Did Manchester United commit a mistake by selling Marouane Fellaini?

Marouane Fellaini was signed by David Moyes on deadline day in 2013. United had been linked to Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale, Cesc Fabregas and Toni Kroos throughout the window but moves for any of them failed to materialize. They ended with a lot of frustration and Fellaini. His fate was written.

For all the Manchester United fans, Fellaini epitomises the failures of the club in the post-Ferguson era. That he became part of England’s biggest club when it was about to nosedive was his main fault. The fact that his game did not match the club’s was something the club chose to ignore while signing him.

His conviction and determination were never in doubt, yet he was always loathed. He constantly pointed to his badge or his number behind his jersey every time he scored, virtually begging the fans to see the amount of passion he had for the club. But the fans never gave in.

Manchester United suffered two back to back defeats that threaten to derail the revitalization process kick-started by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. What these defeats (along with the disappointing first leg against PSG) highlighted is the fact that Plan A won’t always work.

The free-flowing, fluid and attacking football might please the fans, but when you are up against a resolute side who does not get tired of defending (say Wolves for instance) you might need to think out of the box. Against a defensively well-organized team, it becomes extremely difficult to break the lines and score goals. In these situations, you need a player who can come off the bench the disrupt the opposition’s organization.

Marouane Fellaini is exactly this type of player. His physicality and aerial prowess enable him to wreak havoc in opposition’s half. He is capable of changing the tempo of the game when things are not going your way. He has scored many important goals for United especially during times when United was not playing at its best. This certainly proves that he is very effective at what he does.

United has missed a player under Solskjaer who can collect balls from the air and feed them to the attackers. Rashford and Lukaku do not have the same skill–set as Fellaini and it has been evident as we regularly see De Gea’s long balls flying over their heads. Defensively too, Fellaini is capable of blocking most of the crosses providing much need aerial protection to the centre-backs.

While it seemed certain that Solskjaer was going to depart from Mourinho’s defensive football, mastering a high press attacking football takes time and Fellaini could have proved a handy plan B in the transition. This makes all the more sense in the light of games against Arsenal and Wolves where United lacked a go-to option and it turned out to be painfully fatal.