There is always an urge to defend a player like Fellaini who keeps getting a lot of flake after one bad incident that instantly wipes out all the good things he has done for United in previous games. I have done that all season long - come in here and praise Fellaini when he's had a good game. He is a United player afterall and should be treated like one instead of being treated like an outsider like he has been for all four seasons he has played for us. Managers have come and gone and each one of them has made Fellaini a somewhat important part of their game plan so there is surely some quality about him.
Having said that, Fellaini is only going to look decent as long as we continue to under-achieve and continue our quest to somehow start performing regularly. It is not that hard to look semi-decent when all fans want is for the team to somehow finish fourth, when all fans want is for us to somehow get a result against teams who a top-top team should actually be battering. It is a fact that Fellaini has a very limited footballing skills and it is a fact that he is not made up for a team that desires to go toe to toe with teams of the quality of Madrid, Barca, Juve etc. We may win EL with quality of Fellaini but we will get knocked out in first knock out round or surely during the quarter finals if we webt to CL with quality of Fellaini. We may finish 2nd in the league table some season with the quality of Fellaini but the very next season we will drop out of top four of we persisted with quality of Fellaini. There are a lot of players in our current squad who seem to easily please fans but putting in a"solid" shift, not a top quality shift mind you, a solid shift and all these players should be gone eventually if we are ever going to be a team that consistently performs at the top level.
Premier league is a very tough competition now simply because all the top teams are playing with either La Liga rejects or semi-good players. Bar Hazard, none of the top players would even get into the top sides of the world currently. So no wonder, bar Chelsea, every other team randomly drops points, gets found out by much weaker teams, never performs with any kind of consistency. Is it any wonder the race for too four places goes down to the the wire every season? It is simply because all the PL teams have with these "solid shift" players who do well in few games and then just don't do enough in other games giving weaker opposition to get away with a victory or draw every now and then. United have the kind of money to be able to buy some top tier players like Pogba and avoid this inconsistency. We must upgrade on a few "squad" players and aim for higher standards or else we might do well in the league every now and then but will eventually have seasons where we slump down back again - just like every other top PL team is going to do. As long as Fellaini is a United player, I am willing to respect him like one but I would like better, more technical players to be given the responsibility to pull us out of the rut and keep us performing regularly.
27
