Do you compare everyone to that level? If that's the case, we haven't really had any top performers in midfield this season as none of them are vintage Carrick/ gabi and Matic 14/15 level either. If you read comments from this very thread in his first 3-4 games, you would see that almost everyone was using the exact term of 'excellent'. Sure he is hardly anything compared to makalele and rijkard but then that would be the case if you compare anyone to the prime players in their position. Herrera isn't as good as a prime Keane or vieira, mkhitariyan hasn't been as good as prime Ronaldo, Valencia hasn't been as good as a prime Cafu etc. But that doesn't mean that they weren't excellent this season for us (maybe that
Nah, you're missing the primary thrust of the post. It wasn't to compare him with Rijkaard or Makélélé, but to highlight how the most basic common denominator for defensive holding midfielders is positioning (so they can sniff out danger and put out potential fires before things get out of hand), natural nous for the position (the ability to process opposition attacking patterns and pre-emptively take countermeasures against them) and tactical discipline (which gives off an unerring
right place at the right time vibe where they don't even have to tackle that much). Fellaini is subpar at almost every aspect there, hence his fundamental unsuitability to the role (just like someone who can't consistently beat his man is unsuited to the traditional winger position). It's not necessarily something that can be drilled into someone.
eg. someone like Marcos Llorente (hardly the class of players mentioned and only 21 years old) already shows greater suitability for the position given his ability to cut out passing lanes and position himself to screen the defense with efficiency:
So it's not about the prime Cafu/Keane/Vieira bit, but an examination of his individual skillset - which is more suited to offensive roles - which is backed up by the fact that his best performances for Everton came as a forward, and his best performances at United came as the most advanced midfielder on the left side of our midfield 3. There's ample evidence to support those claims.
He is benched right now, rightly so, because we are a better team with Carrick and herrera. Sturridge is often benched by Liverpool for firmino but that doesn't mean sturridge is a poor player. It's just that for Klopp's system firmino is a much better fit.
I don't think that's a suitable analogy. Fitness and motivation permitting, Sturridge has a lot of qualities you need in a top forward. The same cannot be said of Fellaini as a defensive midfielder.
This ain't to say that Fellaini is world class or undroppable or something. Obviously he is a limited player. All I'm saying is he has put in good performances in both an AM role and a DM role more often than not. But the issue here is what you just showed. Not willing to accept that he actually had some good games. If you read comments on this thread for the first games, you would see that barely anyone critiscized him but now that he had a couple of poor games, people have narratives like 'he was poor since the beginning' or 'he played because no one else was there' or 'he played there for height' or something eventhough Jose himself acknowledged that he was very good.
Disagree with more often than not bit. And I don't have a problem with appreciating good performances from him - as I've said before, he was good as the left sided attacking midfield in our 3 under Louis. What I can't fathom is the tendency of terming decent performances as good or excellent (which is what happened at the start of the reason). Don't care about barely anyone criticizing him, either - a lot of matchday and performance thread comments tend to be based on the short term, than a thorough appraisal of things.
We were overrun in midfield in the city game simply because they had more midfielders. Fernandinho silva and de bruyne vs Pogba and Fellaini. Was a tactical mistake till we brought 3 midfielders on ourselves. In his first season I remember he was fairly very good vs the minnows. But was ineffective vs city Liverpool and all. Just like our whole team under Moyes.
Nope. We weren't overrun simply because they had greater numbers. It was a combination of greater numbers and Fellaini being a poor defensive midfielder (his marking and positional issues were on display), apart from Pogba's positional issues (which can be chalked down to his unsuitability for the double pivot position - something that has been corrected since).
PS: Also, as mentioned before, right now (or the summer window) is a good time to sell Fellaini. He has one year on his contract - so we could maybe recoup a half-decent fee. If we don't do that, he could leave on a Bosman in 2018. And renewing his contract would make little sense with the future in mind - he adds very little in terms of what we're building towards - consistent league titles and European Cup contention (evidenced by the fact that none of the teams that compete in the deep end of the Champions League have a player with his characteristics, and neither did we during our best years under Fergie). United have allowed a lot of mediocre players overstay their welcome in recent years, and then sold them for a pittance because nobody wanted them. Time to correct that trend, especially since we need to have a thorough overhaul in terms of midfield depth with the likely departures of Fußballgott and Schneiderlin.
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