Marouane Fellaini - United Hero

There were some huge performances in the FA Cup semi-final win against Everton, and one from a player who, without which, we almost certainly wouldn't have won.  I speak not of the consistently magnificent De Gea or the phenomenon-in-the-making that is Anthony Martial, but of the too often unfairly maligned Marouane Fellaini.

In a way it was ironic that Fellaini produced his most important performance in a United shirt with Darren Gibson and Tom Cleverley in our opponents' line-up.  These two players were the big Belgian's predecessors as scapegoats among a section of United's support that has become particularly loathsome in recent years.  

I've never witnessed a more embarrassing moment at Old Trafford than when Gibson was booed when receiving his Premiership winner's medal - proof that this infantile tendency has not only taken root in the fallow post-Fergie period.  Cleverley then became a poster boy for the detractors who, during the brief reign of David Moyes, appeared to spend entire games poised to tweet some infantile, humourless nonsense following a single poor touch or stray pass.

It may be nostalgia, but I'm sure it was once never like this, that United fans at one time took a kind of special glee in celebrating players who wore our shirt that others had written off.  Diego Forlan, long before his famous brace against Liverpool saw him written into United legend, was always warmly appreciated by the United faithful, bemusing those in the media who only saw a forward who couldn't score goals.

It was the same with the young De Gea.  Although by that point social media had enabled the sit-at-home buffoons among the United 'support' to join in the bashing he was getting from those other buffoons in the established media, match-going Reds generally knew we had a world class keeper in the making and supported him through a difficult period adapting to the English game.

Fellaini, I understand, does not have the kind of skills that make him an automatic favourite among United fans.  Yet here is a player so committed to joining United he engineered his own release from Everton and drove down the M62 on deadline day in order to secure the move.  It says much for him that, having endured mockery and jeers from sections of the Old Trafford crowd ever since, he showed so much pride and commitment in a United shirt yesterday.  At one point late in the game he sprinted half the pitch in order to dispossess Lukaku.  Had he not, we might well have been the wrong ones on the end of a demoralising defeat yesterday.  And that's not even to mention the opening goal or the number of times his distinctive head rose in the box to deal with an Everton cross.

As it was, it was Fellaini's former club who finished the game with their heads in their hands, and he'd played a massive part in bringing it about.  If only his detractors who call themselves United fans could show that level of loyalty and commitment to the club.