Everton midfielder Marouane Fellaini told to follow Lionel Messi's striking example by manager David Moyes
Everton manager David Moyes has told Marouane Fellaini to learn from Lionel Messi about how to deal with being targeted by rival defenders.
Follow my lead: Marouane Fellaini has been urged to emulate Lionel Messi’s fair game
Photo: PA
Fellaini returns to the Everton
side after suspension against Newcastle on Wednesday, having also pledged
his immediate future to the Merseyside club, ending any prospect of him
leaving this month.
Moyes is glad to have the Belgian back having lost Darron Gibson for a month
with a thigh injury, but says Fellaini must learn to deal with heavy-handed
treatment from defenders.
“I don’t have any concerns about his character overall. He’s actually a really
good lad,” said Moyes. “But something he’s going to have to be careful and
mindful of is that people are going to pay more attention to him.
“It’s not as if you can miss him that easily. When you are that easily
recognisable and seen, how can you ever think you are ever going to get away
with anything?
“The best person you have to look at is Lionel
Messi. Every person targets him, every person tries to kick him and
every person tries to stop him and they’ll do everything.
“But all he ever does is get up and get on with it. That’s the sign of a top
player. It says to people, ‘Whatever you do, it doesn’t affect me’.
“I tell Felli that you just have to get on with it. If I was playing against Felli I’d try and wind him up. Anybody would. That’s what happens with good players.”
The Belgium international says he will see out his contract until 2016. The immediate transfer window was causing some concern after Fellaini’s explosive start to the season.
“I want to go higher in football,” Fellaini admitted. “But I have a contract with Everton until 2016, and if they want me to I will see it out to the end.”
On his recent dismissal, he added: “I am normally an honest player. But my head butt on Ryan Shawcross was pure frustration, as he had spent the entire game pulling and pushing me. But I shouldn’t have butted him. I exploded, and I am sorry for doing so. The punishment I got was deserved.”
Fellaini has also revealed why he now lives in Manchester rather than Liverpool. “I could not stay in Liverpool any longer. People in Manchester recognise me less. In Liverpool I was recognised too much, and sometimes women would suddenly climb all over me.”
Source: The Telegraph
“I tell Felli that you just have to get on with it. If I was playing against Felli I’d try and wind him up. Anybody would. That’s what happens with good players.”
The Belgium international says he will see out his contract until 2016. The immediate transfer window was causing some concern after Fellaini’s explosive start to the season.
“I want to go higher in football,” Fellaini admitted. “But I have a contract with Everton until 2016, and if they want me to I will see it out to the end.”
On his recent dismissal, he added: “I am normally an honest player. But my head butt on Ryan Shawcross was pure frustration, as he had spent the entire game pulling and pushing me. But I shouldn’t have butted him. I exploded, and I am sorry for doing so. The punishment I got was deserved.”
Fellaini has also revealed why he now lives in Manchester rather than Liverpool. “I could not stay in Liverpool any longer. People in Manchester recognise me less. In Liverpool I was recognised too much, and sometimes women would suddenly climb all over me.”
Source: The Telegraph
