However good the predecessor, any new coach who comes in to a club the size of Manchester United, is expected to bring fresh ideas and impetus. With a salary that runs into the millions per year you would expect at least some elements of the club to show immediate improvement.
But, from the outside looking in, you could argue that David Moyes hasn’t improved Manchester United in any way at all.
Brendan Rodgers has had longer to work his magic on Liverpool. But he seems to have had a positive impact on every player that he has coached – even Luis Suarez has, somehow, got better under the Irishman’s tutelage. Our fear for Manchester United is that Moyes doesn’t have the same level of technical coaching ability. Has he improved any player at Manchester United so far?
Well, he has appeased Wayne Rooney, but noone would argue that this is the scouser’s best campaign.
He’s brought Adnan Januzaj in but there is no way of telling if Moyes has actually improved the guy as it’s his first senior season. Apart from those two, has any player improved under Moyes? We can list dozens of players who have performed worse than last year but few who, in our opinion, have raised their game. So is Moyes the inspirational leader that United need?
Yes, injuries have been really bad. But Moyes isn’t getting anything like the best out of his available crop – which is still a pretty decent group.
So many times this season Manchester United have failed to change the course of games that are going against them. Moyes seems to have little or no impact from the sidelines. The intensity has gone from United’s game. This goes right back to Manchester United’s first games under Moyes.
They went behind early against Liverpool but seemed completely unable to change their style for the following 80 minutes – there was no reaction at all. Just a lot of cautious sideways passing. And that’s the main symptom of United’s current malaise. They simply can’t get behind opposition defences with any speed or regularity.
Can David Moyes improve players or will he simply try to sign the best players, who don’t need too much coaching, to keep United successful?
Many have opined that Sir Alex left David Moyes with a poor squad. Ok but he had three months in the summer to change all that and only brought in Marouane Fellaini – a player who must draw giggles of glee from the Everton board every time his name is mentioned. That David Moyes felt he was good enough for Manchester United, let alone worth anywhere near £27.5m, is one of the most worrying omens for his new club.
But we think that the biggest problem for Manchester United, going forward, could be their loyalty towards their new manager. Many believe that the Scot will be given at least this season and next to change the suddenly dipping fortunes of the club.
But, by the end of next season, Manchester United could be in long term trouble. Unlike Chelsea and Manchester City, United don’t have a bottomless pit of cash. If they get their next 3 major signings wrong they could find themselves out of The Champions League and unable to afford or attract the sort of talent to get them back to the top.
This is the worst case scenario but the standards at Manchester United have dropped noticeably and there is no obvious sign that they are anywhere near turning the corner. The performance against Tottenham was completely rudderless and the fact that David Moyes went mad about a debatable penalty claim says it all – we think he was clutching at straws.
“The performance was really good. It was a stonewall penalty kick and sending off for the goalkeeper. I find it unbelievable that the referee doesn’t give a penalty kick and a sending off.
Were we watching the same game? Because the performance that I saw was anything but ‘really good’. Not by United’s standards anyway.
The salient point is that Manchester United were comfortably beaten by a Tottenham team who rarely looked in trouble and weren’t that bothered by United’s late surge – a surge that was far less concentrated than we have come to expect, from a Manchester United team that is behind at Old Trafford, with ten minutes left on the clock.
It’s a really worrying time for Manchester United as David Moyes continues to resemble a manager who has great dignity but could prove to be out of his depth at this level.
It’s so easy to pour scorn on a manager who has short-term problems with bad results. But the performance levels at Manchester United this season have been alarmingly low and there are no portents that improvement is imminent. We can’t remember one performance where they dominated the opposition for 90 minutes. The 5-0 battering of Leverkusen was a great result but, that night, everything went for United. Indeed, in the first 20 minutes, the away team looked like they themselves might take a tonking.
We agree that there was always going to be a period of transition. But we just want to see some signs, any signs, of Moyes having a positive impact at the club. Because, in our view, at present there are none.
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man
Jan 5, 2014 at 2:59 pm
agree with u but cnt get why moyes wont buy dis january we we can revive d team easily