Fellaini is just a Zidane with a better haircut.
Edit: If you google "Zidane afro", the first image result is a picture of Fellaini, oddly enough.
27
Season Average Rating
- Appearances
- 47
- Goals
- 4
- Assists
- 2
- Yellow cards
- 9
- Red cards
- 1
- Status
Edit: If you google "Zidane afro", the first image result is a picture of Fellaini, oddly enough.
Who else in our squad other than Ashley Young and perhaps Darmian get praised for such basic shit?
Latter day Rooney has also received praise from some on here for doing football 101 basics, standards have dipped so far that mediocre nothingness is treat as an accomplishment.
Loved Fellaini second half. One of the few players to show any sense of urgency. We really over complicate football at home. It's not difficult: win the ball, move forward, commit the defender and give it. Cannot break down defences unless the man with the ball commits his immeadiate opponent. Fellaini was great at this tonight.
I find it infuriating. Pogba, who does deserve a degree of criticism for his recent performances, has been torn a new arsehole, yet he still actively tries to win us matches with probing passes, effort on goals and switches of play. He actually, you know, wants the fecking ball to start with.
Fellaini, on the other hand, just isn't remotely interested. He doesn't want the ball in our midfield. He doesn't want to actively try and win us the game. He simply gets it and moves it on to somebody else with game. And I have to watch that, then come on here to see that people are singing his praises for exactly that.
Since when was shirking responsibility praised at Manchester United?
Fellainiesta 
Bizarre to criticize him for anything based on today's performance. People are conflating overarching issues with his play style and performance levels with what he actually did on the pitch tonight. Hell, he actually did want the ball and do positive things with it today so that criticism of his performance is complete nonsense after this particular performance.
Well I think Fellaini plays to his strengths. He was great today and criticising him for doing his best isn't fair. Mourinho clearly appreciates him for what he's doing. There are different types of players, everyone can't be "extraordinary".
yeah, a real committed performance from him today. happy for him.
His strengths don't really help this football club. His best isn't good enough and it needs to be good enough this weekend. I agree that there are different kinds of footballers, but I also believe that there are some great footballers and some footballers that aren't remotely good enough. Pogba being the former, and Fellaini being the latter.
Are you sure? His strenghts have helped the team lately, been a positive sub most of the times, even scored a couple of important goals. Sure he had his awful period, but after Mourinho showed that he supports Fellaini, he's been quite consistent and tried to do as good as possible. I'm not saying you're wrong about Fellaini's overall abilities, but he's not supposed to be like Pogba. Sure, it would be great if all of the 11 players in the lineup would be World class but that's not our reality so therefore I appreciate him for what he does right now - especially when he's showing a good performance. If I'd criticise Fellaini, then I could probably do the same with at least 5 or 6 of the regular players as well, since they've not lived up to some expectations.
But that's just me, maybe I'm too naive...
He does a job. Its a strange thing with him, whenever hes decent / good, its normally only him that is and the rest arent. Not sure if im explaining well, but for him in the team and for him to have a good games, its almost always the rest and the football that suffers (except that three game spell under LVG).
I agree, it pisses me off to see a player like him getting lauded in a United shirt, his signature pass is to move it to the guy closest to him whether it's the right pass or not, and if that pass gets to a man he's praised for it, and don't get me started on the nauseating sympathy vote he gets on here, fecking awful player whose game time at the club is clear evidence of how far we've slipped and how we'll continue to muddle along if we keep letting utter mediocrity be regular parts of the squad.
I also agree on Pogba, I just avoid his thread because some of the posts in there are ignorant of what he actually is as a player, the whole "He's tall so he should be good defensively" is the one that irritates me the most, but to his credit he never stops showing for the ball or trying to make things happen, we need more Pogba's and less Fellaini's if we are to get back to where we were.
As Sean Connery once said "Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and feck the prom queen."
As Sean Connery once said "Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and feck the prom queen."
And they say he can't kick a ball.
He really was excellent when he came on.
I respect Fellaini more than others do. He's never going to be Paul Scholes. We can all agree on that.
But he is mentally strong enough to play for this football club. He has proven that time and time again since being made a scapegoat during the Moyes era. Not only that, but he's had to deal with booing from his own fans as well. It takes great courage to bounce back from that sort of criticism.
I like what Fellaini brings. He'll always fight for the cause and do what's asked of him. He knows his limitations and does the basic things very well. He has his uses in the air as well. Good squad player.
I respect Fellaini more than others do. He's never going to be Paul Scholes. We can all agree on that.
But he is mentally strong enough to play for this football club. He has proven that time and time again since being made a scapegoat during the Moyes era. Not only that, but he's had to deal with booing from his own fans as well. It takes great courage to bounce back from that sort of criticism.
