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David Moyes - Are Manchester United too big for him?

The back page of the Telegraph this morning read “clueless, aimless and hopeless” after Manchester United’s abject defeat away to Olympiakos, leaving the club embarrassed and only a slim chance of qualifying in the 2nd leg. I’m inclined to agree.

It was the worst performance of the season on a night when Manchester United needed their best. There is little to no chance of qualifying for the Champions League through the Premier League position so winning it seems our best opportunity. They were outplayed and out-fought in every area of the pitch, so much so that Manchester United didn’t even record a single shot on target.

Before the game in his ITV interview David Moyes said we’ll come out compact and try to make it difficult for Olympiakos. Everything pointed to a conservative performance and we weren’t even treated to that. We were slow in possession, most of which took place between the 2 centre backs and Michael Carrick dropping as deep.

In an endeavour to get the ball forward, the defenders lofted the ball for Van Persie to chase and get control. The football we played was horrendous. It’s been like this for most of the season, and a bit of pressing from the opposition exposed that to a much larger extent. At right back we saw one of the worst and clumsiest performances by centre back Chris Smalling. He’s played there before, sure, but when full backs are the greatest attacking outlets in David Moyes’ locker, playing a centre back there is an absolute clanger, one that he has made time and again this season.

After the match David Moyes said: “I didn’t see that level of performance coming. ” And therein lies the problem. This performance will have come as no surprise to us fans, we’ve seen many more like it this season. It’s hard to forget that David Moyes is not a proactive manager, which is what we’ve been used to for years, but rather a reactive manager. This has been our downfall all season. Instead of attacking the game we coast through games, see where it goes and try to react to it. David Moyes’ Manchester United allow other teams to dictate the game and make plans accordingly. We allow teams onto us and this is the reason why we’ve conceded these deflected goals this season.

David Moyes has bemoaned luck all season, but as the much over-used cliché goes, you make your own luck. And that is what we used to do under Sir Alex Ferguson. We used to attack teams from the off, put them under pressure and when we couldn’t find a breakthrough it’d eventually come late on, sometimes even from a deflected or scrappy goal.

I’ve been willing to give David Moyes a chance this season. In my mind there has existed a belief that David Moyes could turn it around, although this has been utterly baseless and borne mainly out of Sir Alex Ferguson telling us after Swansea at home last season to stand by our new manager. This belief has now been banished. It is evident that he has lost the players.

There has been no evidence throughout his tenure so far to suggest David Moyes is the right man. Things were not good enough earlier in the season but recently, since the turn of the year, it seems we are hitting new depths of low every week. We seem to be getting worse and I have zero faith in David Moyes’ ability to turn things around.

What do you think about David Moyes? Comment in the section below.

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By Vikesh Chevli

I blog and tweet Manchester United. Follow me on twitter http://www.twitter.com/iconicnumber7

31 replies on “David Moyes - Are Manchester United too big for him?”

i am totally in agreement with all that you have said, David Moyes is clueless, he cannot even pick a suitale team. Mata is cup tied, his next option should be janjazui, he did not took him, why?, then if there is no Janjazui, there must be Kagawa,. Valencia and Raphael is our best combination on the right, where were they?, Smalling must and should be playing closer to the center amd last but not least Butner cannot do worse than what Evra is doing. our manager is clueless

He hasn’t let me down…….he and we are exactly where I expected…..He and Round are two chancers……….For United to not sack him with immediate effect shows huge bad judgement……it will end up more around SAF’s shoulders….This guy is inept and an employee is inept you sack him
HUGE HUGE HUGE MISTAKE

I feel the same. I looks like he has lost the respect of the squad. Look at carricks interview last night, ive seen him interviewed after defeats before but last night he was holding back and choosing his words carefully. Rvp has been unhappy for months.
moyes whole body language during games is a disgrace how could any player get confidence if the manager font even show belief.

moyes out now, giggs and Scholes to take over until end of season and let the board start process of finding a replacement.

Why was Ferguson allowed to appoint Moyes in the first instance.I believed at the time it was a huge mistake and had 300 @ 9/2 not to finish in top four.Pep Guardiola went to New York to study english in the knowledge that he would get the job.Bayern snapped him up and then sent him to a private school in Bavaria to learn German.300k per week to Rooney tells you everything about Moyes and his understanding of top players.Utd shares are in melt down on Wall Street with 500m approx wiped of share value.The gnomes of Florida will not be sitting comfortable as they need Utd to bolster their ailing mall empire.They should have taken the 2b offered to them from Bahrain and Utd would have a world class reserve team and the clowns that played last night would have been just a distant memory.Any new signings in the summer will be bought from loans hedged against Utd putting the club into further financial meltdown.The only way Moyes can survive is to appoint a top coach and gey rid of all the Everton garbage he brought with him.

