The old saying 'you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink' is quite fitting here. If you can't see that he was better yesterday then it's not our problem.
Marouane Fellaini | 2013/14 Performances
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The old saying 'you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink' is quite fitting here. If you can't see that he was better yesterday then it's not our problem.
Better than what? Better than Cleverley, obviously yes, but Fellaini was too very bad yesterday.
Cleverley is being criticized even more in his thread.
The age old "Ashley Young" price test. Tested in the Premier League is the biggest pile of turd criteria in a player, unless they stand out as being top class. He was tested in the Premier League but average in central midfield, just like Young was tested and average on the wing.
Moyes will soon learn, just like Liverpool did with Adam, Henderson, Downing and Carroll, that Premier League proven may come at a premium, but often means sweet FA when it comes to improving the team.
Cabaye is the perfect example of a younger, more talented, international player, who had also played at a higher level (in the Champions League) many times, with a higher potential who was bought for 1/5 of Fellaini's price tag. Having scouts all over the globe is academic if you go for Young and Fellaini because they are "proven".
What Cabaye was bought for is somewhat irrelevant. Most players that move between clubs are significantly cheaper than Fellaini - or Young. We pay what we have to pay because we're Manchester United - and have money, as others see it. We're at a disadvantage when it comes to midfielders - we lack them, we do not lack funds and everyone and his granny knows this. A bargain deal is unlikely for us unless we go for someone completely unproven - and that would hardly do at the moment. We need a "proven" player of some kind, that seems obvious.
Fellaini is neither here nor there at the moment. He certainly isn't in the Adam/Carroll/Downing bracket. That's far too early to call. He could easily become a useful player for us once the other pieces are in place.
This really. There are so many foreign players in the league who are excelling who once upon a time were not prem proven. You'd think that people wouldve figure out by now that as a criteria to judge a player before signing them, its a pretty ridiculous one.
He's shit.
De Gea was not Premier League proven but within a year he had adapted and he was 19. Fellaini is a crock of shit, the sooner we get rid, the better.
Moyes has made enough mistakes, he doesn't have any goodwill stored up like Fergie did, Moyes is the problem, signing Fellaini is a symptom.
Moyes has made enough mistakes, he doesn't have any goodwill stored up like Fergie did, Moyes is the problem, signing Fellaini is a symptom.
So you cant come up with anyone then? Thought not.
Nevermind at your ludicrous £5m or £10m, even at £15m?
Even if you ignore the PL proven (which like it or not, does command a premium), I doubt you can come up with a regular midfielder for any decent international side in your mental price bracket.
and BTW turns out that Cabaye (who BTW is slightly older, not younger than Fellaini) was a contractual situation (buy out clause coming to end of contract), so Newcastle got a bargain deal - they have done well on their French scouts recently TBF. He is very much a extreme exception due to contract situation and probably the only one in your previous list who I would want at United.
Anyway Fellaini is a lot better than you give him credit for - I actually think he has done a decent job in his last couple of games filling in for Carrick and he has a lot more to offer as well.
I fecking hate when people say premier league proven. For a midfielder, premier league proven is probably a bad thing really. I'd much rather get one from the Bundesliga or La Liga, or Serie A as the midfielders in those leagues are way ahead of the midfielders in the premier league. Apart from getting some of the really highly rated youngsters like Barkley or Shaw, I wouldn't even look in the premier league for the most part (a few exceptions like Schneiderlin), or at english players because they aren't very good at the moment, especially in midfield.
Also for those who were pleased with Fellaini yesterday.. are you basing it off of his first two months at United and pleased it was better then that? Because he was truly awful every time he stepped on the pitch really, but yesterday was just shit (as in less shit then before). He's still nowhere near the required level. Why would you praise a player for being less shit then they were before? He's still shit, and saying "give him time" is pointless because he wasn't anything better then average at Everton in the hoof and hope style they played, so why would people expect him to become close to United quality, especially in our style? He's more suited to Stoke then United, and Martinez must be thanking his lucky stars every day that we gave them 30 mil for this pile of crap. Am I being too harsh? Maybe, but he's still nowhere near good enough, and won't ever be. He doesn't become talented just because of how much we paid for him and because he plays for United now. It's not a case of writing him off before he had a chance, I wrote him off long before Moyes took over, it was obvious he wasn't good enough as a midfielder.
That sounds very much like writing him off before he has had a chance to me
As for your idiotic comments about why praise a player for improving?! The mind boggles
Talk of getting rid of him is ridiculous but the sooner we sign better midfielders to push him down the pecking order the better.
He will eventually find a role as a useful squad player, but I really can't see any way you could build a cohesive, creative, attacking team with him in midfield. I also can't see how any team with Fellaini as a regular starter could reasonably expect to perform at the highest level.
