Fellaini ( from a belgian perspective )

[ToxtethBlue]

Scholes made up for it with amazing ability though, he's simply a far better footballer than Fellaini. Keane as we all know was one of the most all round midfielders this League has seen, he was superb in most areas. Both are also hardworkers, Fellaini isn't.

There's nothing wrong with being slow if you have something else about you. Xabi Alonso for example makes up for his lack of pace because of his passing ability, movement off the ball and ability to find space.

I look at Fellaini and I see a decent player, a nuisence but he doesn't have any standout qualities. I look to Tom Huddlestone for example. Also a very inmobile player but in other areas he's superb. He has something about him that makes him standout.

Fellaini is just decent. On his day he'll be a real handful but he'll also have alot of games where he looks like a nothing player, like yesterday for example.

We could have bought alot better for me, that's the only thing that bugs me. We could've bought a creative midfielder or a ball winner which would've solved alot of problems. Signing Fellaini hasn't solved many problems sadly.

 

[stinger]

Theres been a lot of talk regarding the big man since hes signed, mainly a great deal of criticism in a fashion typical to Evertonians Marco Materazzi style.

Time to put things into perspective. Players take time to adapt, take Jagielka as a prime example. He was very poor, no one can deny that, he was older than Fellaini, English and played in the Premiership before yet look how he started his career at us...

Within a game or two - because Fellaini hasn't done fancy step overs or any fancy tricks, fans are on his back. How many games has the young lad played?

Stoke
Hull
Blackburn
Liverpool
Newcastle
Arsenal
Man Utd
Bolton
Fulham
Middlesbrough
Wigan

So thats 11 games. In those 11 games he has been MOTM three times on here, scoring 3 goals (Newcastle, Man Utd, Bolton). Thats not a bad return, he has made more of an impact that Cahill, Arteta and Yakubu in all them games.

Fellaini was signed late on, with no pre-season behind him at the club. He turned 21 three days ago, (so same age as the 'Youngsters' Vaughan an Anichebe really) doesn't speak a word of English coming into a side who have been piss poor. I keep banging the drum of him not speaking English but it is a big issue, when I played football in Tunisia and Spain and was the only one who spoke English it was a nightmare. Fellaini has only ever played for Liege and Belgium, its his first big culture shock...

Before 20 he had become a significant player for Standard Liege hence his transfer fee and played over 10 games for Belgium. For Moyes to pay £15m... Moyes, the proverbial stig alone proves Fellaini is no mug and has a good pedigree behind him.

Fans keep saying 'he's too slow' 'doesn't tackle' 'passes sideways' Maybe so but then I see attributes of constantly wanting the ball, putting himself available for possession (a rarity among our players at the minute), he rarely loses the ball, whether or not he passes sideways isn't the issue, the more established creative players should be the ones taking the ball on and creating something ie Arteta/Osman. But what I like most about the lad is, he looks comfortable on the ball. If he settles and fans get behind him, I am certain he will be a top player for us.

Time to look at the basics lads and ignore the price tag for a moment (£4m rising to £15m). He turned 21 the other day and his last game was only his tenth in the league. If you want to vent your anger at the transfer fee, blame Moyes not Fellaini. We desperately need a bit of bite in our midfield, a ball winner - we all though Fellaini would be the man, it quickly emerged thats not him. Moyes himself described Fellaini as a Cahill type player which begs the question, why sign a Cahill and not a Carsley when we need a Carsley and already have Cahill?...

This wont go down well on here and no doubt fans will continue to highlight Fellaini like last night, I fully expect the same replies from some after a defeat to say Spurs of just "[Poor language removed] off Everton, Fellaini was s**t" Its not about scoring brownie points of "I told you Fellaini was crap, see, he was crap again" As I said, time to support the lad, he needs time. Judge him this time next season.

Great, great post.
I believe he will be very good player down the road, since he was good for Standard and from what I've seen he is quite good in Belgium NT (was really good against Spain). If we need to blame anybody it has to be Moyes (or Kenwright for providing not enough money, too late, etc...) - we needed a holding midfielder to replace Carsley and we needed a creative player, who control the game and tempo from middle of the park. We got Fellaini, who doesn't fit in neither of this descriptions. Like poster from Belgium wrote - Fellaini was very good having a player like Defour around him and that's what we need to do. If we spent 15 mln on a player, we have to or give up on him quickly, or build a midfield the way which will suit him in best possible way. I believe in Fellaini and what he can bring for us, if he will play the right role, so Moyes needs to work on re-shaping a team. With current squad we are going nowhere, the only big up-side I can see for us, is moving Arteta to the middle and seeing how it would change our game. As many here I want to see Baines getting a chance and Castillo too, but I don't believe it will change our game drastically.
Maybe we'll qualify to UEFA CUP, or maybe not, but in general - last two years we were overachieving and I am worrying we just hit the wall hard.

