Why Marouane Fellaini Is Not the Long-Term Answer for Manchester United

It seems slightly churlish to be writing this in the aftermath of Marouane Fellaini's two best performances in a Manchester United shirt.

On the scoresheet against Tottenham Hotspur, the Belgian also put on a fine display against Liverpool, acting as an outlet for long passes and a crucial component of the left-flank combinations between himself, Daley Blind and Ashley Young.

However, if United are going to build a team based around possession football, which is capable of challenging at the highest levels of European combination, Fellaini should not be the long-term answer.

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At least, he should not be the long-term answer as a first-choice option. If he is content to be a squad player, he could be a useful asset. To quote Liam Neeson's character in the film Taken, Fellaini has a “set of skills” that can be very useful in specific match situations.

Fellaini's most valuable asset is his ability to win aerial duels. Against Liverpool, he won 65 percent of his airborne clashes, per Squawka.com. Across the season, he is comfortably United's best performer in this metric, with an average of 4.2 aerial duels won per league game, way ahead of Marcos Rojo in second place, who wins an average of 2.9.

It is the ninth-best in the Premier League in terms of average number per game.

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He has an astonishing ability to control the ball with his chest, a chest which was described recently by Guardian writer Barney Ronay as: 

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...one of the mini-marvels of the modern game, an adhesive, velvety-soft cradle, like an ancient baseball catcher’s mitt, into which the ball just seems to nestle from any angle.

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His best assets are, of course, at their most useful when the ball is in the air. United's willingness to look for the long ball makes sense when Fellaini is in the team, but in terms of building possession-based football, it, of course, brings risk. His close-passing game is considerably less successful than his colleagues'.

On average, Fellaini gives the ball away just under 15 percent of the time he attempts a pass. That is worse than any of United's other midfielders. Of course, if pass completion on its own were a definitive statistic, United should have retained Tom Cleverley. There are fantastic players who give the ball away a lot.

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Angel Di Maria has given the ball way with almost 23 percent of the passes he has attempted in the league this season. However, he has also been United's most potent creative force, statistically speaking, producing an average of 2.2 key passes per game. That is the 11th-best in the league as a whole. He has nine assists to his name in the league, the second-highest in the division.

Fellaini's passing is hardly the kind of high-risk-high-reward style that would justify his poor pass-completion numbers.

He is providing an average of just 0.7 key passes per game. Of all the non-defenders in United's squad, only Michael Carrick has a worse key-pass-creation average, and his passing is considerably more accurate—he gives the ball away just 11 percent of the time on average.

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Fellaini's physical assets are a mixed blessing whilst United are out of possession. He has the highest number of tackles on average per game of any United midfielder, but only just. His 2.5 on average per game is just ahead of Daley Blind and Ander Herrera who both have made 2.4 on average.

That has been helpful to the cause, but what has been less helpful has been the number of fouls he commits, an average of 2.2 per game, comfortably the most of any United player. Blind makes only marginally fewer tackles than Fellaini but gives away an average of one foul per game fewer.

Fellaini's fouls may sometimes be helpful, breaking up opposition attacks, but just as often they have disrupted United's rhythm, and I know that as a fan, I have found him frustrating to watch.

The Belgian has been a useful—and occasionally vital—part of Louis van Gaal's squad this season as the team look to rebuild from the ashes of the David Moyes era. There is an irony in it being Van Gaal, rather than Moyes, who has got the best out of the former Everton man.

However, his wastefulness in possession and clumsiness in the challenge mean that an upgrade would benefit United's squad in the long term. If he is happy to play an occasional role as a target man in times of need then he will remain a useful member of the squad. Otherwise, the big Belgian should make way for a more technically able midfielder.