Are we all just hypnotized by his feral frizz or is Marouane Fellaini slowly moving towards brilliance? Maybe it's because his big hair reminds people of Carlos Valderrama, the Colombian midfielder with the orange Afro who was a bubbling cauldron of skill; whilst our Belgian isn't exactly a footballing pen pusher - he is no Valderamma, Fellaini's loud hair masks a player whose game (fouls aside) is based on unfussy simplicity. Tommy Gravesen too, was a victim of his looks, most lazy commentators claiming that he was a tough midfield firebrand, when in reality his shaved head and goggle eyes belied his skill.
And yet the question still boomerangs back: does Fellaini bubble and fizz in our minds like a drug on a rusty spoon because he's 6ft 4 with a mountainous halo of hair, or does he stand out because he is good? Fellaini seems to make the difference in some games, but when you analyze why he is good, you again get more questions than answers...He seems slow, his ungainly tendrils, and awkward rather than hard challenges on the deck, send grenade pins flying everywhere - and in the air he causes problems but often outside of the rules...
Fellaini, a man obscured by his totemic Afro (he tried braids but looked like Medusa with her snakes tamed) and surrounded by media bluster, has quietly and efficiently got on with his job. His goal at the weekend against Sunderland describes him perfectly, an unfussy finish from a man who - like Tim Cahill - is continuously in the right place at the right time.
A lot about the Belgian youngster has been confusing, early on he was met with nonplussed silence, misunderstood from all four corners of the Goodison box that he thinks outside of, and other times he’s been celebrated, with a large number of Fellaini acolytes donning Afro wigs in tribute.
At first we knew very little about him; he was tall, thin, and a midfielder – and even that fact became less certain over time. Stories of his stamina sapping brilliance in the Liege-Liverpool game -
where he covered every blade of grass like a forensic crime scene analyst - beat him to Goodison. When he arrived he wasn't what we expected, but I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual. He'd been
plucked in the last few seconds of the transfer window from Standard Liege, with Moyes knowing well that no signings would actually provoke a full scale riot. What perplexed us what that the entire
summer our eyes had been fixed on Joao Moutinho of Sporting Lisbon, amidst the carnage of Wyness walking, and our transfer policy atrophying - and what we got was very different from Moutinho...
It is on paper where Fellaini really excels, 8 goals so far in the Premier League ( the same as Cahill) for a 21 year old midfielder, in his first season in the English top flight, is an excellent haul.
15 million Euros (even the amount is in dispute amongst fans) got us a work in progress, a young player that hasn't yet been fully reverse engineered by Moyes. He looks like a lanky Blaxploitation Syd Barrett, and often plays like one too - his kung-fu kick goal early in the campaign woke us all to his potential. Sometimes his ponderous passing can be excruciating, his ability to see cards dealt is that of a seasoned Vegas croupier, and at other moments he looks like Tim Cahill's rightful successor. And what position should he play? He's been shunted around filling in for injuries, but underneath do we really know where his best position is? He is immense in the air - but not in the conventional manner, his flaying elbows, fists, and hair, make for an utter melee every time he goes for an aerial ball. In many ways he is as difficult to play against as he is to sometimes play with; Gab Marcotti described him as a "beast" - and in many ways that is the perfect description. We just need to tame his wild side....
He's young and still learning, Goodison Park is his workplace and also his classroom, and I cannot wait to see Fella grow at Everton.
Ed Bottomley
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