Not every player will experience a fairy tale moment in their career, but Maroune Fellaini finally had his watershed moment in the victory against Liverpool. At Old Trafford, on March, 2014, Fellaini was the scape goat of United’s 3-0 humiliation at the hands of Liverpool. Fast forward a year and Fellaini enacted sweet revenge in the same fixture with his impressive performance.
Fellaini has responded brilliantly to salvage his United career after the club entertained a possible Napoli offer last summer. Fortunately the injury he suffered in the window prevented him from moving away. Now, Van Gaal will be that the Belgian stayed with the club.
In United’s final friendly against Valencia at Old Trafford (last August), Fellaini was jeered by the Reds supporters every time he touched the ball, even though he scored the late winner after coming on as a substitute. But, on Sunday, the same set of supporters gave him a standing ovation after the final whistle for his warrior like performance on the field.
Against Liverpool, Fellaini battled in the middle of the field like a gladiator. He went into every single challenge whole heartedly and hardly came out of a challenge on the losing side. The way he terrorised the Liverpool players to win the ball from them reminded about the old school bully.
Moreover, he was United’s go-to man on the night. Whenever, United were pressurized by Liverpool players, they passed the ball back to David Degea, who in turn kicked it to Fellaini who occupied the left-side of United’s attack.
The reason for him taking that side of the area in the pitch was largely due to the fact that Liverpool’s right centre-half Emre Can was a make-shift centre-back in Liverpool’s much heralded 3-4-3 formation. And, the result was clear as Fellaini terrorized Can with ease to win the aerial duels to present the ball to United attackers higher up the field. Hence, as shown in the below picture, Fellaini often stayed on that said of the pitch.
Also it was not just about attacking, but he was always willing to help the defenders on the evening. Whenever, United were under pressure, he returned back to his own half to help the Reds win back the ball. Also Fellaini was very handy in many corners Liverpool had later in the game. He cleared the ball at ease to relieve the pressure from United defenders.
David Moyes struggled to make the best use of Fellaini during his torrid 10-month spell, but his successor Van Gaal seemed to have found the right formula. After using him as one of the player in the two-man midfield, the Dutchman has realised that Fellaini does not possess the same quality as either Carrick or Herrea does.
Hence, he pushed him further up the field to occupy the number ten role. Thereby United had two quality players to dictate the tempo from behind, at the same time they had an alternate option with Fellaini higher up the pitch. Because the big Belgian will go into the opposition box every time United had the ball to support his striker and returned to United’s half when they lose the ball to help the defenders.
He may not be the most silkiest player on the pitch against Liverpool nor the gifted player, but he possessed something which no other player had on the night, which was the steel in his armor. Mata might have grabbed both goals on the night, but the Belgian stole the show with his impressive all-round performance.
So much so that Liverpool were not able to come up with a solution to control him on the night which, ultimately cost the Merseyside outfit three valuable points in their most important game of the season. Maroune Fellaini was the puzzle that Brendan Rodgers was unable to solve!