Rightly or wrongly, Marouane Fellaini came to define Man United's post Alex Ferguson hangover. Brought in by David Moyes, he was lambasted and ridiculed for everything that he had come to be praised for at Everton. It didn't help that he was seen as a Moyes player as opposed to a Man United player so perhaps it was only natural that when the former Everton boss departed, the big Belgian began to show his worth.
It was never pretty but Fellaini improved and by the second half of last season, he was an important member of Louis van Gaal's squad. But for all the criticism of his negative football, there remained a belief that the Dutchman was less than delighted with the necessity to rely on Fellaini as one of the primary outlets for goalscoring chances.
As such, it's no surprise that when he was given a chance to sharpen things up, Fellaini quickly lost his starting spot at the beginning of the season. That's not to say that the football has improved drastically but Fellaini firmly finds himself down the list of options either in midfield or in attack.
27 appearances and six Premier League goals last season has been followed by eight appearances so far this season with most of those coming from the bench. You'd be forgiven for thinking that Fellaini may be looking at his options elsewhere but as things stand, Van Gaal has no plans to let him go with a loan offer from AC Milan being firmly rejected by the Old Trafford club.
He may not even want to be an attacker, but as things stand only Wayne Rooney and Anthony Martial are on Van Gaal's list of recognised forwards. That leaves Fellaini as third in line and according to Mark Ogden in the Independent, Van Gaal won't be letting Fellaini leave during this season even if it means there's a greater chance of recovering a decent chunk of the £27.5 million they paid for him in 2013.
A whole host of attackers have been linked with United already this window but it seems unlikely that a massive outlay will be sanctioned for another striker leaving Fellaini as the Plan B for another few months at least.
