into the champions league?
Don't get the motive behind some of the posts. Instead of promoting actual debate, you get posts like - "dagger even more in the hearts of his detractors.", "I hope he stays and does well just to piss off the haters' etc.
Forums are supposed to promote the culture of exchanging opinions right ? To be fair - this applies to both sides of the argument (seemingly pro or anti) - but since I can only speak for myself, there is no innuendo against certain players for the most part. But one does get the impression that a lot of times, genuine criticism is often dismissed without realizing that we're United fans too, and support the club's best interest in our own way. Supporting the club doesn't just extend to aligning with certain players, being antagonistic or calling the detractors bullshit myth merchants and the like, and giving self-congratulatory pats, mostly because they don't admire a couple of the players in our squad.
For those arguing that we had sucky players in the past. Is that what we should be aiming for ideally ? Players who are almost as bad as some of our worst players when we won the European Cups. Isn't squad building about continual improvement year in and year out ? Also working on his weaknesses in the off-season ? His technical shortcoming are incredibly deep rooted, and for a player like that, you will have to essentially strip him down to the basics, overhaul his playing style and rewire him completely to transform him into a more cultured version of himself. Let's be honest, he is who he is (some prefer it, some don't - to each his/ her own), and it ain't gonna change. You can reprogram a youth team player or even someone fresh to first team football, and even that takes substantial effort from both the player and coach's end. But you just can't do that with a grown ass man of almost 28, who is supposed to be at his peak in terms of performances and is set in his ways.
The argument that he won't fit into most top European clubs isn't just a qualitative one, but has more to do with a stylistic match. The fact remains that no Top 5 European club launches balls to their #10/ midfield player, or have a player in that position who's similar to him in terms of playing style and qualities. Most of them are inventive, with great passing range, and can control the momentum of matches. You could put Herrera in Madrid or Bayern or Barcelona's team for Isco or Schweinsteiger or Rakitic, and he won't look out of place in the slightest. Could one honestly say that about our favorite Belgian ? And that technical, progressive football approach is the template we should be looking at, instead of forcing ill-suited players into a 4-3-3 possession based system whose effectiveness nosedives when the aerial supply is cut off. For those who argue that Van Gaal knows better and the critics of Fellaini are mentalists who can't chat sense, let's also bear in mind that a lot of the manager's decisions have been strange, to put it mildly.
Also, some of the points to validate his continued presence are really ill-informed. In terms of talent and impact, Keita was no better than Fellaini ? Is this real life ? He was several notches above Fellaini from a technical and footballing standpoint, which made him suited to a possession based system. This is someone who was one of the the best players in the 1999 U-20 World Cup which had the likes of Ronaldinho, Xavi, Cambiasso, and was rated the best talent in Africa. Was one of the best defensive midfielders around in the mid 2000s, had almost 50 European appearances before signing for Barcelona, was one of the best midfielders in La Liga for a Sevilla team that beat Madrid twice, including 6-3 in the Supercopa, beat Arsenal in the Champions League, were reigning Copa and UEFA Cup winners. And he was easily their best player behind a certain Dani Alves.
Forums are supposed to promote the culture of exchanging opinions right ? To be fair - this applies to both sides of the argument (seemingly pro or anti) - but since I can only speak for myself, there is no innuendo against certain players for the most part. But one does get the impression that a lot of times, genuine criticism is often dismissed without realizing that we're United fans too, and support the club's best interest in our own way. Supporting the club doesn't just extend to aligning with certain players, being antagonistic or calling the detractors bullshit myth merchants and the like, and giving self-congratulatory pats, mostly because they don't admire a couple of the players in our squad.
For those arguing that we had sucky players in the past. Is that what we should be aiming for ideally ? Players who are almost as bad as some of our worst players when we won the European Cups. Isn't squad building about continual improvement year in and year out ? Also working on his weaknesses in the off-season ? His technical shortcoming are incredibly deep rooted, and for a player like that, you will have to essentially strip him down to the basics, overhaul his playing style and rewire him completely to transform him into a more cultured version of himself. Let's be honest, he is who he is (some prefer it, some don't - to each his/ her own), and it ain't gonna change. You can reprogram a youth team player or even someone fresh to first team football, and even that takes substantial effort from both the player and coach's end. But you just can't do that with a grown ass man of almost 28, who is supposed to be at his peak in terms of performances and is set in his ways.