I like what Fellaini brings. He'll always fight for the cause and do what's asked of him. He knows his limitations and does the basic things very well. He has his uses in the air as well. Good squad player.
I'm a long term bog brush critic and want him gone in the summer, but he was excellent. Actually gave him MOTM, which i'm still a bit freaked out by!
Pretty much the same standard performance from the last three seasons. Came on and was solid, kept play ticking and got stuck in. Has been an important roleplayer for us in the last three seasons and continues to demonstrate that.
He's much better without Pogba. God I hate it when they're playing together.
Awful attempt at jumping on the bandwagon early.
He was good yesterday, good against Chelsea also and good at Rostov in a dire game.
He's a duty player and will always be. He's great to have in a team because he always offers someting different from the bench.
But something amazed me yesterday.
When he came on, it's crazy that none of his partners (especially Rojo and Herrera) don't want to play with him and nullify Felli's run.
Yesterday he made the same runs as Pogba, but no one gave him the ball, because even his partners don't trust him.
He's a duty player and will always be. He's great to have in a team because he always offers someting different from the bench.
But something amazed me yesterday.
When he came on, it's crazy that none of his partners (especially Rojo and Herrera) don't want to play with him and nullify Felli's run.
Yesterday he made the same runs as Pogba, but no one gave him the ball, because even his partners don't trust him.
To think we used to have the likes of Robson, Keane and Scholes in midfield......now we're happy with players who keep it simple
may be sounds criminal here but the guy looks much helpful then Pogba in quite some few matches
Zinedine Fellaini.
Yeah. I saw that as well. Don't know if it was an instruction but initially after coming on, no one wanted to pass the ball to him, opting for more difficult balls instead of a simple ball to Fellaini. Then after showing some good skill and passing others started passing the ball to him. It was really strange.
Overall, that was a good performance. The best thing was, he took up the more defensive role, which Herrera usually plays and it freed Herrera and he was great going forward. Fellaini himself was also quite good going forward. Won a lot of balls which Pogba struggles to win for some reason.
He won't be able to look so good without Herrera though. This period without Herrera and possibly Pogba will mean that we will have to play him from the start and even though he is a good player, I don't think it will be enough and he could be found wanting. He is great at playing the supporting role and occasionally even providing a vital assist or goal. He helps bring out the best in others and the team. But leading the charge like Herrera could be asking too much from him.
Fellaini will give his best but this period without Herrera and Pogba will be a real test for him.
Yeah you're right, but Mourinho should see on replay that because of his formation and the fact that no one passed the ball to Felli, we were even slower than usual.
I mean we played three mens in the back with two wing backs, but in fact it was more 5 men in the back after seeing Rojo Smalling and Bailly playing so close each other. We played simple pass between them and since Fellaini comes to take the ball and no one giving him, it means that we really had 4 players (+ Jones if we consider that he was off yesterday) worth nothing against 10 defenders....
I just think that with Fellaini now playing the next 2/3 games (Boro, WBA, Everton), we'll have to include him in our tactics, whether he's playing more defensively or further forward, we have to adapt at having not Pogba and Ander
? Yea, because Fellaini is an automatic choice as Robson, Keane and Scholes were of course, forget the fact people are judging his (Fellaini's) contribution as that of a midfield depth player for us, when our previous backups for Keane and Scholes in midfield, of which Fellaini should be more realistically compared to.. Have been the likes of a converted fullback in Phil Neville, Quinton Fortune, Alan fecking Smith, Nicky Butt, Djemba-Djemba, Ji Sung Park, Kleberson, a 35 to 40 year old Giggs, a 33 year old+ Brian McClair etc
Edit, I forgot Cleverley and Gibson.
And it's just so typical of this place to bash him, as usual, instead of simply trying to give an unbiased analysis for last nights game, which in this case was more than adequate for a stand in.
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Nicky Butt, , Ji Sung Park, old Giggs, Philip Neville, old Mclair, Quinton Fortune, Alan fecking Smith, Djemba*2, Kleberson weren't paid as a 30m rated player. The ones in bold were better then Fellaini. The rest were sold rather quickly
Think we saw how good Fortune was after he left us, ditto Park at QPR, Butt's last 2-3 years here were so incredibly underwhelming that Neville, Djemba, Kleberson and co were all starting infront of him, a 33+ year old, broken down, converted striker McClair was not better than 70+ cap Belgium international, 250+ games in a PL midfield Fellaini. But carry on.
