David Moyes thinks Fellaini could become Cahill's long term replacement in the hole.

[Neiler]

Facts are he's played the role very well in the second half of last season, we scored a hell of a lot of goals in that run and assists or not, he was involved in the vast majority of them. He wouldn't be the ideal long term successor to Cahill but he's proved he'd do a really good job there. He's shown that he has a lot more to his game than what he offers in the DM role and imo, as boss as he is there, he'd be dynamite as a box to box player. To say that playing him in attacking mid is stupid though is way off when you look at the amount of goals we've scored with him there.

He's a player who is actually consistent year on year and with our goalscoring problems in the first half of seasons I think giving Felli less defensive responsibilities early on in the season could be a change that would help us start scoring sooner.

Him in front of Gibson and then another player behind the striker would be ideal if we had the funds to bring the right players in. Playing Pienaar there is a shout, like. Him and Felli linking up more would be brilliant and with a big club or two sniffing around Baines, there may be one less motivation to keep Pienaar on the left come Septemer.

Best post in the thread for me.

 

[Neiler]

Statistically he's the best dm in the league. Most tackles won, more plays broken up then any player...pull me up if I'm wrong but its something like that.

But yeah, stick him up front...

I dont think we would necessarily loose that mate, one of the things that appeals is he is able to sit back if needed or come back defensively, he has a great engine, i think he would just press higher and come deeper when under the cosh. It just means changeing systems really depending on how the game is panning out from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-5-1.

Fact is football is a balance between being potent but also solid the best averages of each generally win the league, not that we will like but in selecting our offensive players in our situation they will always have roles defensively.

It maybe fun for a couple of weeks having a cavelar approach of playing the likes of Billy in the hole but it soon becomes groansums when they loose pocession and are on the back foot.

 

[paulbefc]

Statistically he's the best dm in the league. Most tackles won, more plays broken up then any player...pull me up if I'm wrong but its something like that.

But yeah, stick him up front...

Looking through the opta stats midfield he isn't in any of the top 10 for any position statistically.

Weird, like but they do take into account ground duels won, tackles made and passing completion percentages.

http://www.eplindex.com/11672/premier-league-ultimate-team-selected-via-opta-stats-analysis.html

 

[kenada_blue]

Good post mate!

TBH if Billy had done the things Mofro has done anytime he has played in the hole or had his record people would be creaming themselves this wouldnt even be a debate.

Its weird after all this time, people just seem to underestimate or misjudge mofro even after all these years.

*Gets Sneider no 10 shirt.

To me its still a plan b thing than something that should be done. Felli has had good games in that poposition and also some shocking games. The only reason why it works sometimes is because he's awkward around defenders. He can't shoot long range, he can't split a defence...he's basically Cahill but a few feet taller.

that's fine...but a big shake up or change? not at all.

and its all predicated on Gibson breaking up play which for some reason, a lot feel he does do but is something I've never seen.

 

[kenada_blue]

Looking through the opta stats midfield he isn't in any of the top 10 for any position statistically.

Weird, like but they do take into account ground duels won, tackles made and passing completion percentages.

http://www.eplindex.com/11672/premier-league-ultimate-team-selected-via-opta-stats-analysis.html

–Marouane Fellaini won more tackles, ground duels, aerial duels and made more passes than anyone else at the club.
–Marouane Fellaini was also second in the league with 84 tackles, and won the ball 190 times in midfield, by far the most in the top flight.


Read more: http://www.grandoldteam.com/news/fa...on-2011-12-the-good-and-the-bad#ixzz1wRx2YYKe

 

[paulbefc]

To me its still a plan b thing than something that should be done. Felli has had good games in that poposition and also some shocking games. The only reason why it works sometimes is because he's awkward around defenders. He can't shoot long range, he can't split a defence...he's basically Cahill but a few feet taller.

that's fine...but a big shake up or change? not at all.

and its all predicated on Gibson breaking up play which for some reason, a lot feel he does do but is something I've never seen.

Sorry, but all of that is so wrong it's untrue.

 

[Brennan]

Looking through the opta stats midfield he isn't in any of the top 10 for any position statistically.

Weird, like but they do take into account ground duels won, tackles made and passing completion percentages.

http://www.eplindex.com/11672/premier-league-ultimate-team-selected-via-opta-stats-analysis.html

That doesn't make any sense.

There's another blog by them here where they basically suck his c*** and say he's amazing....

http://www.eplindex.com/11381/analysing-fellaini-rivals-opta-stats.html/3

Won more tackles, higher tackle accuracy, won more aerial 50/50s than anybody, cleared the ball more times than any of the others in that link.

That list is stupid anyway, only taking into account four things for each player.

