What’s the story?
YouTuber Rich Leigh has fashioned a career out of conducting FIFA 17 experiments and posting them on the video streaming website. In his latest experiment, Rich Leigh paid heed to one of his followers' requests to field a team full Marouane Fellainis on FIFA 17, right through from the goalkeeper to the striking partnership.
In case you didn’t know...
The entire experiment was a comprehensive three step process. The first step was to simulate matches with the Fellaini XI and see how they fared. This would include Fellaini also starting as goalkeeper where he was rated at an overall of only 18.
The second part of the experiment was to actually play a game with the Fellaini XI while the third part of the experiment was another simulation of the Fellaini XI, only this time with an actual goalkeeper protecting the goal in the form of the fastest goalkeeper in the game, Guillermo Ochoa.
The Fellaini XI consists of an entire Marouane Fellaini family including “Mad Dog Fellaini” and “Mugshot Fellaini” apart from the actual Marouane Fellaini. All the Fellainis created for the purpose of this experiment possess the same attributes as the actual Fellaini.
The heart of the matter
In the first game of the experiment, the Fellaini XI manages to scrap out a win in the Community Shield against Leicester City via penalty shootout and also saw one of the Fellainis getting sent off for what was probably a stray elbow to the face of a Leicester player.
This would be the only positive result eked out by the team whose following results went to the tune of a 2-1 defeat to Southampton, a 2-0 defeat to Hull, a 3-0 defeat to City and a 2-2 draw to Arouca in the Europa League. After the continental fixtures, they also managed to lose 3-1 to Watford.
The next step was to play with the Fellaini XI in an actual FIFA game against Leicester City in the Community Shield, which was again a wasted effort with the team showing a complete lack of pace and finesse but being surprisingly good at defending. The ultimate result was still a 2-1 loss to the Red Devils and the Foxes lift the Community Shield again.
Also Read: FIFA 17: How to enact Lionel Messi's penalty-assist to Luis Suarez in the game
What next?
The results with the Fellaini XI were not encouraging, with only 9 points won from 26 matches but put a real goalkeeper in goal and the results show a stark difference.
With Guillermo Ochoa in the side, the Fellaini family managed to win 7 points from just three games, indicating that as hopeless as they might seem, there was, after all, some potential in the side.
Author’s Take
While the team full of Fellainis was pretty hopeless, putting a goalkeeper in the mix really changed the complexion of the side. This phenomenon might also possibly explain why Jose Mourinho seems to have a soft spot for playing the gangly Belgian at every possible opportunity.
He has probably seen something in the David Moyes signing that ordinary folks like us fail to see.
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