If we definitely won't have a room for improvement, than I am all for re-shaping a team, including selling guys like Arteta, Cahill, Yakubu, if we would get decent offers for them. And bring new players. Hopefully ones, which would fit next to other players on the pitch.

 

[Brownie]

Do you really need speed though, surely its of best advantage on the wings, in a cenntre forward and no harm at the back, but in central midfeild you can play your way iin to a lot of space and time given your ability and your reading of the game, which again comes down to expierence. Like MG said Keane, Scholes et al were not blessed with burning pace but always seemed to be acres of room or find others in acres of room and always available.

It's not an absolute necessity, but if you're really slow it severely limits the kind of player you can be. The little players, the Scholes and Keanes were decent over short distances, they were tenacious and had quick feet. He's nothing like them to be honest. He's in the Jan Koller league of slow, look what that did for him. Literally all he could do was stand in one place and head the ball. He needs to get much, much better at turning, that is the only avenue he has in my opinion. He should watch Zidane over and over again. Obviously helps being one of the best players of all time, but a big man with agility, look no further.

 

[sotnas]

It does hurt that we spent our record transfer fee, an absolute massive wedge of dollar on what is really a promising young player. When you think that we will probably never have that amount of money again until something major happens with the club, it's very disappointing. We're not Man Utd, we can't afford to go around spending huge amounts on Andersons and Nanis. It's the fact that it's our entire transfer budget. We could've got someone who's as good as him at the moment for far less, or on loan and then properly gone about buying someone amazing in Jan or next Summer.

Actually, Nani cost about the same, I think. (how much is 25M€ ? )

I'll have my go at Fellaini... I think he is a very promising player. When people were talking about Moutinho, I said this lad would be a good addition. I could never imagine he would cost this much, I must admit.

But he's only 20 and as I've said in a previous discussion, he arrived later, didn't have a pre-season, didn't train enough and went direct to the pitch. It's not like he has worked his way through. He was just put to play due to the lack of players for that precise position.

He should be working his socks off to be able to breakthrough, in an ideal world of course.

But the price tag has put additional pressure on the lad. He's not the saviour but he can be very important player for the club for the next 10/12 years. He must be nurtured.

He's special for a lot of reasons, to me. He's physically gifted, he can score a lot of goals and he's a good team player with a good sense of movement. He's not the finished article but he sure is a lot better than any other youngster we have in the squad.

Other players around him have failed to live up to expectations. And that has some effect on him. His weaknesses are more notorious when the team is not performing, which I think is the case right now.

 

[Brownie]

Actually, Nani cost about the same, I think. (how much is 25M€ ? )

I meant individually mate, as far as I know they were 18mil each, which is about the 25 milllion you say in €?

Anderson is a far better player than Fellaini, more the kind of player we need and he's younger. Probably out of our league even before he signed for Utd, but still, that's the disappointment.

Edit: Nani = 17m, Anderson = 18m. Did you mean you thought Nani was about the same amount as Fellaini? I was being dumb, sorry.

 

[Neiler]

It's not an absolute necessity, but if you're really slow it severely limits the kind of player you can be. The little players, the Scholes and Keanes were decent over short distances, they were tenacious and had quick feet. He's nothing like them to be honest. He's in the Jan Koller league of slow, look what that did for him.Literally all he could do was stand in one place and head the ball. He needs to get much, much better at turning, that is the only avenue he has in my opinion. He should watch Zidane over and over again. Obviously helps being one of the best players of all time, but a big man with agility, look no further.

Ha ha theres a lot of sense in what you say mate, theres definitely miles of imporvement in his game, for me his postitioning, his reading of the game and like you say how to make the best of his physical attributes im confident that will come. Im hopefull though i like what i see in him, i like that no one really has a clue what hes supposed to be doin gon here, and thats why i beleivehe will be something special i think in some ways hes like nothing we have expierenced at goodison in a long time.

Im of to watch my Zidane vids, youve gotten me in the mood!

 

[sotnas]

I meant individually mate, as far as I know they were 18mil each, which is about the 25 milllion you say in €?

Anderson is a far better player than Fellaini, more the kind of player we need and he's younger. Probably out of our league even before he signed for Utd, but still, that's the disappointment.

Edit: Nani = 17m, Anderson = 18m. Did you mean you thought Nani was about the same amount as Fellaini? I was being dumb, sorry.

Nani cost 25,5M euros although his release clause was of only 20M euros, Utd paid a little bit more. (Don't ask me why.)

Anderson was about 30M euros.

Btw, Ronaldo cost Utd 15M euros.

Sometimes is only a matter of opportunity to make a good deal on a good player.

 

[Brownie]

Nani cost 25,5M euros although his release clause was of only 20M euros, Utd paid a little bit more. (Don't ask me why.)

Anderson was about 30M euros.

