After the match ended my friend
texted me to ask, is this the worst start in Manchester United history?
I pondered over how to answer the
question, because one I am not a historian and two I don’t like accept that it
was the worst start in my memory. So, I replied to him. It doesn’t matter.
History is history, Sir Alex Ferguson is history, and 20 English titles 13
premier league titles are all history.
David Moyes is what we have now. Is
he a capable man to manage the team? Is he capable of repeating the past
history? I don’t know, but from what we all know by now. He is a seasoned
premier league manager who knows how to navigate within the premier league and
has had his highs and lows in so called the best league in the world. So all we
know for now is that he is a capable manager.
That brings me to the reason for this
article. So, why is such a capable manager experiencing such a horrendous start
to his career at one of the biggest club in the world? The main reason he
faltered in his start is because of his team selection in all those losing
matches, also in the matches won but no one bothers about them too much. So is
it his fault? Certainly not his fault alone. It’s the fault of the team too.
The team that won the league with 11 points has no reason whatsoever to perform
as badly as they did today in the match against West Bromovich Albion. The
squad that Moyes inherited was so worn out that it had only one midfielder
worthy of getting a look into the Manchester United squad. Still, the same team
won the league. That’s testament to the managerial abilities of THE GREAT SIR ALEX FERGUSON. If anyone
has any doubts over why Sir Alex was the greatest, the mentioned analogy is
more than sufficient to answer them.
So coming back, the current problems
are because of the squad not of the manager. He has vowed to fix it and I
believe in him because he is capable of it. I have heard a argument stating
that even City, Chelsea changed their managers and they have started better
than United. The reason being that even though the manager changed, the
management that looks after the transfer activity of the team didn’t change.
Their respective management knew what exactly the team needed and made the
necessary moves the transfer window. Where as in United’s case it was a one man
army of Sir Alex, hence with just his change there is a huge void left behind.
Moyes did a mistake of blindly
believing that the last year’s squad could do a repeat in terms of performance
and hence committed his fouls in the transfer squad. If being naïve is a crime
then he is guilty, but lowering their own performance the players are surely
guilty of what they did in all those matches which cost us the points. As a die-hard
Manchester United fan, I always take pride in the team’s style of play. And in
recent the style hasn’t made me proud, honestly there is no style at all.
Making a match a contest and losing is fine with me like what happened against
Tottenham at home last year (United lost 3-2, but they played with style which
has made them champions so far). So whats going to happen in the January
transfer window will be keenly awaited because Moyes has made his intentions
clear regarding adding 2-3 players who can walk straight into the team and may
be chop off the dead wood.
May be Moyes will fail, but that’s
the thought for another time in 2-3 years. Lets give the man a decent chance to
succeed in a league where a team that beat Manchester United 4-1 and score
another 5 goals for fun in a league cup and still go down 3-2 to last year’s
strugglers. No wonder they consider Premier league to be the toughest in the
world.
Lets not take solace in the fact that
all the top teams dropped points today (at the time of writing), because we are
not team who depend on others to drop points.
The team selection is forced because
that’s all he has after a disastrous transfer window. But there are some unanswered questions of
why didn’t Fellaini start? Why is Anderson even in the squad? These are the
questions I am sure Moyes will answer soon.
David Moyes in you we believe so you
better not screw it up.
