Following
the news that David Moyes' reign in charge of Manchester United is at an end,
Adam Bate looks at the reasons why the board had little option but to relieve
the Scot of his duties...
Only 10 reasons? The fact that this
will be the reaction of many Manchester United fans goes some way to
illustrating just how disastrous David Moyes’ time in charge of the club has
been. Here’s a discussion of some of the problems that have led to his exit…
Awful
results
It’s a simple but inescapable fact
that this has been Manchester United’s worst season in a quarter of a century.
The records have kept coming throughout a miserable
campaign – so much so that it’s easy to become numb to them. However, it’s
worth recounting for anyone willing to convince themselves this was anything
other than an extraordinarily poor effort.
Eleven defeats is a record in the
Premier League era. This will also be United’s lowest finish and worst points
tally. It was a season of firsts too. Sir Alex Ferguson never lost at home to
West Brom. Or Newcastle. Or Swansea. Or anywhere in the league against Stoke.
And Everton doing the double on United for the first time in 44 years proved
the final insult.
Ferguson never conceded a Premier
League goal in the opening minute and only once exited the FA Cup in the third
round. It was over a decade since United had lost three games in a row and
almost two since they failed to qualify for the Champions League. While fans of
a certain age will recall far worse times, for a generation of supporters this
was an unprecedented period of woe.
Dragging
them down
Perhaps it was those with a
long-term view who were willing to be more understanding of Moyes’ struggles.
There has been a feeling among sections of the fan base for some time that this
had been coming. Ferguson had, after all, left a squad whose success was built
on a number of key players coming to the end of their careers – a situation
partially brought about as a result of a lack of investment from the Glazer
family.
It’s a persuasive argument to
explain why United had every reason to expect to suffer a dip. And in truth, this
was expected – despite being defending Premier League champions the team did
not start the season as favourites to retain their title. Supporters were ready
to endure a period of transition, as was perhaps foreseen in Ferguson’s plea
for them to support his successor.
What they were not prepared for was
the gradient of the decline. Remember that United had not finished outside of
the top three since 1991. For many, seventh was not a blip but instead
end-of-days stuff – and there is no explaining that away in terms of a lack of
quality in the squad. A team that were lifting the title last May should have
had enough to finish comfortably in the top six. All available evidence
suggests this was a group of players being dragged down by Moyes.
Unrest
Alarmingly, those were the words
coming out of the camp too. There were the early season reports that Robin van Persie was unhappy in
training, while Rio Ferdinand appeared to suggest that the lack of forward
planning in terms of which games he did and did not play was becoming a
problem. Ryan Giggs has seemed marginalised despite his apparent coaching role.
More recently, there have been claims that Danny Welbeck will be looking to move
on in the summer.
These are the stories that tend to
emerge when results are not going well, but such was Ferguson’s success –
coupled with his remarkable grip on the club - it has been unusual to hear such
whispers at United. In order to succeed, Moyes surely needed a unity of purpose
with key dressing room figures working towards the same goal. The indications
are that Moyes never managed to achieve this at Carrington.
Transfer
business
It wasn’t just an inability to get
anything close to the best out of existing players such as Van Persie, but also
the unconvincing attempts to recruit additions of his own. The claim that he
did not officially begin work until July seemed something of a weak excuse
given the May announcement that he would be taking the role and seemed to sum
up a summer of dithering.
Midfield strengthening simply had to
occur but following a doomed goose-chase or three of the wild variety, Moyes
finally settled upon his old buddy Marouane Fellaini. As noted at the time, this felt a little like a man
pretending to peruse the menu in a fancy restaurant before doing the inevitable
and settling on the burger.
Unlike the subsequent arrival of
Juan Mata for a club record sum, there was little reason to suppose Moyes would
fail to utilise Fellaini effectively. And yet, the Belgian’s impact has been
minimal – appallingly so, given the vast £27.5million fee involved. Mata has
occasionally impressed amid the general mood of uncertainty, without ever
looking like the jigsaw piece that would suddenly make sense of the entire
picture.
One-dimension
style
Indeed, the sight of Mata stuck out
on the wing or operating without pace in front of bodies close by was
indicative of the style problems that have been evident since the early weeks
of the season. By accident or design, United’s style of play has regressed. For
while they have long been known as a crossing team, they’ve seldom seemed quite so one dimensional.
United top the Premier League for
the number of crosses lofted into the box – with leaders Liverpool at the
bottom, incidentally – and the plan appears to have been for full-backs to work
the overlap. Patrice Evra effectively filled the Leighton Baines role in Moyes’
masterplan.
