Revealed: What Everton Players Used To Say About Fellaini’s Defending!! 1

Marouane Fellaini was brought on with five minutes remaining to shore up Manchester United’s defence against Everton on Sunday.

With the Red Devils 1-0 up and closing in on all three points, Jose Mourinho introduced Fellaini in anticipation of some long-ball football from their opponents.

In a post-match interview, per BBC Sport, Mourinho felt the reason for his late substitution was “obvious”.

“Everton is not a passing team any more like they were in the past,” he said. “Everton is a team that plays direct: goalkeeper direct, Ashley Williams direct, Ramiro Funes Mori direct. Everything direct.

“When you have on the bench a player with two metres [in height] you play the player in front of the defensive line to help the team to win the match.”

However, Fellaini’s introduction massively backfired on Mourinho, the Belgian giving away a penalty two minutes later with a poorly-timed tackle on Idrissa Gueye.

Leighton Baines would dispatch the resulting spot kick and secure a draw – United’s fourth in five Premier League games.

Fellaini was ultimately the one to blame in the aftermath, with former teammate Leon Osman not at all surprised by the 29-year-old’s carelessness.

Speaking on Sky Sports, the midfielder explained how Fellaini was renowned for making clumsy mistakes at Everton and how players used to want him as far away from their own 18-yard box as possible.


He said: “He was always like that for us. He was like that in training, if you came up against him he was likely to stand on your toes or give you a dead leg.

“When he played for us we wanted him as far away from our box as possible, get him up causing havoc in around the opposition penalty area where he was really good.”

Perhaps Mourinho will think twice next time he thinks about bringing on Fellaini to defend a lead.

Gary Neville also had his say on the Belgium international’s challenge and labelled it as “idiotic”.

“You can see the sense behind the substitution from a manager’s point of view, but when he goes on to do an idiotic thing like that it’s just really poor,” he added.

“He’s such an experienced player, he’s played here before, he knows the ground and the crowd, it’s a poor individual moment.

“It’s no reflection on the manager, he has made the substitution for the right reasons and he has been let down by his player.”