The players who will have sinking feeling in summer
IT’S clear Jose Mourinho values Marouane Fellaini – more than most United supporters.
The Belgian has missed the last two matches with a muscular ailment, not that Reds fans are yearning for a quick return.
The only running he is doing is down his contract and it is conceivable Fellaini’s last start for the club could be in that diabolical defeat to Sevilla.
Fellaini became a decent player for United, but has spent more time in the physio’s room than on the pitch this campaign and the club have received no incentives to improve their September contract offer he rejected.
Despite Mourinho’s faith in Fellaini, it is arguable whether the 30-year-old is guaranteed a squad berth after the weekend, when the manager marked certain players’ cards.
Phil Jones, Matteo Darmian, Luke Shaw and Daley Blind did not make the matchday squad for the derby, and three of those look set to depart.
Jones is exempt on the strength of his form between August and December, as well as his resurgence last term, yet hope does not spring eternal for the others.
Blind has admittedly just regained fitness following a three-month lay-off but has not started a Premier League game since August.
Shaw, despite experiencing a fraught relationship with Mourinho, had been selected in every domestic squad dating back to the first derby of the campaign, until the weekend.
Darmian has only lined up in two league matches and made 13 league squads.
Darmian was at The Lowry with team-mates on Saturday and travelled to the Etihad but was always set to be the ‘19th man’.
He, Blind and Shaw are all out of contract next year and expected to move on in the summer. It is a quirk of Blind and Darmian’s United careers that they were physical forces in last year’s Europa League final, when their basic, old-school defending frustrated Ajax. For one night only, they were genuine Mourinho players.
Shaw has seldom embodied the ‘Mourinho player’ United’s manager described Nemanja Matic as upon his signing. It said it all that Ashley Young, suffering from flu in the days prior to and during the derby, completed 90 minutes.
Darmian, for an Italian defender, is disconcertingly feeble and Blind does not possess the power Mourinho values in his defenders.
United invested £53.5m in the trio and should still receive a decent return to finance a move – or moves – for Toby Alderweireld, Alex Sandro and the like.
Graeme Souness spoke about United laying down a marker with their second-half dismantling of City in a week where the shark team became bait.
United were sinking like the Orca at the Etihad but, like Chief Brody, persevered amid dire circumstances.