Good analysis.

Why should United fans have faith in a manager who has never won anything and has no history of recruiting or motivating the players that are needed to turn around Manchester United?

The only sensible option is to fire Moyes, bring in a motivational manager for the remainder of the season, appoint a successor for next season and give him £150m to spend in the summer.

Inertia and indecision will kill the club

Biggest fergies mistake ever is choosing moyes as his successor.This is not the time to experiment with a club like manchester united. the players dont believe in him how more we the supporters.

Your article is absolutely spot on. I never believed he was the right man from the start. And unlike the majority in Old Trafford, I have never got behind this whole “We’ll stand by David Moyes” rubbish. I am all for giving a manager a chance, and we cannot become a club that changes managers every few months, but he has had plenty of time to prove himself adapt his tactics and be more positive, but this doesn’t look like it is going to happen.

If we suffer a heavy defeat against Liverpool in a few weeks, that really could be the time that the majority of fans turn on him.

maybe this is the first time on my life (and i hope whis is the last time) that i want liverpool and man city to beat moyes’s team (it’s not a man utd, because the real man utd is not like this shit) so the board realize, it’s time to get rid of moyes and his staff out of man utd

i’m sad to say,i agree with the others.moyes is a decent mid-table manager,he does’nt show the characteristic’s of a great manager in waiting.his former team achieved 6/7 place regularly,he never went higher.
poor man,he just is’nt cut out for us.time to go.and i’m really sad for him.

The job is to big for him on his own. He is the perfect person in terms of longetivity the club like to have, but he does not possess the skills to manage top players.
The best player he managed in the past 10 years was Arteta, and that is saying something considering he cannot get in to the spain squad even under wenger.
His most recent signing has a world cup medal, Euro 2012 medal, and champions league/Europa league medals. This illustrates the gulf in class.

What I am leading up to is that although he is not currently qualified for the united job, he is not being helped by the likes of Round, and Neville on his coaching team.

My personal opinion is that our season can still be turned around. The transfer window may be closed but that does not mean we cannot bring in new staff!

There is no shame in hiring someone with better european/tactical knowledge than himself, as Fergie did with Quieroz and Merlustene.

Laudrup is the perfect candidate to appoint as a coach – at least until the end of the season, he has playing experience with top european clubs (Inc. madrid/barca/juve) and got Swansea playing some really nice stuff whilst he was there.

As a retired sales exec who was a member of a “team” i was judged on results alone.
When EVERYONE in a successful sales team suddenly plummets as a result of a change in the management structure….the manager goes. END OF !!
It amuses me that too many morons (the football press) suggest that the players aren’t good enough. Doh !!!
Do you honestly think that Rodgers or Martinez would ruin this squad of players???
Nah, thought not.

I totally agree with you, for far too long now David Moyes has been making the same old mistakes, playing players out of position, indecision in the transfer market-(and the one decent player we do sign is done by SAF and David Gill)-,
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE United see sense and get rid sooner rather than later for the sake of our great club.

Don’t think that there is any point sacking moyes now, wait until the end of the season and get someone like klopp who firstly could bring in the best from Germany, someone who can give us the brand if football that must be played at old trafford, don’t mind getting beat if we give it a go, we were like lambs to the slaughter last night against a mediocre team, we are famous for swashbuckling football and I don’t think moyes can deliver that, also don’t want to hand him a war chest and let him waste 100m + on square pegs for round holes, we need and want the best available in each position, you can’t put mata in the wing or fellainai defensive mid, both play off the striker as does kagawa and Rooney, 4 players for 1 place and no midfield, he doesn’t seem to know where to play people, you only have to look at smalling last night to see that, he is taking away their belief and confidence.

He os clueless instead of blowing 200mil on playera who maybe only motivated by money, bring jurgen klopp 2 class defenders, whe need a motivated manager, moyes simply looks clueless, ferguie lost games like this but the 2nd leg the Team left the skin on the field.. Hairdryer and renee os what de misa the most

Leaving david moyes in d post z jst lyk fetching water into a river which z off no use. Moyes should b sacked witout asking any question bcuse he hs given us{fans} heart attack enough pls board should help us{fans} and dem selfs too.

Great article. Lets wot happens in the next two week! Sources say an announcement will be made….I hope its the right one. The decision being ro end Moyeses Reign

If they are going to give Moyes a carte blanche regarding the team’s performance and some time to acclimatise to his role this year then they could have given the job to Ryan Giggs or Ole GS.

His last roll of the dice could be to have Fergie come in for the rest of the season and show him what he would do.
But maybe a fresh start is best. Really hope whoever gets it wants/manages to bring in some of the German players that have been mentioned this season though.

I do feel for Moyes as I feel this job has shown his (seemingly quite serious) limitations and I’m not sure any ambitious club will hire him after this, but the interests of the club must be the priority for all concerned.

