Rumoured Marouane Fellaini

[Leif 6,006]

My unwanted, negative, grumpy thoughts on Fellaini:

So... we have one of the best defensive midfielders we've literally ever had (but short-sighted people won't be able to see that I'm sure) in the form of 20 year old Barcelona-bred Oriol Romeu, who reads the game superbly, has the best positioning I've seen of any player this past season, and can pass better than most of our midfield, yet people on here would be happy to see us spend £15-£20mil+ on Fellaini, a player who turns 25 this year and would drain us of yet more money?

First of all, think how that would make Oriol Romeu FEEL.

"Oh, I was a standout midfielder this season, but they'd rather bring someone else in to play my position. OK..."

Oh how the times have changed.

I miss the times when the fans didn't just want to overpay for every single player who they 'believe' would be a good player for us, JUST because a few media outlets came up with a story linking the player to us. It's as if supporters can't even come up with their own views and opinions these days!

They just echo what others whisper!

The main irony of all this is, reading back, I remember a few of you going on and on about us not giving our youth a chance. May I remind you that Romeu and McEachran play in midfield, the position Fellaini plays?

Looks like you don't care about the youth now.

Rant.Over.

[Billy. 2,742]

good player wouldn't mind him at Chelsea

[Jase 43,479]

Or Felliani's Belgian compatriot, Moussa Dembele.

Struggle to see why people keep overlooking him.

We need a CM, a creative midfielder that is and not another CAM.

[Clevemayer 764]

dont need him, just need doublepivot, to aggressiv and reckles... boy if you call Mikel reckless and then want to buy fellaini, you have to bea hypocrite... play joshlike and micky in the middle of the mix

[Slam Dunk 1,442]

First of all, think how that would make Oriol Romeu FEEL.

"Oh, I was a standout midfielder this season, but they'd rather bring someone else in to play my position. OK..."

Standout? Let's not go too far. He was good in a few matches, was ill for a while and didn't play much for the remainder of the season.

[Bir_CFC 3,455]

I don't know who you were watching, but imo positioning is probably one of Romeu's weaker points.

[Joker10 946]

Modric, benat or javi martinez!

Talk about knee-jerk, this i am sure its only based on the cross he provided to Torres against Korea.

Banega, Witsel, Belhanda, Ilkay Gundogan

I don't know who you were watching, but imo positioning is probably one of Romeu's weaker points.

lol

Thinking the same way, reading the game and positioning its arguably his weakest points. Leif analysis of Romeu was arguably the worst i have seen.

Romeu continues to be overrated by our supporters.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Standout? Let's not go too far. He was good in a few matches, was ill for a while and didn't play much for the remainder of the season.

Agreed. he started out pretty well, but started making too many mental mistakes and was too slow to move the ball. That's fine. He's 20 and he'll get better. Positioning comes with experience. Mikel was exceptional for us once RDM came though. Either way, I'm quite fine with having Mikel and Romeu as our DMers. There is a real question of value when you start buying players when you already have talent. let's say Chelsea go out and buy Fellaini for 20-25M. Is he better than Mikel/Romeu? Maybe, but even if he is, how much better is he? So, you end up spending 20-25M (plus extra salary) for a possibility of slight upgrade .It's just horrible value.

[Marvin123 538]

fellaini is fine by me aslong as essien AND meireles leave and fund this move

[bababoom 4,478]

20m? no thanks.

[Superblue 6,372]

I would love fellaini here. We definately need another CM. the depth in this position is in numbers, not quality.

The only player i would have over fellaini is javi martinez.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

We do not need a CM. Even if we sell Essien, we still have Lamps, Meireles, Mikel, Oriol and possibly Ramires (and Josh if we don't loan him out) to compete for 2 positions. Unless we are going to change from 4-2-3-1 back to 4-3-3 (unlikely), I don't think getting a new CM is a good idea.

[Leif 6,006]

For the people questioning my praise of Romeu's positioning, go back and watch ANY game of his with us, barring the last Liverpool game.

He constantly drops back into defence when Luiz goes forward, slots into right-back when Bosingwa goes forward which would usually leave us open, covers for Cole when he's doing his business.

Who else has done that for us in midfield? Maybe you lot don't realise it, as aside from Makelele, we've had no REAL defensive midfielders, but that's what he's SUPPOSED to do, and he did it better than ANYONE in the league.

Re-watch the 1st game vs. Newcastle and watch him simply boss the entire midfield.

Don't just watch. See.

His positioning is perhaps so magnificent and world-class that people get confused, as only few defensive midfielders have perfected the art of it in such a way.

P.S. - The people who, with me, see his outstanding awareness on the pitch will most likely also be the same modern thinkers who clearly see David Luiz needs to be played as a Libero.

[Leif 6,006]

Talk about knee-jerk, this i am sure its only based on the cross he provided to Torres against Korea.

Banega, Witsel, Belhanda, Ilkay Gundogan

lol

Thinking the same way, reading the game and positioning its arguably his weakest points. Leif analysis of Romeu was arguably the worst i have seen.

Romeu continues to be overrated by our supporters.

Central playmaker, attacking central midfielder, advanced playmaker/winger and a deep-lying playmaker? :banghead:

They're all completely different roles. Why on earth are all those players being mentioned in the same sentence?

[Slam Dunk 1,442]

Re-watch the 1st game vs. Newcastle and watch him simply boss the entire midfield.

Don't just watch. See.

Haha.

I don't understand why you feel Fellaini would oust Romeu from the squad though. I see Fellaini as a replacement for Essien/Meireles more than Mikel/Romeu.

[Leif 6,006]

Haha.

Did you not read 'just' ? As in, "don't only do that", which was followed by the final thing to do?

[Leif 6,006]

We are clearly building our team around a 4-2-3-1 formation to accommodate our forwards.

A 4-2-3-1 rarely allows for a box-to-box midfielder, which Essien is, so if Fellaini were to be an Essien replacement, we'd need to shift back to a 4-3-3, which won't be happening with our current attack.

So that would mean the money spent would be on someone being asked to play a role that they're not natural in; See Mikel.

[Leif 6,006]

A reminder of what Romeu does, this time against the current English Champions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1Fb5HVy54A

[Slam Dunk 1,442]

We are clearly building our team around a 4-2-3-1 formation to accommodate our forwards.

A 4-2-3-1 rarely allows for a box-to-box midfielder, which Essien is, so if Fellaini were to be an Essien replacement, we'd need to shift back to a 4-3-3, which won't be happening with our current attack.

So that would mean the money spent would be on someone being asked to play a role that they're not natural in; See Mikel.

Tell that to Yaya Toure.

And yes i'm aware you said 'rarely' before you go pointing that out.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

Romeu continues to be overrated by our supporters.

Almost everyone tends to be overrated or underrated. It's the nature of this type of discussion. Either a player is amazing/world class/etc...or they're useless and need to be jettisoned immediately. Supporters often overreact to individual plays as well as small sample sizes. ("he made a bad pass, get rid of him" or "he looked great in this one game, he's amazing") The most overrated players tend to be players that haven't played yet at Chelsea. So, possible transfer targets and youngsters always get the "they're amazing" treatment because their ability is based on fleeting glimpses, youtube videos, a game or two, etc... Once players actually play regularly, it becomes obvious that they're flawed like 100% of players are. (and with youth players, it becomes obvious that they are almost never as good as the players they are replacing.) As for Romeu? Is he a fantastic, game-changing player? No, of course not. He's not remotely close to that, but it was a pretty good début season and he's still very young. I think he's fine as a backup DM.