Manchester United don’t want to be that club, the one who sit at a table with an itchy trigger finger and make wholesale changes at management level after a handful of poor results. It hasn’t come to that point yet for those with a clear mind, and to further fly in the face of modern football’s win-now-or-else attitude, David Moyes can only fairly be assessed as Manchester United manager after at least a full season.
But that doesn’t mean the United boss doesn’t have questions to answer. Once again, his side looked devoid of belief, ingenuity and superiority against West Brom on the weekend – one of the Premier League’s ‘easier’ games, at least on paper. One side of the debate owes to how good Steve Clarke’s side have been over the past 12 months, yet the point is that once again, no matter the opposition, Man United looked far from impressive, or even competent.
Moyes has labelled his side as one not quite good enough, specifically ahead of this Champions League week. The Manchester United team are lacking “five or six world-class players.” That isn’t really lost on anyone, so why not address that problem in the summer instead of using it as a get-out clause when trouble arises? Thiago Alcantara may not have been deemed “world class” by the United manager, but he’s far better than what the team currently have in midfield. His contribution would have been undoubtedly greater than that of Anderson on the weekend.
As again, it’s too soon to question whether Moyes is the right man for the job, but that doesn’t mean that particular debate won’t be brought up. He should be feeling the pressure, and the pressure of a big club with lofty expectations isn’t limited to just newcomers to the big time; it is part of the job. So you have to ask, why hasn’t Moyes done more to give himself a better chance of survival, both in the short and long term?
Moyes may have brought up the topic of fixture congestion, and he isn’t the first manager at a big club to do so. But the sense was that he was feeling the weight of the heavy schedule at his own door, rather than echoing what his team were feeling. After all, this is a largely unchanged United team who are more than learned in the expectations of a Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday schedule. If anything, the only change of note that was made has added to the depth at Old Trafford, rather than decreased the squad size.
In addition, Moyes understands what’s expected of him from English football. That, in a way, was his strong card to be held against names like Pep Guardiola, who are alien to the demands of the English football calendar.
The rotation policy is one we’ve seen so often over the years from Ferguson, and in terms of numbers, there is little that can be said of the current United squad. Why then opt to play Rio Ferdinand so often when it’s clear he’s declining as a footballer and should be used sparingly? The United defence has been poor, notably in the loss at Manchester City, but is that owed to the quality of personnel, or in the fatigue of key individuals?
Moyes finally started Kagawa, though from the flanks, and would be wise to lean on the former Borussia Dortmund midfielder as a means to push on and add some flair and cutting edge in the final third. Of course, Moyes may choose to keep him on the bench, but what have any of the other wide players done to warrant that decision?
A thought, and it is a hollow hope in a way, is that Moyes often started the league campaign slowly at Everton. There’s no doubt that this United team are good enough to be among the top three at the end of the season, but it’s a matter of how quickly Moyes can adapt to the demands of a big club.
It’s not quite at the stage where the panic button needs to be hit – far from it in fact. But alterations do need to be made for Moyes to prove that, come the end of the season, he was the right successor to Alex Ferguson.
Is Moyes starting to feel the pressure as Man United manager?
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