Why would you give someone the challenge of taking over Manchester United when they have NO experience! Moyes is too humble and passive for the job. You can’t imagine him bursting into the dressing room at half time and inducing energy into the team. If he was a phenomenal tactician then we’d have something to be hopeful about…but he’s not! In this day and age in football you don’t have 2 or 3 seasons to build a new team. Football is always evolving and United are running the risk of being left in the dark!

The biggest mistake, David Moyes made was giving his players too much respect. I just don’t see him going in an half-time and taking the players to task. I cannot see him telling Rooney to play better. I cannot see him telling RVP to shape up.

I think he’s intimidated by his players. He just doesn’t have that passion to make players play for him.

I think he’s a great person and he’s handled himself really well since he’s been here. Unfortunately for him, it takes more than being a good person to be a Manchester United manager. You need some skill too.

Ferguson wasn’t the best tactician in game, but he didn’t need to be. He surrounded himself with people like Quiroz, Mclaren, (yes Mclaren was pretty good as an Assistant Manager), and recenly, Rene Muelstein. These guys brought continental ideas to United and gave them a different flair.

Round and Phil Neville are good coaches but they’re both reared on the English style of play. Moyes needed some fresh ideas and I haven’t seen anything to suggest that this will change. He has players like Kagawa on the bench and he still hasn’t figured out how to use them.

The lack of signings is not an excuse. This is the same team that WON the PL last year. Sure, maybe we don’t have the depth of Manchester City, but we’re not so bad that we lose to a team like Olympiakos in such a pathetic manner.

David Moyes is stubborn. He’s stuck with the same formation and with players like Young even after persistent failure. And by indulging Rooney, he’s made his biggest mistake.

I don’t think he has the balls to substitute a player like Rooney if he’s not playing well or to bench him. And that is his downfall. No one is bigger than the club.

I think there is only one way to go forward. Part ways with Moyes now and let Ryan Giggs take over. In the summer, try your best to get Jurgen Klopp to come take over. If he can get us playing like Dortmund, we’re in good hands. Maybe he’ll bring Kroos or Reus with him too.

As for David Moyes, he’ll land on his feet and find a good mid table club where he can spend the next decade coming in 6th or 7th.

The article is spot on. If the club stick by Moyes and give him the money to spend in the Summer we are going to go the same way as Liverpool in the early 90’s. Moyes is tactically inept – playing 2 players in CM in the latter stages of the champions league away from home (one being Tom Cleverley) is unforgivable.

I have all the respect in the world for Fergie but it seems he has chosen a man who would still make him feel involved. Mourinho would have done things his own way and not consulted the great man for advice.

It was ironic that on the same night Klopp’s Dortmund side produced a swashbuckling performance, scoring 4 goals away from home in Russia.

Moyes out, Klopp in, give him the money to spend. We have already seen him tactically outthink Mourinho as he did in the Champions League next year. At the very least he would bring exciting football and put a smile back on the supporters faces.

Moyes will go – to keep him will mean a massive reduction in ticket sales and a fall in share price value next season. The new manager would bring excitement and a renewed sense of optimism.

David Moyes has never won a major trophy. He inherited a winning side, no person has left, why is the side in the position it’s in? You can’t change all the back room staff and bring in your own especially as they have won nothing either.
Sir Alex has made 2 blunders, the appointment of Moyes and the book.
I run an international business if I ran the business with the same strategy or lack thereof as what MUFC have shown in the last 6 months I would get fired.
Does the club want David Moyes to spend 350 million on players and then in 12 months time get fired because that is what will happen.
His problem is not just player talent it’s managing and coaching lack of talent.
What did he achieve at Everton? He didn’t win anything. His successor at Everton will win.
The job is too big for him. He needs to move on before his health gets affected because the strain is evident both in his appearance and also in his decision making policies.
Apolologies for being candid David but you don’t have the quality.

I’ve never written about anything in my life, but I feel exactly the same about Moyles as everyone else. Tuesday night summed up Moyles inability to win big matches, sideways passing, backward passing, negative from the outset. He doesn’t even believe in himself, or he would have put his £27million signing in midfield, also 2 years ago Fergie said Rio wasn’t capable of playing twice in a week, yet he was played 90 on Saturday and 90 on Tuesday and his performance told its own story, Fergie once said to Brian Robson, go away and manage another club and make you’re mistakes there, yet he seems to be giving David Moyles a free hand to make mistake after mistake at the club I love, hopefully the board see sense before he makes anymore.

maybe this is the first time on my life (and i hope whis is the last time) that i want liverpool and man city to beat moyes’s team (it’s not a man utd, because the real man utd is not like this shit) so the board realize, it’s time to get rid of moyes and his staff out of man utd

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