Monday evening, multiple sources were reporting the imminent sacking of Manchester United coach David Moyes. Nothing surprising, the Daily Mirror loves to spew rumor garbage every single day so I didn’t believe it. However, the next thing you know, the Telegraph, Independent and The Guardian all had their own versions of a headline reporting David Moyes sacked! Next thing you know, the BBC reported it and all was done. 10 months after being appointed “The Chosen One”, he was chosen to be fired.
As a Liverpool fan, I am loving the struggle that United are going through. But as a football fan, what has happened there is just absolutely bewildering. What on earth is going on at Old Trafford this season? It is frustrating, and United fans, I can feel your pain.
Firstly, Moyes shouldn’t have gotten the job in the first place, and if they did hire him, he should be been brought in along with experienced assistant coaches. Even Sir Alex Ferguson worked with experienced assistants such as Rene Meulenstein (worked in the top Russian league with top players I.e. Etoo, Willian et al), Carlos Queiroz, Steve McClaren. Yet the assistants brought in were Phil Neville and Ryan Giggs. Both with absolutely no experience in coaching. How does that make any sense? Yeah, let’s bring in inexperience, and make it better with more inexperience. Makes sense right?
Worst than that, after bringing in a completely new management team, long time chairman/executive David Gill was also allowed to leave. They then brought in the inexperienced Ed Woodward.
Overall, I do not think Moyes’ tactics were sophisticated or creative for Manchester United. His signings were definitely questionable. You’ve got Maroune Fellaini, who I believe is a £27 million crab and nothing more. He’s also not great at being a crab as he is highly immobile (a crab is a player who plays side to side on the field, cutting off tackles and making passes, i.e. Lucas Leiva).
The signing of Juan Mata was also unnecessary for me. Mata is undoubtedly a fantastic player and a prime attacking threat. However, you really don’t need him when you’ve got Shinji Kagawa sitting on the bench. Kagawa was a favourite among Jurgen Klopp when he was at Borussia Dortmund. Klopp even calling him one of the best players at the #10 role, while ridiculing United for playing him out wide, on the left wing. Is Klopp credible? Well, he won a Bundesliga title and took a youthful side to the Champions League final. And Moyes did…? Alright, you get the point.
Mata, at £37.1 million, was not needed. Yes he would be wonderful depth, IF United had adequate quality starting players in the other positions on the field. Signing Mata when he is unnecessary is one thing, but bringing in £37 million of quality, only to make him put in crosses? You can have Oussama Assaidi from Liverpool on a free to do the exact same thing. Positions that United were absolutely barren at were center back, center midfield, and the wings.
Talking about wings, Manchester United sent out the young and talented Wilfried Zaha on loan to Cardiff after nailing him to the bench for the first half of the season because they obviously had the world class qualities of Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia (hope you are not sensing any sarcasm.) When Cardiff finally gave Zaha his first appearance of the season in January, he managed to snag more assists than Young and Valencia have had the whole season, in just 45 minutes of time on the field, at Cardiff. Yes Cardiff, 18th place or whatever they’re in.
The only way for Moyes to be a United manager was if they brought him in last season as an assistant to SAF, and then the eventual successor, Or to bring him some highly experienced assistant coaches who have won in the past.
At the end of the day, this isn’t just Moyes fault. It’s a completely awful handling of a situation from the management, right down to the players. They’ve not helped Moyes to have a chance of success. They blindly appointed him, called him the messiah. Then they proceeded to hand him the pressure of defending the title, living up to a knighted legend, a six-year contract worth £4 million each year at the world’s biggest club and many more troubles.
I’m sorry United fans, I really am. But there’s always next year.
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