Every club has players who are unpopular figures among fans and always get the butter treatment whenever they are closer to the sidelines but is preferred time and again by the boss who has kept him to be an important part of his tactics.
Here are the 3 players that are hated by fans but lived by their managers.
Danny Welbeck
Arsene Wenger has been in the headlines for his terrible team selections of late. The Frenchman is easily one of the most hated figures in North London right now following the poor results Arsenal have had in the opening three games of the Premier League. One of his poorer decisions was to play Danny Welbeck up front against Liverpool after the huge number of chances he missed against Stoke City.
The fans have turned against the manager and social media has left no mercy for him following his underwhelming display at Anfield. Wenger was of the opinion that new signing Alexandre Lacazette would need more time adapting to the league. But, after his debut goal coming within first few minutes of the game against Leicester City and the second wrongly disallowed at bet365 Stadium, fans think the manager has lost it.
Marouane Fellaini
The towering Belgian has been a significant cog in Jose Mourinho’s Manchester United wheel, but his occasional patchy form that has cost United some close games, has always kept fans on the wrong foot against him. However, despite having the likes of Paul Pogba, Andre Herrera, Nemanja Matic and Michael Carrick, Mourinho has kept him in his squad and is an ore regular face from the bench this season.
Breaking into the fore with his aerial dominance and ability to win the ball almost instantly, Fellaini fits Mourinho’s playing tactics. The Portuguese boss banks on physically dominating players who could keep more possession at all times of the game and Fellaini comes in extremely handy for that even though he lacks pace and technical superiority.
Dejan Lovren
The case of Deja Lovren is a bit different. His displays for Liverpool have been erratic and he has often put the Reds in tight positions, but manager Jurgen Klopp doesn’t have many options to replace him. While Mamadou Sakho has been sold now, Klopp refused to use him even when Liverpool were at their defensive worst. And the other option of Ragnar Klavan has a step down over Lovren. But, the fact remains that Liverpool cannot be a title contender with Lovren at their back line.
But, as their transfer goes, Klopp will have to make do with him alongside Joel Matip this season too. While they had a brilliant chance of getting a quality talent like Virgil van Dijk in the summer, they bottled it and are unlikely to get him anytime soon. Nonetheless, Lovren has executed Klopp’s strategies perfectly on most occasions and the manager trusts him.
