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Fellaini: Slowly fitting in at Old Trafford

By on May 9, 2014

Perhaps David Moyes’ worst signing of his incredibly disappointing term in charge of Manchester United was Maroune Fellaini.  Everton’s record signing, Fellaini had impressed immensely during his five year stay at Goodison Park, and even before Moyes made the same switch Fellaini would later make from Merseyside to Manchester, the midfielder was reportedly on United’s radar.  And once Moyes moved to Old Trafford, it was only inevitable that Fellaini would follow his former manager.  He seemed to be the exact player to fill the club’s gaping hole in their midfield left by Paul Scholes, as a box-to-box midfielder, towering at a height of six foot four inches, and not only a massive presence on the pitch but a cool finisher as well. With eleven goals in just thirty-three league appearances for Everton in 2012/2013, it looked like the Belgian had everything and would be Manchester United’s equivalent to Manchester City’s Yaya Toure.

However, once United splashed what was nearly a club record of £27.5 million on deadline day of the summer 2013 transfer window and Fellaini was immediately dropped into the heart of the club’s midfield, it was clear that not only was their something missing from the 26-year-old’s game, but he also failed to fit the United mold straight away.  Although Fellaini was a rock in front of the United defense, in Moyes’ crossing game at United the midfielder’s preferred short passes around the back and in the midfield hardly fitted with Moyes’ style of play, and being played in the majority as a defensive midfielder hardly helped – Fellaini was no longer in the box to finish crosses. Also, unlike Toure, Fellaini couldn’t provide any rampaging runs through the opposition defense.

These faults quickly resulted in Fellaini finding himself dropped from United’s starting line-up.  Although the former Standard Liege player featured in United’s matches against Crystal Palace and Bayer Leverkusen, after their 4-2 loss to Manchester City and 2-1 home defeat to West Bromwich Albion, followed by a 1-1 draw with Southampton, Fellaini was demoted to the bench.  The Belgium international made just seven starts from United’s next thirteen matches, and although his form picked up slightly from there, he was still yet to score his first goal for United or make an assist.  Just to make things worse, injury kept Fellaini out for the next two months of the season.

However, after recovering from injury and breaking back into Moyes’ starting eleven in February, the midfielder has slowly been fitting in at United. Fellaini has appeared in nearly every United match in the past few months, and only two of those ended in losses. While Moyes was forced out of United two weeks ago, Fellaini is finally being accepted at the club. He is still far from the monster of the midfielder United thought they were signing, but signs of improvement have been coming – Fellaini’s first assist at his new club finally came last weekend. Hopefully, he will be given more time to fit in than Moyes was.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.