It’s a predictable comment, but the unpredictable nature of football is surely what makes it so blooming marvellous. Up until two months ago there wasn’t a Manchester United fan in sight who thought that Marouane Fellaini should be in the team, the squad or the club. Had he been sold in January, many a pint would have been raised in the red half of Manchester.
Indeed, even the brilliant and highly esteemed BBC football writer Phil McNulty said of Fellaini on March 10th (after the Arsenal result):
Fellaini has improved after a dreadful first season following his £27.5m move from Everton but his role appears to be as United’s blunt instrument in times of trouble.
The Belgian represents a lumbering legacy of the failed Moyes era, an uncomfortable fit with United’s finest traditions. He was booked for persistent fouling on Monday and, while not their worst performer, he is hardly a signpost for a bright new generation.
But, almost incredibly, The Human Microphone has risen from the ashes and now Louis van Gaal has said that, on current form, he is undroppable.
In his weekly press conference, held at noon on Friday, the mercurial manager said of Fellaini:
“I knew of him but I didn’t meet him until after we came back from pre-season in the United States. From the first training session he has done everything I have asked. He has been very open to what I have said and he wants to perform. We can change the system but the way he is playing, I cannot change him.”
All power to Fellaini. He got so much abuse in his first 18 months at the club that most would have buckled and moved on. But now – and we still can’t believe it – he gets in soccersweep’s best Manchester United XI every time.
What has changed? Form, confidence and, above all, technique. Fellaini is a beast of a man who still has great strengths as a header of the ball and winner of physical duels. But his levels of skill and precision have rocketed under Louis. As well as winning so many aerial battles for United, his passes now usually find a team mate and his first touch is unrecognisable from last season.
While he will never have the technique of a Mata, he is becoming a cult hero at Manchester United and the range of qualities that he brings to the team is surely only trumped by fellow ex-Evertonian Wayne Rooney.
Let’s see some of his better moments. Manchester United fans: is Velcro Chest now undroppable?