Having said that, he wasn't really that bad on Sunday. Cleverley was far worse, without having the excuse of being new to the club.
He will eventually find a role as a useful squad player, but I really can't see any way you could build a cohesive, creative, attacking team with him in midfield. I also can't see how any team with Fellaini as a regular starter could reasonably expect to perform at the highest level.
Having said that, he wasn't really that bad on Sunday. Cleverley was far worse, without having the excuse of being new to the club.
That sounds very much like writing him off before he has had a chance to me
As for your idiotic comments about why praise a player for improving?! The mind boggles
It's not so much improving, it's praising him for being less shit then he was his opening few months despite still being very shit. Instead of having consistent 3/10 performances, he had a 5/10 at best. Definitely something worth praising then? Really impressive from our 30m signing.
And writing someone off before they have a chance is usually said when you haven't seen the player before or have seen them 2 or 3 times, and they had a tough start and are writing them off based on that. Fellaini's been in the premier league since like 2008 I think and it has always been painfully obvious that he wasn't cut out for United's level, in any way really. There's literally nothing he can add to make our game play better. If we want him to play like most fans want United playing, like we used to play, he literally would have to transform himself a few inches shorter, a lot more mobile, a lot quicker and better on the ball and better defensively. Actually when you think about it, what exactly does he offer to our midfield? He doesn't have one quality that is better then "meh", apart from his heading or bringing down long balls. For Fellaini to play well and turn into an important player for United, we would basically have to turn into a midtable team who plays long ball football, which is why I never wanted us to sign him. He isn't capable of playing quick, attacking and 'attractive' football consistently.
That sounds like improvement to me - you are not very good at this are you?
If you recognise a 50%+ improvement in the space of a couple of months, then is it beyond possibility that he will continue to improve as he gets used to a new club and new teammates?
Rather than excelling at any particular trait, Fellaini is a good all round midfielder - it gives us some flexibility in an area where we have lacked options.
At the moment he provides much needed cover for Carrick, the main worry last season was our reliance on Carrick to protect our central defence. Fellaini cant pass as well as him (not many can) but he can tackle and break up play better than Carrick.
The only positive about him is his ability to bring the ball down with his chest as if the ball is stuck to him
While hes been terrible for us so far appears talentless I wouldn't write him off yet. When we signed him I thought hed do a solid job for us and I can still see him doing that at some ppoint. He needs to improve from his current level quickly though.
I tried to look at the positives of the signing and assumed he would at least do some of the basics and I had the impression that he would be 'solid' because of his physique and he would hold up players running past him... but he hasn't even been able to do that for us. I thought maybe if Carrick gets injured, at least we have a new 25 year old midfielder who can provide a bit of cover. He offers absolutely nothing at the moment, a 21 year old centre back in Phil Jones offers more in midfield. We needed at least two midfielders, we've spent £27.5m and are still in need of at least two midfielders.
Fellaini does deserve more time as a new signing but I'm commenting on what I'm seeing. Interesting he said he wants to be like Roy Keane, I hope he doesn't have a falsely perceived view of how Roy Keane played.
Fellaini does deserve more time as a new signing but I'm commenting on what I'm seeing. Interesting he said he wants to be like Roy Keane, I hope he doesn't have a falsely perceived view of how Roy Keane played.
How anyone can claim he played well or even ok is beyond me. He is the reason even Cleverley played worse than himself as the midfield got completely bypassed.
Winning a few high-balls because you are tall and committing fouls doesn't constitute a good performance.
However if anyone can compile his performance against Cardiff, maybe I could reconsider my stance on this being the worst midfield performance from United. We hardly ever had any control of the match. We always look like we are in control for atleast 10 minutes, which was never the case even when we were leading. And this is solely down to our 28-million man being completely useless giving the ball away every time he passed forward and therefore the defence having to launch long-balls to prevent giving him the ball.
He was slightly better defensively, but that is mainly because he is huge. That is the only reason one can claim he did better than Cleverley
Winning a few high-balls because you are tall and committing fouls doesn't constitute a good performance.
However if anyone can compile his performance against Cardiff, maybe I could reconsider my stance on this being the worst midfield performance from United. We hardly ever had any control of the match. We always look like we are in control for atleast 10 minutes, which was never the case even when we were leading. And this is solely down to our 28-million man being completely useless giving the ball away every time he passed forward and therefore the defence having to launch long-balls to prevent giving him the ball.
