Is Felliani improving?

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chriswho

chriswho

Player Valuation: £5m
I really really like Felliani. He has bossed many games for us since he joined us. My concern is that he seems to have only improved one part of his game since he joined - he's always been excellent about breaking up plays, but he is no longer is the yellow card magnet he was.

But when it comes to picking a pass, I actually think he's regressed. Seeing us play recently with guys like Donovan, pienaar, drenthe, even Gibson, all those guys have played ambitious forward incisive passes, but I can't recall Fellini doing that in a long time (he definitely used to though).

Has he lost some of his confidence in his passing? Are our players not making the right runs for him? Is he not seeing them if they do? Has he spent too much time playing with neville? Is it all of the above? Or am just making this up and there really is nothing to see here?

I have no stats to back this up, just my personal observations of late. (Arteta did the same thing his last while with us too and I'm hoping that is a mere coincidence and not indicative of something else).
 

He's a far better player than when he arrived. I will hold my hands up and say I couldn't see why we'd paid the money.
He stamps his authority on games now a lot more and bosses play. It would probably help him if Moyles didn't put him up front every time he gets desperate and just left him in his best position.
 
I absolutely love his ability to muscle someone off the ball and pick out the short pass. Love it. He sticks his long legs in there and like a spider comes out with the ball, and sometimes a twirl.

He is so much better at doing this without a foul now and looks nimble while doing it.

Fun to watch.
 
He is effortlessly cool in all aspects of life. If I could be one of our players, it would probably be him.

He doesn't do through balls tho and he never has. All we've been missing from him in the last year or so is the range of passing he had in build up play, you don't really see him spread it out wide with a nice little swept sidespin skimmer anymore. I think that's purely because we've been **** and haven't played any real football for ages.
 

He can now win the ball off someone without flailing his arms around and getting booked...

So much more calm & composed than he was for a long while - guess thats natural as he's matured both into his role and as a person in general.

Sadly, think the 'fro's lost a bit of it's novelty value and may be time to have a trim (or go blonde like a good Belgian beer)!
 
He's our best player. Irreplaceable in the current game for what he does. Aside from Yaya Toure, there isn't a midfielder showing the same mixture of physicality and deftness.

Whilst he might not offer a range of Xaviesque incisive forward passes, he rarely loses out in a tackle. He repels challengers and doesn't give the ball away often. Plays it simple, plays to his strengths and does it very well indeed.

I agree that I'd prefer for him not to be thrown upfront at every given opportunity seeing as we have a plethora of towering forwards, but when Rodwell returns and our squad gets back to full depth that should feasibly stop.

Is he improving? Yes. He looks more composed and less likely to throw an elbow in someones face each time I see him. His biggest improvement has been mentally.
 
I think he's tidy in possession. He knows he's not a world-beater when it comes to defence splitting passes, but what he does well is to win the ball, then play simple passes that can create space for others. Sometimes he'll lay it short, then have it back, and just doing that can manipulate the space around him and allow other players space to move into. He doesn't often give the ball away - when he does, it's usually when he's being a bit more ambitious.

As for breaking up opposition play and generally getting a stranglehold on a midfield, there's few better.

He's a priceless asset to this team.
 
My mind goes back to a home match last season when Felli played an inch perfect in-on-goal, defence splitting pass on the deck to where Beckford would have ran onto if he'd kept his stride pattern...he didn't and rounded on Fellaini for not belting it ten yards ahead. Fellaini had that 'I give up' look on him.

He has the ability, he just needs a clever runner. Let's hope the Croat fits the description.
 

Good points, all. Give him free license to boss the midfield at will, with Gibbo keeping shape and he'll enjoy his footie. Physically he's unplayable on form and he knows all the tricks.
 
McBain said:
Good points, all. Give him free license to boss the midfield at will, with Gibbo keeping shape and he'll enjoy his footie. Physically he's unplayable on form and he knows all the tricks.
Click to expand...

This ^^^^^. I also happen to think the signing of Gibson will allow Felli to play a less restricted role in the team, my crystal ball reveals that in the coming weeks Gibbo will start to get to full fitness and will become our very own Makelele and Felli will have more of a roaming roll ahead of Gibbo thus having more of an impact on games.
 
Big fan of Felliani, I'm a walsall fan but I went to watch Everton at Villa Park a few weeks back. A few Holte Enders were saying they didn't rate him, but lets put it this way he'd get in most Premier League XI's
 
to be fair his job in team is more to break up play, than be a playmaker. as stated earlier yaya toure is the only one better than him in the league in that possition, only coz he gets forward more. However, fella has been doing more of this in the last couple of games, of course he scored against fulham, and against Man City, he was one of the furthest forward, especially that volley which he nearly scored from. IMO he should be priced at £30-35M already, but hope to god we do not sell him, he will become world class in his career
 

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