He was bought for a price tag that exceeded his reputation. When David Moyes did finally confirm the signing of Belgian international Marouane Fellani nobody at Manchester United was quite sure what to expect, however the universal consensus was that it was a ‘desperate signing’. The price tag of £27.5 million was one no other club in the footballing universe would have paid for his services and Fellani himself has been justifying that recently, with a string of uninspiring (to put it lightly) performances.
With a huge rice tag to live up to and even bigger voids to fill Marouane Fellani was never going to find it easy going at Old Trafford. Injuries made his daunting task even tougher. His first Premier League appearance in a Manchester United jersey came away against Norwich. He looked lethargic and failed to impose himself on the game. To put it in short, he failed to impress.
In fact, that phrase can be used to describe most of his performances in a Manchester United jersey. He has yet to scores and yet to assist in the Red Of Manchester, in the Premier League. That is unacceptable for any Manchester United midfielder, specially one that we payed £27.5 million for!
Against Bayern Munich, many thought he could have his chance to shine. Against world class opposition many hoped Fellani would step up to the plate and help us combat the opposition. Unfortunately for us, he failed to impress again.
Alongside Carrick and Giggs for the first half, his main task was to win the second balls and break up play. He failed to do either. He only managed to win 1/7 aeriel duels. That for the tallest man on the pitch (keepers aside), is unacceptable. Contrary to popular belief he also failed to break up play and won none of his attempted tackles. You might think then that he was helping us control the game with short, accurate and effective passes.While his passes might have been short they were neither effective nor accurate. In fact only 75% of his attempted passes were accurate.
So how did he contribute to our memorable display against the Bayern? That is the very question I am mulling over 
and I can’t seem to come up with a logical answer. The only plausible answer I can come up with is he didn’t. He in no way contributed to that performance aside from when he let Schweinsteiger walk past him and score.
Throughout the game he acted as a physical presence for us. That simply isn’t good enough for a midfielder playing in the UEFA Champions League Quarter Finals!
For me Marouane Fellani just has not done enough to warrant a place in the starting line-up for Manchester United. I would much rather prefer Fletcher play instead who would at least add a bit more dynamism and experience in the middle of the park.
Many fans and pundits questioned the transfer even before a ball had been kicked. No one doubted his pedigree as a Premier League player however as a ‘Manchester United’ player, huge doubts have been and are continuously being raised and Fellani has done nothing on the pitch to quell them.
It has been, as expected a tough start for him at Old Trafford and despite everything, I would love to see Fellani succeed as his success would result in Manchester United’s success however with each passing performance the chances of that happening are getting increasingly slim,
This post was written by Rafae Qazi and you can follow his Man Utd Blog here.
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