He was slightly better defensively, but that is mainly because he is huge. That is the only reason one can claim he did better than Cleverley
The only thing giving me hope, is that I remember Evra and Vidic doing badly for a while when we first signed them. Maybe Fellaini's just having a rough start. For those saying that even his best standard at Everton was not good enough for us, that's just not true. He could pass, and tackle, and was capable of bossing the midfield. He's technically good too. It's just that for whatever reason, it's all gone to bits at the moment.
If I could offer one defence for him, and every one of our midfielders, is that we seem to be a bit clueless tactically and players look too far apart. Fellaini looked better in the pass and move and quicker tempo game at Everton with everyone in the move. We are a very very static team, and there's no real quick passing interchanges.
He needs one season to bed in. Coming in and play for a team in transition with a nothing midfield is an extremely complicated process that should not be underestimated.
I have one eye on the next season already, that is when he will burst out of his cocoon.
I have one eye on the next season already, that is when he will burst out of his cocoon.
In what way?
I was disappointed when we bought Fellaini but as soon as he became our player I wanted him to do well. When discussing his performances his price tag should be irrelevant to a certain extent because even if he had cost £10m his performances have still been largely shit and he would be receiving the same level of criticism whatever he cost.
I'd rather we played Giggs and Anderson and even risking upsetting poor Rooney again by playing him in midfield than persisting with Fellaini. I'll probably get criticised for that view but my opinion on him hasn't changed from the summer. He's just not good enough and that isn't his fault.
I'd rather we played Giggs and Anderson and even risking upsetting poor Rooney again by playing him in midfield than persisting with Fellaini. I'll probably get criticised for that view but my opinion on him hasn't changed from the summer. He's just not good enough and that isn't his fault.
Sorry but that's just our bollocks..
Cleverly was beyond shit and I'd go as far as saying he went hiding in the game. Cleverly was to many the worse player on the pitch, he couldn't pass, when he did it was backwards or sideways. He has lost his way and I for one won't be upset to see him leave.
Who said it does?
No one has said Fellaini was MOTM as far as I can see, what he was though was "not shit" he played ok. Some of our fans have got blinkered vision when they see him play at the moment. It's odd, they focus on the negatives. How about getting behind him and giving him a chance like you would any other new signing.
I take it you didn't watch the match? If you did you wouldn't need one.
Yeah it was all his fault.
What an idiotic post.
He fouled as many times as Cleverley, had better passing % ( overall and forward ) than Cleverley and did his defensive duties well enough.
Typical 'lol feaellini 28 milion kunas, cant pass all fouls' post relying on idiotic cliches that have no real background in reality.
I thought he was our best player on the field... Well Rooney was the best but he shouldn´t have been on the pitch..
Fellaini did very well on the day sadly the rest didn´t seemed bothered at all!
Fellaini did very well on the day sadly the rest didn´t seemed bothered at all!
Very accurate and fair. It is not surprising though as defending is where he can help this United team take a step forward. As a box-to-box he is simply a step backwards/side-ways.
Very well? Really?
Would you like to answer the question on his behalf then?
It's pretty obvious why he's a but shit right now. He's doing pretty much everything poorly and not bringing anything to the table. However, that doesn't mean he won't improve and hopefully it's just a rough start.
He's got a nice chest.
He certainly wasn’t as bad as some made out. But I would not describe his performance as good either. He totally failed to impose himself for most of the game, but when he was in possession he used it better than he has in previous games. But mainly he kept it simple.
These are not the type of performances that made him Everton’s key player
I did say Cleverley was worse, maybe you didn't comprehend it. But Cleverley at least kept the ball most of the time.
Felliani wasn't an ok performance, he ran away from competing for ball and even when he did compete he got called on for fouling.
I have seen him play for nearly 5 years now, I don't think he will step up here and the longer he is here the worse our football will be.
I take it you didn't watch the match? If you did you wouldn't need one.
Yeah it was all his fault.
What an idiotic post.
Do you think we had control at any point of the match? If yes, then we don't really have anything to discuss since we watched different matches. I am usually calm during matches and rarely go into fits but in this particular match I might have missed something in my bias, that is the reason I would like to see a compilation of just his performance.
You needn't agree, but if you need to resort to labelling posts rather than trying to address what has been said, I don't think it is worth your while to reply
I wouldn't even say he's shit right now to be fair. He's not great but he's playing ok, which isn't good enough granted, but it might be good enough to see us through.
I'd put him above Cleverly and Anderson in our midfield pecking order so I'm still glad we bought him over nobody.
That much is obvious
Maybe you could prove me wrong, and post a compilation of his performance during the match. I would be much happier watching the next match Felliani plays in if I can see that his performance wasn't so bad.
I did feel that having Felliani affected the quality of our play quite a bit as others around him suffered. Again happy to be proven wrong
*cough*
So you thought we actually had control of the match at any point of time? Cool!
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