Short memories... Fellaini needs to be in the middle of the park.

[Chang Elephant]

It's a cunning ruse to keep Osman in the side because he floats Moyes's boat. Literally.

 

[Brownie]

Sure. If you're Barcelona. I love the way we're playing right now and we can beat anyone, get into the top 4. But we're not as good as City on the whole.

Sure.

 

[toffeejack]

Because he's a striker who isn't the target for final balls. That man being? Fellaini as of late. He runs out of pitch to push into, so rather than just stand still a la the Yaks/Berbatovs of this world, he presents an option for the wingers and overlapping full backs. Hence why our play in the final third ends up being so disjointed. We need to play it to him earlier. To do that, we need to drop Felli back so that Jela doesn't find himself overshadowed by the big man the whole time.

possibly, but jela did okay last season with cahill trying to run into his positions. I would probs prefer to see felli further back because for me he isn't good enough to make through balls for jela to run onto. We haven't created anywhere as near as much chances without coleman and mirallas in the team as of late.

To people saying we're creating less chances now because we're "hoofing" it up to the big man, i'd like to counteract that by saying it worked earlier in the season i.e. swansea and fulham. I think, with our right side overlapping eachother, we had one of them running in or close to the edge of the box and picking off passes. With Jags/Hibbert and Naismith playing there in their absence we have no pace and no such overlapping and that is when it seems "hoofing" to fellaini is a bad idea. Therefore, the solution should probably be to drop him back only when we don't have our 1st choice right side. If this is the case, we should look to be signing like for like backups for that right side in the summer. Other alternative could also be oviedo and then moving naismith inside or pushing osman forward whilst dropping felli back as another alternative.

 

[Baines' left foot]

Personally I think there's as much chance of Moyes playing Duffy at CB for the rest of the season as there is him dropping Fellaini back to CM.

 

[Brennan]

Stay in position, get the ball as far away from goal as possible with no risk of being intercepted

or

Have to move around to create short passing opportunities with high risk of interception due to aggressive pressing by home team trying to win game

Yeah, having to move around is asking a lot from a team of professional footballers.

 

[Brownie]

Yeah, having to move around is asking a lot from a team of professional footballers.

Clearly I was talking about what it's reasonable to expect from a professional footballer and not the strategic obligations of a particular tactic.

 

[paulbefc]

We will get nowhere trying to play Barca style football. We don't have the right players and it's not the most effective way to play in this league anyway. The long ball is working this season because we DON'T lose possession much from it. Felli wins the ball much more often than not and it'd be complete lunacy not to use that to our advantage. We have been playing long ball at times in games and yet bossing possession stats against pretty much every side we've played this year. We're not relinquishing possession easily. You don't try and fix something that's not broken. "Not broken" being an understatement.

Fellaini isn't damaging Jelavic's form either. Think back to games like Swansea and Sland away and how Felli worked brilliantly alongside the Croat in, firstly, setting up his goal against Swansea, then feeding the ball wide for Gueye to cross for the first and also making the second himself. Jelavic has been struggling due to a combination of his own lack of form and Pienaar's, for me. We'll see this system working better if and when everyone is fit and on some kind of form. That could be very soon by the looks of it.

 

[Brennan]

Clearly I was talking about what it's reasonable to expect from a professional footballer and not the strategic obligations of a particular tactic.

 

[IRO1977]

I think the main point that some are missing here is just how often Fellaini won the ball back in midfield last year, meaning opposition attacks were stopped before they had a chance to develop and that our defence didn't look quite as exposed as they do now. I remember seeing a stat in the summer that he lead all PL players in winning the ball last year with almost 160 succesfull tackles, while his nearest competitor was Song of Arsenal with 128 i think. That's a big part of his game that flies under the radar and something we really miss when he plays upfront, and dare i say it could also be a big reason for our defensive vulnerabilities this term

 

[Brennan]

I think the main point that some are missing here is just how often Fellaini won the ball back in midfield last year, meaning opposition attacks were stopped before they had a chance to develop and that our defence didn't look quite as exposed as they do now. I remember seeing a stat in the summer that he lead all PL players in winning the ball last year with almost 160 succesfull tackles, while his nearest competitor was Song of Arsenal with 128 i think. That's a big part of his game that flies under the radar and something we really miss when he plays upfront, and dare i say it could also be a big reason for our defensive vulnerabilities this term

Yep...

It's not rocket science. We move our best player in terms of breaking up opposition attacks and picking up the ball further up the pitch and we suddenly can't keep a clean sheet.

 

[Maestro Haze]

I think the main point that some are missing here is just how often Fellaini won the ball back in midfield last year, meaning opposition attacks were stopped before they had a chance to develop and that our defence didn't look quite as exposed as they do now. I remember seeing a stat in the summer that he lead all PL players in winning the ball last year with almost 160 succesfull tackles, while his nearest competitor was Song of Arsenal with 128 i think. That's a big part of his game that flies under the radar and something we really miss when he plays upfront, and dare i say it could also be a big reason for our defensive vulnerabilities this term

THIS!

It would play a huge part definitely but we still have to find which is the best CB combination. Jags and Distin seem the best to me, but last year it wasn't.

 

[Allezfan]

Yep...

It's not rocket science. We move our best player in terms of breaking up opposition attacks and picking up the ball further up the pitch and we suddenly can't keep a clean sheet.

You're comparing games with Gibson out injured and coleman (who I like a lot but is defensively naive) at RB though.

If now Hibbert and Gibson are back and Heitinga isn't playing we keep on leaking goals than fair enough but you might be trying to fix a problem that has already been solved.

 

[Del]

I think the main point that some are missing here is just how often Fellaini won the ball back in midfield last year, meaning opposition attacks were stopped before they had a chance to develop and that our defence didn't look quite as exposed as they do now. I remember seeing a stat in the summer that he lead all PL players in winning the ball last year with almost 160 succesfull tackles, while his nearest competitor was Song of Arsenal with 128 i think. That's a big part of his game that flies under the radar and something we really miss when he plays upfront, and dare i say it could also be a big reason for our defensive vulnerabilities this term

 

[TomDixie]

We could just have Fellaini rotating between positions as needed during the match.

 

[Brennan]

You're comparing games with Gibson out injured and coleman (who I like a lot but is defensively naive) at RB though.If now Hibbert and Gibson are back and Heitinga isn't playing we keep on leaking goals than fair enough but you might be trying to fix a problem that has already been solved.

Gibson has played 70 minutes or more in four games this season and there's only one where we haven't conceded.

We've missed Gibson, but i don't think he's going to make anywhere near as much of an impact defensively as Fellaini would were he to play where he played last season. The stats for Gibson from last year back this up.