The argument that he won't fit into most top European clubs isn't just a qualitative one, but has more to do with a stylistic match. The fact remains that no Top 5 European club launches balls to their #10/ midfield player, or have a player in that position who's similar to him in terms of playing style and qualities. Most of them are inventive, with great passing range, and can control the momentum of matches. You could put Herrera in Madrid or Bayern or Barcelona's team for Isco or Schweinsteiger or Rakitic, and he won't look out of place in the slightest. Could one honestly say that about our favorite Belgian ? And that technical, progressive football approach is the template we should be looking at, instead of forcing ill-suited players into a 4-3-3 possession based system whose effectiveness nosedives when the aerial supply is cut off. For those who argue that Van Gaal knows better and the critics of Fellaini are mentalists who can't chat sense, let's also bear in mind that a lot of the manager's decisions have been strange, to put it mildly.
Also, some of the points to validate his continued presence are really ill-informed. In terms of talent and impact, Keita was no better than Fellaini ? Is this real life ? He was several notches above Fellaini from a technical and footballing standpoint, which made him suited to a possession based system. This is someone who was one of the the best players in the 1999 U-20 World Cup which had the likes of Ronaldinho, Xavi, Cambiasso, and was rated the best talent in Africa. Was one of the best defensive midfielders around in the mid 2000s, had almost 50 European appearances before signing for Barcelona, was one of the best midfielders in La Liga for a Sevilla team that beat Madrid twice, including 6-3 in the Supercopa, beat Arsenal in the Champions League, were reigning Copa and UEFA Cup winners. And he was easily their best player behind a certain Dani Alves.
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By the time it got round to 2011, or even 2009, he was nowhere near the player you describe. He was a good, solid squad player in a team which was filled with players who were amongst the best in the world in their positions. Keita did his job and stepped in as very capable back-up when he was needed (which sometimes was quite a lot because of the number of substitute performances he made and injuries to other players) but it's revisionism to claim that he was a great or decisive player at Barca, despite his earlier achievements. He was a cog in a machine in a role a lot of players could have played. Which isn't necessarily a criticism, it's just in stark contrast to what Fellaini's done for us this season which is put in performances and scored goals that have won us points we sorely needed - that's what I mean by 'impact'. Saying he was more talented was going too far, but his specific skillset has been more vital for us in getting fourth this season then Keita's specific skillset ever was for Barca. He's worth keeping as a squad player because he's been one of our key players this season, and because players with his attributes are rare. That is, unless we're going to spend £25m - £30m on someone else to sit on the bench in his place on top of however much we end up spending on a midfielder to slot into the first team.
Fellaini is very good in both penalty areas, but anywhere else he is pretty useless unless he is fouling the opposition player. Don't want him as a starter next season. I am struggling to think of another top team he would get into, home or abroad.
Eh ? He was every bit as good as advertised. People have tendency to constantly undermine the likes of him or Abidal or Mascherano, when they could've started for most of the other European elite. Consistently playing 40+ matches for arguably the best team in the modern era as the primary midfield backup to Iniesta and Xavi and Busquets is no joke, and it certainly doesn't warrant anything resembling a talent/ ability based comparison to Fellaini, like you did in the previous post. And I quote - "Not a bad player by any means but in terms of talent and impact he was no better than Fellaini".
I think he'd have played the same role for any of the big European clubs that he did for Barca - a good, well-rounded squad player who was never quite good enough to be a fixture in the starting XI when everyone else was fit. That's not to say I'd not have taken him in a second at United at that time given the state of our midfield depth. On your second point, obviously it's no joke to be back-up to those players, but at the same time it's a far easier job playing alongside Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta et al than it is playing with lesser team-mates. The 'he played for Barca' factor goes both ways, Touré looked like a great defensive midfielder at Barcelona but without those players around him he was a complete liability in that role for City. Keita was a jack-of-all-trades sort of midfielder, his value came more in his ability to play multiple midfield roles to a good level and keeping the machine working rather than actually making a difference in and of himself. It's obviously important to have those kind of players in your squad, but if all your back-up players are just worse versions of your starting XI, what do you do when Plan A's not working? That's where Fellaini's value lies, as well as being (in my opinion) decent midfield back-up.
As for the talent comment, I took that back in the post you partially quoted. If you wanna keep banging a drum about it, go ahead.
Not one great team has ever had to rely on long balls to target men as a plan b. The great teams of the last 2 decades Barca 09-12, United 06-09, Bayern 12-13, Arsenal 2004, AC Milan 03-07, Chelsea 04-08 all mixed it up when their plan a wasn't working, not a single team needed a guy with Fellaini's values.
