It was horrible, really. Marouane Fellaini ‘starred’ in Manchester United’s 1-0 victory over Zorya Luhansk on Thursday night, but that was something akin to Wayne Rooney stinking up the England midfield in a 1-0 victory over Luxembourg. In reality, United should have won that game by a much bigger margin - 1-0 was as close to embarrassment as United could have come.

Yet the reaction calling for Fellaini to be dropped this season might be a little bit premature. We can all have off days, of course, and Thursday night was certainly a bad day at the office for the big Belgian international.

He was somewhat of the poster boy for Manchester United’s decline over the past few seasons. Having joined the club as a David Moyes signing, he is pinned inexorably to United’s failure post-Ferguson. But this season has actually seen some better performances under Jose Mourinho. Despite poor results of late, and the midfield indiscipline that has led to them, Fellaini has put in some better performances than last season, as FanDuel - the week-by-week comprehensive fantasy football game, that will match your first deposit all the way up to £400 - show below...

Used by Louis van Gaal as a sort of immobile totem pole in some ugly games of football, Fellaini’s season was characterised more by random acts of violence than his contribution to the team. It’s interesting, then, that Fellaini has performed better in aerial duels this season rather than last, when he would often become a route-one plan B under the Dutch manager.

It’s also interesting that, in this more direct Mourinho Manchester United side, Fellaini has increased his passing accuracy - he’s under more pressure in the middle, but is clearly doing better with the ball.

It is, however, telling that the Belgian’s defensive contribution has increased. He is supposed to be playing a defensive midfield role alongside Paul Pogba this season, even though he does like to go forward. And that might explain why Fellaini’s stats get better whilst the performances stay the same: the defensive role he’s played this season clearly isn’t a strong point in his game. So although the defensive stats are much improved, that might be more down to his positioning on the pitch than any improvement in performances.

Jose Mourinho is clearly getting more out of Marouane Fellaini than Louis van Gaal did, but that may not be saying an awful lot when it comes to his contribution to the team. Will we see greater improvement over the course of the season? Or will Paul Pogba be forced to play both defensive and attacking midfield roles to make up for a player alongside him who currently can't do both?

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