Looking forward to seeing him at weekend, at home to Palace should be a nice match for him to get settled into. I think he will surprise a lot of people with his technical ability, he's miles better then some people seem to think.
Marouane Fellaini | 2013/14 Performances
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He won't help us pass our way out of defence, which we're largely in agreement that we're not very good at.
He certainly will. Fellaini offers a great target for defenders to give the ball to and excels in taking control under pressure and bringing the players around him into play.
He won't give us added control in CM when pressurized high up the pitch, which we struggle with.
Again, Felliani excels on the ball under pressure.
He won't give us any dynamism in a midfield two, and won't help us connect our central midfielders to the rest of the side.
I'm not sure you really understand the role of players such as Fellaini. His reliability of control and strength under pressure means he can basically act as a target man in the middle of the pitch. This allows all the players around him to get forwards quicker and with more confidence as Fellaini holds the ball and looks for the lay-off.
He won't help us play through the middle of teams due to his incisive or creative passing.
No, he'll help us play through the middle of teams due to his strength and holding ability.
He isn't particularly aware defensively, and we've got Carrick anyway for that, so he won't really make us that much more solid. Sure, he'll clatter into people and throw some elbows, but in terms of us looking more cohesive as a defensive unit - no.
In the defensive phase he meanders around our own half making himself a right nuisance around the ball. He's a big unit and he uses that physicality to make sure that the opposition is always aware of his presence, often blocking the way to the simple pass and forcing higher levels of creativity from the opposing forwards. He lacks pace and can be played around, but in so doing he forces the opposition into channels whereby our other defenders can deal with the threat. Defensively he's a huge boon.
What he does is he gives us an option when Carrick doesn't play, which is obviously dearly needed, and he does give us an option as a goalscorer from midfield.
You clearly don't know this player very well.
Finally someone made a good, detailed case for Fellaini on the Caf. So far all the arguments in favour of him were basically along the lines of "he's big and he'll kick people and shit, we never really do that"
What an absolutely load of waffle-o-bollocks. You're lucky Luke Perry even replied to it.
I've been one of his biggest detractors in his various threads, but I'm willing to wait and see what he adds to the team and how he settles in before I write him off, or opine on what he will or won't add. I hope he fits in well and proves my initial thoughts on him wrong.
I think we've established that we're in disagreement on basically every part of his game.
For me, he's a slightly better option than Cleverley at the moment, but he doesn't solve our problems in CM - not in any sort of way.
I guess we'll see how he does.
You dont read threads properly then for feck sake. Ive been saying this shit for weeks. Cider the idiot savant uses his Caf celeb status to steal all the best posts...the cnut
Funny how half of RedCafe were in absolute agreement about this until he signed for us - now suddenly you're crucified for questioning Marouane fecking Fellaini being the next saviour of world football.
For what it's worth I don't think he's a terrible player, I just don't think he's an exceptional midfielder in any sort of way, and I don't think he'll aid the way we want to play football. Unless, of course, the plan is to turn us into a somewhat more able Everton.
And I certainly don't agree with using £27 million on someone who's not immediately elevating our first XI to a higher level - which I don't think he will.
It has absolutely nothing to do with you not having a sniff when reading player ability. You've described a bunch of attributes the complete opposite to the reality skill set of the player for gods sake.
No, we weren't.
Half of Redcafe can't read a players ability worth a feck then. If you don't believe Fellaini and all his abilities would not impact our team for the better and consider him only slightly better than Cleverly then there really is no point in debating players with you.
Yeah, that's what's happening, much like how all the clowns got worked up yesterday.
This part really sums up how clueless some people are. A more able Everton? feck off.
Pretty much. Here is the sticking points for some idiots on here.
1. Long ball donkey because he played for Everton
2. He isnt a Spanish midget wonder
3. His fecking Afro
Thats seriously what they think.
About what?Spot on.
He's clearly not a "fashionable" signing. People ignore the fact that he's been consistently very good in a vastly over-achieving side, and the main point - the new manager, who Im sure the vast majority of fans are behind, clearly knows and rates the player.
The majority of fans would rather we sign said "Spanish midget wonder" - even though they've only seen him a handful of times.
Aye - I do feel many have simply dismissed him, based on nothing much at all. His ability on the ball, for instance, is clearly a lot better than many give him credit for. Being tall and prone to throw his elbows about (which he needs to cut out, of course - we can't have him booked in every other match) doesn't make him Vinny Jones in terms of footballing skills. He can handle himself just fine.
And then there's the most obvious point - to me at least: We had Ando and Cleverley besides Carrick, the one top class CM on our books. Apart from that our options in the middle were Giggs and Jones. It should be obvious enough that Fellaini is an improvement - a significant one too. An outright world beater isn't the only kind of player who will improve our midfield - the fact is that we have been very light in the middle, remarkably so for a top club. There's this "we were in for Fabregas and look what we ended up with" mentality which I don't understand at all. We finally bought a midfielder, one that will be competent for us at worst - there's cause for celebration, not moaning.
He was hardly a secret target!
Fair enough point generally though, I'd be lying if I said I knew him inside out - just going on what little I've seen and gut instinct really.
Could be the case, yes. Mind you, going back to the other options, Thiago may well have had games when he looked like the missing piece of our midfield and others when he just looked like a short bloke with dodgy facial hair and too many tricks without any end product.
Our midfield has been a soft touch for a couple of seasons now since Fletcher went down. I welcome elbows and intimidatory challenging for the ball.
You welcome red cards?
No sir welcome red cards.
I'm with you on that one. Call me old fashioned, but everything we've been lacking comes down to a bit of steel and drive. You can break it down into all those issues, and try and make out that it's somehow down to technique, but we've actually got some very good passers of the ball. What we've not had is somebody who won't get bullied off the ball, and who will add some impetus and direction.
Hopefully not, or we'll have to wait for it to expire before we can make a move.
I'm still not too sure on Fellaini. It seems he could either do a Michael Carrick here or do an Ashley Young. He's difficult to judge based on the level he's been playing at so far.
Ashley Young is a squad player at best for a club like United. Fellaini can be much more than that IMO, but only time will tell.
Dynamism and Fellaini in the same sentence
Well that's why I used him as an example. Carrick and Young were bought at similar ages to Fellaini off similar clubs for pretty high fees, one went on to up his game and be an integral part of the team, the other was shown up for what he really is. Fellaini for me could go either way.
Wasn't in favor of signing him but now that he's signed, I'd wait for two-three months before passing a judgement on him rather than already calling him a flop.
Yup this. Depending on how we actually use him, I might be in favour of the signing. We badly needed DM reinforcement. I just don't want to see him partner Carrick on a regular basis.
He's no Cleverley though.
To be fair, as Belgium are now "the best team in the world (tm)" ... doesn't this make Fellaini one of the best midfielders in the world?
Time to dominate.
Time to dominate.
He had another one of his moments in the Saidy Janko thread.
Oh Cina, this is a tired effort. You should go home and have a good hard think about your life.
Tongue in cheek obviously, but Belgium are sort of the next big thing in international football, same as everybody was ranting about Dortmund at club level, so this idea (that people have posted above) that because he's not Spanish it's working against him is a big load of bollocks.
Don't be like that. We've had good times, you and me.
It's a fair enough point - and I do know what you mean. Fellaini isn't unquestionably pure gold. But there's a huge difference here: We had the best wingers in the country at the time when Young was brought in. Our current CM situation makes it far less demanding for any new addition to make his mark. Put it like this: Would Cleverley and Ando be secure from the competition of a CM version of Ashley Young? That's not a given at all, I'd say.
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