Nowadays it’s quite hard being a Manchester United fan. Over the past week Reds fans have gone from thinking (rightfully so) that they were once again title challengers to now wondering if Champions League qualification is even a realistic aim?
Last Wednesday, United travelled to Germany to play against a tough Bayer Leverkusen side with an immaculate home record. It was expected to be a tough fixture due to the recent shaky form, but United performed amazingly well to win 5-0 and give Moyes his biggest win to date at Old Trafford. Shinji Kagawa was particularly impressive in the hole behind Wayne Rooney up front. Things looked on the up.
At the weekend came another stern test in the shape of Tottenham away and after giving away a soft goal to a Kyle Walker free kick, Rooney grabbed an opportunistic equaliser following a mistake from Walker. Nobody could do anything to prevent Sandro scoring a rare 30-yard screamer but the Reds bounced back quickly again with star man Rooney scoring from the spot to continue his fine goalscoring form. A 2-2 draw was probably a fair result overall and a respectable one given the opponents.
On Wednesday United had to take on an Everton side in solid form. At home though, they were fully expected to take all three points with Everton not having won at Old Trafford since 1992. However, it wasn’t to be as Everton took a smash and grab victory thanks to their left back Bryan Oviedo in the 86th minute. Marouanne Fellaini in particularly was found wanting in the middle of the park and the question marks over his signing continue to get louder with each passing match.
There’s clearly plenty of room for improvement in David Moyes’ side. Fans are rapidly losing patience with Fergie’s replacement as they cling on to a top half spot with over a third of the season gone already. January needs to be a productive month for the men from Old Trafford if even a Champions League spot is to be secured come May. Moyes needs to turn it around quickly to gain the trust of the fans otherwise it could get messy.
No matter what happens over the next few weeks, the fans need to give the manager full support and hope everything falls into place in time for the season’s final push.
As Sir Alex Ferguson said at the time of his departure, the fans job is to now stand by their new manager.
Replacing such an iconic figure as Sir Alex was never going to be easy, but only now are we beginning to see the true scale of such a task.
Thanks for reading! You can follow me on twitter @OllieMUFCHall. Give the site a follow while you’re at it – @LastWordOnSport and like our Facebook Page.
Feel free to discuss this and other footy related articles with thousands of fans at r/football or with our new IRC football Chat.
Interested in writing for LastWordOnSports? Find more info at our “Join Our Team” page.