Unfortunately, these methods failed
to get the best out of arguably United’s greatest assets – the strike duo of
Van Persie and Wayne Rooney that fired the team to the title last time out.
Coupled with a lack of goalscoring midfielders looking for knockdowns and
making late runs into the box, it proved a surefire recipe for failure. And one
repeated ad nauseam in defeat after defeat.
Boring
football
“The fans have stuck with Moyes but
it won't take much longer because the performances have been so dull,” said Sky
Sports’ own Gary Neville. “You can lose games but never be dull – United have
lost games, lost championships in the past but they had fire in their
performances and a die trying attitude which isn't there. The fans can't stand
that it's boring to watch and it's happened so many times this season.”
That just about summed it up – and
from a United stalwart whose own brother is a trusted coaching colleague of
Moyes. Too often the football on offer has been uninspiring and reactive fare untypical of what
is needed at the world’s biggest clubs. Despite the change of setting, Moyes
appeared to remain at his most comfortable when focusing on making life
difficult for the opponents. The demands of the job required so much more.
Attitude
In that sense, this was partially a
mind-set problem. In the early part of his reign, Moyes appeared all too aware
he’d won the lottery in football management terms with his demeanour a little
too ‘fan-boy’ for comfort. But as the results failed to come, he was equally
quick to scale back expectations. That’s a difficult trick to pull off at
Newcastle United let alone Manchester United.
“Their league position suggests they
are ahead of us and they possibly do come here as favourites,” he said of
Liverpool ahead of their visit to Old Trafford. “Liverpool are having a very
good season and we will have to do everything we possibly can to beat them.”
They were comments that bemused Brendan Rodgers and angered supporters. It was
a similar story when talking of having to “aspire” to be like Manchester City.
United fans don’t do small time.
Big-game
manager?
A man lacking the confidence to make
forthright decisions and beset by caution when tackling the big games, Moyes
struggled to get that defining win against a top-class opponent. There was a
1-0 victory over Arsenal and a win over Liverpool by the same scoreline in the Capital
One Cup, but his efforts in the showpiece games were little better than they’d
been at Everton.
Not only did Roberto Martinez’s
incarnation of Everton do the double over United, but there were defeats home
and away to arch-rivals Liverpool and neighbours Manchester City. The aggregate
score in those four games was 11-1 against his team and the gulf was alarming –
particularly in the two 3-0 home defeats.
Even when his big moment threatened
to come against Bayern Munich, Moyes came up short. It’s become a theme – a
narrative that he was unable to stop. The Community Shield win over Wigan
Athletic back in August remains the only silverware he has won since taking
Preston North End to the third-tier title. Will he ever get another chance to
show he can be a big-game manager?
No
progress
It might not have taken too many
green shoots to persuade the powers-that-be at United that progress was a possibility.
Neville’s claim that United stand against “the immediacy of modern life” has
become a stick with which to beat both him and the club, but the fact remains
that United would surely love to have stood by their man. But where was the
Mark Robins moment from which Ferguson turned things around?
The final stages of the season
offered that opportunity. Moyes needed something fans could cling to. But the
display at Everton was so listless – so devoid of thrust and purpose – that it
became increasingly difficult to argue this was a man capable of coming out the
other side stronger for the experience. In fact, wearied by the grind of being
asked to defend failure, it felt like quite the opposite: Moyes had become the
one man that the board knew couldn’t turn things around.
Future
And that, of course, is what all
this should be about. Whether or not Moyes deserves to be sacked for what has
occurred over the past year is rather less significant than whether he is the
best man to take them forward now. That’s part of the reason why West Ham
elected to retain Sam Allardyce when they were in the thick of a relegation
battle and it’s also the reason why United simply had to look beyond Moyes.
One look at Jose Mourinho’s curriculum
vitae should have been enough to explain why the appointment of Moyes should
have been a contentious one at the time. A year on, the Scot compares even more
unfavourably with the great managers of the day. Consider the variety on offer
too – from Louis van Gaal to Jurgen Klopp; from Antonio Conte to Diego Simeone.
Whatever qualities United are looking for in a manager, there are better bets
around than the busted flush.
The United board will trust that the
club’s allure will endure despite the absence of Champions League football. And
trust is an apposite word. For it will require plenty of faith when United
indulge in the anticipated spending spree that they hope can restore their
position among Europe’s elite. With money to spend and season tickets to sell,
they were not able to entrust that task to David Moyes. In truth, he’d given
them so little reason to do so.
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