Fellaini: Yet to justify the amount Manchester United shelled out for him
The Players’ Payer of the Year last year, Michael Carrick has slipped from being one of the world’s best in his position to a situation of utter ambiguity, which finally resulted in his axing from the 23-man English squad for Brazil. In spite of a passing accuracy almost identical to last year, Carrick failed to live up to his reputation following a career-best season (4 goals, 3 assists) with meek performances (1 goal, 0 assists) in the ‘transitional’ season. The situation truly highlights the fact that how one bad season for a player can affect the entire team’s fortunes.
But the bigger problem lies in the fact that of all the central midfielders, Carrick has been the best; which means that the remaining three don’t even produce one key pass per match. Last minute buy Marouane Fellaini bears the lone assist from the quartet in the entire season. Voices have been demanding his head; pointing towards his inability to justify his loaded price tag in spite of playing in his more favoured position. His fitness or rather the lack of it has done him no good either. As for Cleverly and Fletcher, the less said the better. Moyes’ preferred 4-4-2 formation has added further misery to a central midfield without a consistent pairing. A 4-2-3-1 would have provided more control in the centre and possible opportunities to counter. Noticeably, United lost a considerable number of games on account of the same.
Wingers
Talking of the 4-4-2, it often reminds you of the triumphant Manchester United outfits riding on the success of their nippy wide men. But gone are those days. Jokes about the Fuham game this season where United attempted 81 crosses from the wings will reverberate for several years to come. Nani, Valencia and Young have been disappointing to say the least.Meanwhile, Mata and Kagawa are not natural wingers, so it would be foolhardy to expect them to excel there every week.
The silver lining to appear inside the side-lines is the one dimunitive young lad that metamorphosed into Adnan Januzaj. With the highest key passes per match ratio among all the United wide players, the Belgian international has out-passed his rather experienced colleagues. Also with 4 goals and 3 assists to his name, a lot can be expected in the coming years from the 19-year-old.