 

[paulbefc]

–Marouane Fellaini won more tackles, ground duels, aerial duels and made more passes than anyone else at the club.
–Marouane Fellaini was also second in the league with 84 tackles, and won the ball 190 times in midfield, by far the most in the top flight.


Read more: http://www.grandoldteam.com/news/fa...on-2011-12-the-good-and-the-bad#ixzz1wRx2YYKe

He doesn't stop winning the ball at centre or attacking mid though. He just wins it in a different part of the field. Look at the second goal at Sunderland.

 

[Neiler]

To me its still a plan b thing than something that should be done. Felli has had good games in that poposition and also some shocking games. The only reason why it works sometimes is because he's awkward around defenders. He can't shoot long range, he can't split a defence...he's basically Cahill but a few feet taller.

that's fine...but a big shake up or change? not at all.

and its all predicated on Gibson breaking up play which for some reason, a lot feel he does do but is something I've never seen.

He undoubtedly has that mate, he can occupy defenders no doubt - its usefull to think about how that can be used in freeing up Jelevic as one of our problems over the years is that the 1 striker has become isolated or to easy to mark 1V2 and our play became predictable.

TBH i think he has more creatively, technically, vision wise and footballing intellegence wise, his also well able to mark yard up with the ball at feet. Some of the play between Jelly, Pienaar and him - was sublime at the back end and how much did all their creative stats jump in the last quater - each had a massive positive effect on the other - seems like a really good combo. Im a bit surprised to be honest on people assessment of Mofro in that role to be honest. I think yes he has a physical presence and thats a string to his bow, but im surprised people think that, thats all he offers. Another thing that appeals to me is that he hold pocession really well, further forward is an ace place to make the ball stick, especially with the like of Pienaar, hopefully another and Jelly buzzing of him and bearing down on a back four.

 

[kenada_blue]

I dont think we would necessarily loose that mate, one of the things that appeals is he is able to sit back if needed or come back defensively, he has a great engine, i think he would just press higher and come deeper when under the cosh. It just means changeing systems really depending on how the game is panning out from a 4-2-3-1 to a 4-5-1.

Fact is football is a balance between being potent but also solid the best averages of each generally win the league, not that we will like but in selecting our offensive players in our situation they will always have roles defensively.

It maybe fun for a couple of weeks having a cavelar approach of playing the likes of Billy in the hole but it soon becomes groansums when they loose pocession and are on the back foot.

But we did the exact thing with Cahill for a number of seasons before gradually sticking him off a striker.

I'm all for the Felli, Gibson, and rodders midfield, it'll be boss as theres a lot of alternation that can happen. But it shouldn't be rigid with Felli up on his own ala Cahill.

First and foremost Felli is there to destroy, score secondary.

 

[Neiler]

–Marouane Fellaini won more tackles, ground duels, aerial duels and made more passes than anyone else at the club.
–Marouane Fellaini was also second in the league with 84 tackles, and won the ball 190 times in midfield, by far the most in the top flight.


Read more: http://www.grandoldteam.com/news/fa...on-2011-12-the-good-and-the-bad#ixzz1wRx2YYKe

TBF the club stat prob is a bit misleading given hes played almost all the games in there in comparrison to Rodders and Gibbo.

 

[Brennan]

And according to this, he has a ground duel win rate of 50% and should be featured in that list:

http://www.eplindex.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Final-Mids.jpg

 

[Brennan]

He undoubtedly has that mate, he can occupy defenders no doubt - its usefull to think about how that can be used in freeing up Jelevic as one of our problems over the years is that the 1 striker has become isolated or to easy to mark 1V2 and our play became predictable.

TBH i think he has more creatively, technically, vision wise and footballing intellegence wise, his also well able to mark yard up with the ball at feet. Some of the play between Jelly, Pienaar and him - was sublime at the back end and how much did all their creative stats jump in the last quater - each had a massive positive effect on the other - seems like a really good combo. Im a bit surprised to be honest on people assessment of Mofro in that role to be honest. I think yes he has a physical presence and thats a string to his bow, but im surprised people think that, thats all he offers.

Now imagine if we actually had a proper CAM instead of Fellaini the defensive midfielder.

 

[paulbefc]

And according to this, he has a ground duel win rate of 50% and should be featured in that list:

http://www.eplindex.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Final-Mids.jpg

Well either that site is chatting some sh*t somewhere or we're posting stats from different parts of the season that were subject to change.

 

[kenada_blue]

He doesn't stop winning the ball at centre or attacking mid though. He just wins it in a different part of the field. Look at the second goal at Sunderland.

Then you look at when him and Cahill played up front this season and they were utter dross.

I dont think he's mobile enough or can beat a player to be in that role all the time. Rodwell has more traits for that role IMO