Marouane Fellaini | 2013/14 Performances

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Needs to start settling in and upping his game now. I still have faith that he will come good, personally. We have seen first hand his ability to bully teams and dominate aerially, and he has shown at times that he is a lot better on the ball than many would believe. His large head of hair seems screwed on and he has always struck me as a hard worker plus he has added incentive to prove himself with the World Cup looking and a very strong emerging Belgium team.
 
The lad is a fantastic player. He's nowhere near his best though and looks nervous as hell. If he can rise above it and start to put in some of his performance levels as he did for Everton then we'll have a great player in our team.
 
If Fellaini improves us defensively then eventually it should be clear in the stats. Right now it isn't. He's been on the pitch for just under 380 mins (that's equalivalent to 4 complete matches lasting 95 mins each) in all competitions during which time we've conceded 5 goals. Minus Fellaini we've conceded 10 in the equivalent of 9 matches. We've conceded soft goals from corners with him missing and also when he's been on the pitch; indeed his failure to stay with his man at a corner cost us a goal against City.

Well I would say that the stats do back up that Fellaini improves us defensively because if you ignore the City match (where the whole team was a shambles) - we have only conceeded 1 goal with Fellaini on the pitch. We did not looking like conceeding against Shaktar or Southampton until he went off.
 
"Carry on taking everything seriously though."

Just like you took my post seriously. Oh the irony. :lol:
 
I seriously doubt Arsenal actually wanted him. He's not a Wenger player at all. He'd be even worse for Arsenal than for us.

Why would he do the Flamini role any differently?
 
That's not irony.

Also, your post had no joke in there. Not even an unfunny one like mine.


Yes. It's not ironic that you tell us to carry on taking things seriously when you took us not knowing that your post was a joke seriously. Carry on.
 
Yes. It's not ironic that you tell us to carry on taking things seriously when you took us not knowing that your post was a joke seriously. Carry on.
Your post has no hint at all of being tongue in cheek. None whatsoever. It's pretty clear you thought I was being serious.
 
That's not irony.

Also, your post had no joke in there. Not even an unfunny one like mine.


Arguing whose humour is the worst. Baffling :lol:

Fellaini has been rubbish thus far. He can only improve though. Will probably be a decent replacement for Carrick one day. Them playing together is a bit sluggish though. Maybe Moyes thought about replacing Carrick with Fellaini and Evra with Baines.
 
Arguing whose humour is the worst. Baffling :lol:

Fellaini has been rubbish thus far. He can only improve though. Will probably be a decent replacement for Carrick one day. Them playing together is a bit sluggish though. Maybe Moyes thought about replacing Carrick with Fellaini and Evra with Baines.
Obviously that post was tongue in cheek.

It was obvious, right?
 
Which is what I said:

when you took us not knowing that your post was a joke seriously

We didn't know it was a joke, yet took it seriously and told us to continue takking things seriously.

The irony.

I'm done. :lol:
 
:lol: Pain isn't it? ... I like the confidence he has about himself, despite being less than impressive so far... I think we can at least expect improvements, whether they will be astronomical is up to Fell...


I think for him to achieve his best form regularly, he needs to play a more defensive role. He can't execute "Cleverley's job".
 
I think for him to achieve his best form regularly, he needs to play a more defensive role. He can't execute "Cleverley's job".


He doesn't have Cleverley's quick feet to do that job well, imo. Cleverley's defending is really good at times though. Even really quick and technical dribblers struggle to get past him.
 
Well I would say that the stats do back up that Fellaini improves us defensively because if you ignore the City match (where the whole team was a shambles) - we have only conceeded 1 goal with Fellaini on the pitch. We did not looking like conceeding against Shaktar or Southampton until he went off.

Surely the timing of him going off is more indicative than what actually happened? Obviously if we have a slender lead going in to the last half hour teams will start taking more risks.

Saying us conceding after Fellaini goes off on 60 mins is indicative of Fellaini providing extra defensive cover is akin to saying Hernandez should play every game because most of his goals are winners. Of course most of Hernandez' goals will rescue points for us, as he often only comes on when we are losing or drawing and it follows that if he then scores he usually will have rescued points.

I would say against Shaktar and Soton the opposition was beginning to press and expose us more and more as the game progressed, which was the reason a tiring Fellaini was taken off. If Fellaini and Carrick looked that solid they'd be left on for the full 90 I'd imagine.

I would suggest that Fellaini was taken off in these games (particularly vs Soton) to mitigate the increasing exposure that our defenders were experiencing, not to make ourselves more exposed.
 
He doesn't have Cleverley's quick feet to do that job well, imo. Cleverley's defending is really good at times though. Even really quick and technical dribblers struggle to get past him.


Yeah, that's what I think so too, and it's quite evident thus far. When we try to press high up, he doesn't even pick up players properly and is rather poor in tracking back. When Carrick is on the ball, he fails to make Cleverley-like runs. I still think - maybe I'm in the minority here - that he'll end up being a valuable signing.
 
I think for him to achieve his best form regularly, he needs to play a more defensive role. He can't execute "Cleverley's job".

Completely agree with you and most of your posts you generally make for that matter. For me, Fellaini is a very good attacking player, but simply for a team that can build around him a la Everton, where he would be crucial to their tactics, I also feel the way we will get the best out of him for Manchester United would be to utilise his defensive skills.

That being said, I think he has more to his locker than he is showing, one of the things I admired about him at Everton, was you could almost imagine what the manager had told him before the game, and that's not a knock on the manager, its a testament to Fellaini and his ability to be so disciplined in terms of the role he was being asked to play, here I find that his biggest lacking trait, positioning and discipline, which I think a lot can come from him trying to hard and being eager to impress... but time will tell.

I'm not sure if this is a dig at me or not, so I'll just assume it is and say I feel you're being rather harsh.

It wasn't at all, I was referring to those taking you to seriously, you are someone who isn't serious enough IMO, can hardly be accused of being devoid of a SOH..
 
I can see him being the type of player that can just sit in front of our back four and do a good job protecting them. He's just never going to a player that's going to dictate the tempo of our game. His vision looks quite shocking and for such a big lad, he's disposessed far too often.
 
Yeah, that's what I think so too, and it's quite evident thus far. When we try to press high up, he doesn't even pick up players properly and is rather poor in tracking back. When Carrick is on the ball, he fails to make Cleverley-like runs. I still think - maybe I'm in the minority here - that he'll end up being a valuable signing.


Nah, I don't think you are, but people, me included, are a bit annoyed that he was the only player we signed this season, and that he might not be exactly what we were looking for. I'm mostly annoyed because I don't like managers "robbing" their old teams, especially inferior teams. It reeks of a lack of creativity and knowledge of other players, imo of course.
 
If Fellaini wants to replace Scholes he has to work on his passing. But he has other skillsets and should look to become an entirely different animal.
 
If Fellaini wants to replace Scholes he has to work on his passing. But he has other skillsets and should look to become an entirely different animal.
In fairness he didn't actually say that, he said he is a different player to Scholes and Carrick and that he can replace anyone. The headline was bollocks.
 
Why would he do the Flamini role any differently?

Doesn't have the mobility of Flamini who's also got loads more technical ability and is a far better passer of the ball. To be clear: I'm not saying that Flamini is a great passer but he's better than Fellaini. Also, unlike Fellaini, he actually tracks runners and has some defensive awareness.
 
Cost 27mil and we're still using Jones in midfield...
 
If it's just that Moyes does not trust him yet then I guess it's a brave choice. The only one who will get blamed if that transfer is a failure is him. But getting results for United are more important for Moyes than the success of that transfer.
 
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