It’s certainly been an interesting few weeks for the fans of Manchester United. The Christmas period started off so well as they extended their unbeaten run to 10 games in all competitions with scrappy victories over Hull and Norwich but then everything started to go wrong in the red half of Manchester.
The new year has not been a prosperous period either to say the least. Tottenham took maximum points at Old Trafford in controversial circumstances before Swansea did likewise in the third round of the FA Cup thanks to a last minute Wilfried Bony header. Further misery followed courtesy of an awful loss to Sunderland at The Stadium of Light in the Capital One Cup on Tuesday night.
Against Hull City it started poorly to say the least with United going 2-0 down early on courtesy of former defender James Chester’s goal followed by an awfully scrappy goal by David Meyler. Chris Smalling then popped up with a header before the talismanic Wayne Rooney smashed home a 25-yard volley into the top corner to equalise. In the second half, Chester then scored an own goal to gift the relieved Reds a victory.
Next up was Norwich where a tedious game saw the Red Devils scrape a 1-0 victory courtesy of a well-taken goal by in-form Danny Welbeck.
Since then however, it has been downhill all the way. Since the turn of the new year, David Moyes men have failed to win a game. Their first game of the new year brought Tottenham to Old Trafford. It did not go to plan. Spurs took a 2-1 victory thanks to goals from Christian Eriksen and Emmanuel Adebayor. Welbeck scored again to at least add respectability to the scoreline. The game was blanketed with refereeing controversy as United’s supposed 12th Man Howard Webb denied them two very strong penalty appeals. He also booked teenage starlet Adnan Januzaj for diving when he was brought down by a Spurs defender.
The FA Cup third round saw United again draw Premiership opposition for the fourth year running as they were pitched against Swansea. Without their star men, Rooney, Van Persie and several other big names, United never looked in control of the game and Swansea was full value as they deserved to progress into the fourth round courtesy of a 2-1 victory.
Sunderland were next. It looked like the perfect game to restore their winning ways against a weak side. However, it wasn’t to be as Sunderland took a victory thanks to Fabio Borini’s winner from the spot in another 2-1 loss.
This has been United’s worst run of form since 2001. They find themselves 7th in the league, out of the FA Cup and facing an uphill battle in the League Cup. However, they have a nice Champions League draw against Olympiakos and things can only get better surely?
Moyes needs time. This is important. Given five years, he might have created his ideal team that he can manage to glory but until then United fans need to realise that they’ve been incredibly fortunate to have 20 years of great success and may have to put up with a few years of downtime before they get back to their old winning ways. The Glazers clearly can and will offer Moyes great financial backing in the transfer window to improve the team and with their history they can hopefully still attract some big names like Reus and Gundogan.
Things will pick up for United. It’s just a matter of when and how. Maybe Moyes will restore it? Maybe it will be his replacement? One things for sure, Manchester United are not a team that loses for too long.
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