Fellaini Savours United Debut

Marouane Fellaini has thanked the Manchester United fans for their support during his Reds debut on Saturday; a comfortable 2-0 win over Crystal Palace.

The Belgian midfielder replaced Anderson after 60 minutes to receive an impressive ovation from four corners of Old Trafford. And quite brilliantly, many attendees were even wearing wigs in a comical tribute to United’s newest recruit.

Afterwards, when speaking exclusively to MUTV, Fellaini was keen to acknowledge such a fantastic welcome and expressed his delight towards winning what could have been a tricky match.

“I am happy to have started at Old Trafford with the crowd who supported me,” Marouane said. “It was a fantastic debut and we won, which was most important. I was both nervous and excited. I thought I had to play my game and with my quality.

“I would like to say thank you to the supporters, it was good for me. The supporters helped me, it was important for me. Every time I will give my maximum for the club and for my team-mates.

“It was a good win, not hard or easy, just a good win. Man United want to win every game and we won today so it was good for our confidence ahead of the next game - because the next game is a big game, it is a Champions League game. So this is good for the confidence.”

Manager David Moyes was understandably pleased for Fellaini to take his bow and explained why his arrival to the action was key to securing three points.

"I thought Fellaini played well today, hopefully all the supporters saw what he can do," the boss said. "We were delighted he got on, I wanted him to win the ball for us, give it to our good players so we could go and score goals.

"He’s more than that, but I thought today he came on and calmed it down when we were only winning 1-0. I had to make sure, even though they had ten men, that we didn’t do anything stupid and we didn’t."

Saturday’s match saw another Belgian midfielder make his Old Trafford debut in the form of 18-year-old prodigy Adnan Januzaj, who caught the eye of compatriot Fellaini.

“Everybody knows he has a lot of quality, he is the future of Manchester United,” Fellaini explained. “He has a lot of qualities, he needs to work hard but he did well today, very well. He has a big time now, so he needs to work hard, keep going and help the team.”