Btw, Ronaldo cost Utd 15M euros.

Sometimes is only a matter of opportunity to make a good deal on a good player.

Fair enough, Man Utd are a bit of a joke to be honest. Not even a football club anymore.

 

[Cal]

Ha ha theres a lot of sense in what you say mate, theres definitely miles of imporvement in his game, for me his postitioning, his reading of the game and like you say how to make the best of his physical attributes im confident that will come. Im hopefull though i like what i see in him, i like that no one really has a clue what hes supposed to be doin gon here, and thats why i beleivehe will be something special i think in some ways hes like nothing we have expierenced at goodison in a long time.

Im of to watch my Zidane vids, youve gotten me in the mood!

He hasn't got one ounce of world class footballing ability, nor has he got anything about him that will turn his potential into being world class. Surely you can see this?

World class is a phrase slung around too much, should be only used for players such as Ronaldinho, Messi, Kaka etc, not Maroaune [Poor language removed] Fellaini for [Poor language removed] sakes.

 

[kenada_blue]

He hasn't got one ounce of world class footballing ability, nor has he got anything about him that will turn his potential into being world class. Surely you can see this?

World class is a phrase slung around too much, should be only used for players such as Ronaldinho, Messi, Kaka etc, not Maroaune [Poor language removed] Fellaini for [Poor language removed] sakes.

You really want the 20 year old £15million man to be THAT class straight off the bat dont you?

 

[Neiler]

He hasn't got one ounce of world class footballing ability, nor has he got anything about him that will turn his potential into being world class. Surely you can see this?

World class is a phrase slung around too much, should be only used for players such as Ronaldinho, Messi, Kaka etc, not Maroaune [Poor language removed] Fellaini for [Poor language removed] sakes.

Ha ha i know what you mean but thankfully hes doing well at Valencia!

Because we paid a big fee for Fellaini, people seemed to think that he would make a big impact, immediately.

A big difference would have needed three or four players like that. But what we did was spend our money on a young player who everyone will hear a whole lot more about.

He has come into a struggling team, and we are asking him to make a difference. That is hard. Initially we should have used him occasionally but he has been thrown straight in.

He has scored a couple of goals now, he is playing OK, and we are warming to him.

He was shattered after the game, the speed of the game in midfield, box to box, is something he may not have experienced. You will always make mistakes at 20, but I will be interested to see what he will be like at 23, 24.

Fellaini is just 20. If you ask about him in Belgium, he is a big star and a big player for the national team.

In the future Fellaini will be a star here. We bought him because we want him here for a few years, that's the strategy.

 

[Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian]

a quick one for our belgian visitors,
what kind of goals does he score ?
are they all headers?
does he score from distance,?
can he take free kicks ?
it's just with those long legs he must be able to give it a powerfull smack. i dont like to see that any set piece now means that artetta will try to pick out marouanne, and fail.

 

[sotnas]

a quick one for our belgian visitors,
what kind of goals does he score ?
are they all headers?
does he score from distance,?
can he take free kicks ?
it's just with those long legs he must be able to give it a powerfull smack. i dont like to see that any set piece now means that artetta will try to pick out marouanne, and fail.

Could we ask a special permission from the EPL for Fellaini to use an additional jersey (our opponent's jersey) since Arteta has that special ability to hit the defender?

 

[Momo_nr.1]

a quick one for our belgian visitors,
what kind of goals does he score ?
are they all headers?
does he score from distance,?

can he take free kicks ?
it's just with those long legs he must be able to give it a powerfull smack. i dont like to see that any set piece now means that artetta will try to pick out marouanne, and fail.

Mostly headers, although he can score with a deviation or something like that (like his first goal for Everton), he has these long legs he uses to get in between...

If you're lucky he scores from a distance shot about once a year, he can place a ball very well so he can score from just outside the penalty box, but he doesn't really have the force to shoot from 25/30 metres

If you get free kicks he's too valuable inside the box to let him take them, I can recall games where he made a header on almost every free kick that got in front of the goal. I don't think I've ever seen him take one himself while he was at Standard Liege or with the national team...

So if you can find someone to get the free kicks past the first post/opposite defender (maybe VDM ), he'll cause mayhem inside the box...

 

[kenada_blue]

Mostly headers, although he can score with a deviation or something like that (like his first goal for Everton), he has these long legs he uses to get in between...

If you're lucky he scores from a distance shot about once a year, he can place a ball very well so he can score from just outside the penalty box, but he doesn't really have the force to shoot from 25/30 metres

If you get free kicks he's too valuable inside the box to let him take them, I can recall games where he made a header on almost every free kick that got in front of the goal. I don't think I've ever seen him take one himself while he was at Standard Liege or with the national team...

So if you can find someone to get the free kicks past the first post/opposite defender (maybe VDM ), he'll cause mayhem inside the box...

Yeah, he hit the post the other week doing that.