The fact remains our back ups, even in our most succesful years have been massively unimpressive and you saying people are happy at the mediocrity of Fellaini, when our starting midfielders are clearly Pogba and Herrera is a joke.
The fact remains our back ups, even in our most succesful years have been massively unimpressive and you saying people are happy at the mediocrity of Fellaini, when our starting midfielders are clearly Pogba and Herrera is a joke.
That's clearly not true for Park, he went to QPR way after his peak was over.
In 10 years kids will aspire to be Fellaini.
Does it actually matter? the point is he wasn't a world beater, or 1/5th the player of starters like Keane or Scholes when asked to step in.
Besides, the amount of abuse he took on here in his last season or two at the club would suggest he'd faded long before that move, and still reguarly got games in our midfield.
The amount of abuse people get on here is indicative of naught. Fact is, at his best with us, Park was about half the player of Keane and Scholes, and about five times the player of Fellaini.
Played good last night. Even pulled out the drag backs. Hope it keeps going.
Hope it keeps going.IF he plays as a ball winner and then quickly gives it to somebody better then he's fine.
I only don't like him when he runs out of stamina and walks around instead of shutting his man down quickly.
He's a bit too limited to play in a 2 man midfield IMO but we haven't got much choice on Sunday. Atleast he will be battling against plodders like himself.
I only don't like him when he runs out of stamina and walks around instead of shutting his man down quickly.
He's a bit too limited to play in a 2 man midfield IMO but we haven't got much choice on Sunday. Atleast he will be battling against plodders like himself.
Most of them were top quality workhorses. SAF allowed them to go when their legs were gone.
Fellaini is a decent no 10 whose being played out of position because we don't play hoof the ball. As Leon Osman said, you don't want Fellaini anywhere near your box because he's clumbsy.
Id rather have Nicky Butt then him.
Nevertheless that's not an argument. He's being paid as a 30m panic buy signing. Does he play like one? I doubt it.
You could use exactly what you just said against your own arguement in that case.
The amount of abuse Fellaini takes in here is indicative of naught, when 2 of the most successful managers in history, in LvG and now Mourinho seem more than happy to utilise him as part of the squad. Also the bit about Park being 5 times the player of Fellaini, "Well, thats just like, your opinion. man." But we move on..
But I'm not arguing that the criticism of Fellaini is valid... all I'm arguing is that you're vastly underrating Park.
I have less than no interest in a Park vs Fellaini debate, if you think he was miles better then thats wonderful
. It's not the point i'm interested in making. Which is our backups have largely been average through the years, compared to our starters in Keane & Scholes even during our best years.The Osman quote is amusing from him, considering out of his (Fellaini's) 5 years at Everton he played in midfield rather than no.10 in about... 4 of them IIRC.
Besides which he's actually put in a fair number of decent outings as a no.8, particuarly against Liverpool in the last 3 years, certainly LvG's time he seemed to turn up strong against those scumbags and actually looked a good player.
The problem with him in midfield /8 is more his consistency, or.... lack. there. of. While also beeing selectively lazy, but when motivated, he's shown himself to be a good PL/International midfielder.
I also don't get why his price tag needs to be quoted,
Should we debate Pogba's displays so far on his 90mill tag? because I can assure you, for 90mills worth, compared to 60mill for Suarez, 80mill for Ronaldo, 65mill for Neymar, who're all game winners... His, (Pogbas) current contribution worth for us this season, when put in that bracket of player, would be judged about 1/10.
Rather than assessing his season 6 or 7/10 when taking how much he cost out of the equation.
Also you're moving the bar again, the conversation was over you saying people having low standards, happy with Fellaini, compared to our previous of Keane, Scholes, when the equivilent of those comparissons should fairly be Pogba/Herrera.
The only question here rightfully, is not his price tag nor is he as good as Robbo similar, but is he good enough to be a squad depth midfielder for us, surely? and on yesterdays performance, he is. At least until this summer.
It's just a forest for the trees situation and always will be for him and a lot of fans. Small picture is that he can put in an above average performance that stands out because his average is not very good. And considering this is the performance thread, I see where you're coming from though it'd be boring to just keep it to basic ratings in here after each game.
Big picture is that he is representative of an overall dip in quality and results that the club has witnessed over the past 5 or 6 years (but especially the past 4). He's not the only one by any means but the big guy is a poster boy for it. There's absolutely nothing he can do about it as he's just paid (very well) to perform when his number is called. But he is more than just a 5-7 rating. He along with plenty of others still here, represents tactics that no real top quality side want to be known for and results that no real top side would claim are impressive. And when the supporters start to embrace that is when everything - poor tactics, poor results, less quality - all becomes too comfortable and too common.
That's how I feel about him and some others.
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