Bharath Rammr
Manchester United may have shown signs of weaknesses in the last few games, but it still remains a great start to the campaign by José Mourinho’s team. After the struggles under David Moyes and Louis van Gaal, it was imperative that United started the new season in positive fashion in order to give the new boss the best possible opportunity to aim for the league title and a return to the Champions League.
The start to the season has been built on the form of players like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Eric Bailly, but there has been a tremendous improvement from the club’s existing crop of players like Marouane Fellaini and Daley Blind.
Fellaini has been one of the most improved players this season. Many questioned the club’s decision to sign him when David Moyes was the manager, while Louis van Gaal’s tactics to use him as a battering ram was seen as being primitive. Mourinho does not seem to differ much from van Gaal’s opinion of the player. Fellaini has once again been used for his physical presence, and the results have been quite remarkable.
In his first two seasons at United, Fellaini averaged just 84% pass accuracy. It is a good figure for a midfielder, but even Fellaini would not have dreamt of 89% pass accuracy achieved this season. Part of the reason may be that he is played as a defensive midfielder where there is less pressure on the ball, but Fellaini has been making a contribution offensively as well. He has easily doubled the number of key passes made per game, which now stands at 1.6 compared to 0.6 last season.
Fellaini, though, seems to be less concerned about scoring goals more than ever. After having just had a 0.2 shots per game throughout the campaign, Fellaini is unlikely to open his scoring account anytime soon. For a player of his physical presence, scoring may not be only through the feet and it can come from set pieces too. Mourinho will be hoping that Fellaini gets underway for the campaign with a goal in the next couple of matches.
For the time being, he is more concentrated on getting Fellaini to play at his best in defence. The Belgian international has made 3.2 tackles and 2.2 interceptions per game – a massive improvement over the 1.4 tackles and 0.6 interceptions he made in the previous campaign.
Fellaini divides a lot of opinion but he could easily be the club’s most improved player this season.
