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13th Mar 2017

The cringeworthy moment that sums up why Marouane Fellaini has such a bad rep

If you ever want to know how United fans feel...

Conan Doherty

The legacy of David Moyes.

Jose Mourinho didn’t want to lose to Chelsea, simple as that. It’s very bloody understandable. Away at the most in-form side in the country by a distance, knockout competition, no Zlatan Ibrahimovic and then, to make matters worse, down to 10 men after 35 minutes.

The Manchester United boss went to his old club with the intention of not conceding and, when he reacted to Ander Herrera’s red card in the first half, those intentions were made clear with no apologies.

United lost their player of the season.

United brought Marouane Fellaini on to fill the void.

Like for like.

Fellaini is a lot of things but he’s not a Herrera replacement. He’s not even a good defensive player – just ask his old team mate Leon Osman who said they used to want to get the Belgian as far away from their goals as possible at Everton.

And, in another bad night for United at Stamford Bridge on Monday, Fellaini’s full effect was expertly put in the spotlight through his own making.

N’Golo Kante, just fresh from scoring the only goal of the game, lined up the shot, the United man tried to stop him, the United man failed.

Kante, quite frankly, sent him for a bag of chips.

The Chelsea player literally stepped around him like he wasn’t even there.

It looked bad enough in real time but, slowed down and reversed, Fellaini’s technique and desperation is a sight to behold.

It only further endeared him to the United faithful.

https://twitter.com/DannyCarlyon/status/841401592616230917

But when things are bad, by God they are bad.

Chelsea march on to the semi-final. Mourinho goes back to complaining about teams being defensive.