Using Fellaini as a plan b is just as ridiculous as starting him imo. So unnecessary, especially when the other team just put's a Kurt Zouma on him and renders him absolutely useless.
Come now, same role for other teams and just a squad player ? Keita would have started for the likes of Real Madrid, Arsenal and Bayern Munich for a lot of his Barcelona time-frame, if you care to look up their squads.
That is not a universally applicable observation. Conversely, it is easier to stand to stand out in a weaker team in relative terms, than alongside Xavi or Iniesta, where a player of inferior quality will immediately stick out like a sore thumb. eg. Kaladze alongside Maldini and Nesta, or Illramendi alongside Modric and Alonso.
Keita and Fellaini aren't comparable at all from that perspective. It's like saying Fellaini is our new Solskjaer or Park Ji Sung. You could use Keita and Solkskjaer or Park and they would seamlessly fit into whatever tactical setup you want because of their rounded games. Every time Fellaini is on the field, we have to make unnecessary adjustments to accommodate him, lose a lot of intricate creativity in the final third, and we have to mask his deficiencies.
He is a classic tweener stuck between positions - on the positive side, he has some odd qualities, but is not a good enough #10, not a good enough attacking midfielder, and not a good enough defensive midfielder (Van Gaal stuck Ander there with injuries to Carrck and Blind) for a club of United's stature. For all the 6 goals he's scored, he doesn't have a great influence on the game overall, can't control the direction of play, isn't very clinical. Why does aerial bombardment and sticking a wardrobe up front have to be be the regular contingency Plan B ? Did Fergie use hoof tactics upfront with a limited giant ? Do some of the other elite teams around use that tactic ? It's a bog standard approach to playing football, something we ridiculed other clubs for, and now it's being lapped up and sugarcoated as viable Plan B.
Quoting a post once is equated with banging the drum now ? You made a laughable assessment of Keita, and even after 'taking that back', continue to undermine his quality by stating his performances were inflated by the presence of Xavi and Busquets and Iniesta, and we would be a backup for teams not named Barcelona, when that was clearly not the case. But ok, if you want to underrate a far superior player, just to make a case for Fellaini, then fine by me.
That's not what we do when Fellaini's on the field though. He's a target for back-post crosses, great at defending and attacking set pieces and a handy out-ball for when we we're being pressed. Regardless, the bolded is something Pep's Barca and Del Bosque's Spain did a fair bit when their possession wasn't paying off and they needed a win. Pique would just stand around in the box and they'd chuck high balls towards him. Not that it really worked, because Pique wasn't even that good in the air, but they still did it when they felt they needed to. Both teams were rightly criticised at the time for not having the versatility to change tack. On the other examples - that Chelsea team never had any problem with booting it forward in the hopes that Drogba would muscle his defender out of the way, Bayern switched being possession and counter-attacking football almost constantly and were good enough at both not to need any other plans. If the rest of our team were as good as that Bayern team I'd sell Fellaini in a second. Unfortunately we're not and we might need him as we have this season. Like I said above, I don't want him starting particularly, I just don't see the point of throwing away a tactical option and spending money on a new squad player when we've already got one who's done very well for us this season.
As for your last point, if we bring on Fellaini and the other team man-marks him then he's done half of his job - being a physical presence and creating space for other players to work in. He did that against Chelsea and it wasn't his fault no-one made the most of it.
@Invictus - just briefly on the third bit you quoted. That's exactly the point I'm making. You need versatile back-up, but you also need people you can bring on to bring a different dimension, whatever else Keita was, he wasn't that. I'd disagree that we've changed our play style to incorporate Fellaini, we've put in more back-post crosses but frankly you'd be daft not to with him in the team because it works. As many people pointed out months ago, our style of play with and without Fellaini in the team has basically been the same, it's just less effective when he's not playing.
Our best football and the best run of results we've seen this season was all played with him in the team. The left-side partnership he made with Blind/Shaw and Young crafted many of our best moves during that winning streak and overshadowed Herrera and Mata's partnership with Valencia on the right. He can clearly play football, even if he's not as graceful on the ball as the likes of Mata or Herrera. It's a game of opinions, but somewhere between him completely nullifying Cesc Fabregas/assisting the equaliser against Chelsea, scoring his 2nd league goal to get the 3 points against Stoke and scoring his 7th goal of the season to win us 3 points against Palace, he convinced me he had something to offer. And again, I'm not even one of the people (if there are any) that particularly wants to see him start next season.
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