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Tag: David Moyes

  • Manchester United FC: Time To Face The Music

    Burnley FC hosted Manchester United FC early Saturday morning. Two seasons ago, a match like this would have held but one predictable outcome for onlookers.

    Burnley, a side freshly promoted to the Barclay’s Premier League, would surely have been schooled at home by the formidable Red Devils.

    Instead, Manchester United’s match ended in a humiliating 0-0 draw.

    The result isn’t merely a humiliation due to the unexpected outcome.

    It’s also disgraceful because it comes on the back of a shocking 4-0 loss to MK Dons, a third tier football team. That result sent Man United crashing out of the Capital One cup.

    This result means that the United team have earned only two points from their first nine of the season.

    They have yet to win a game, and both points were earned through the result of two lackluster performances.

    There is no reason to put off stating the obvious beyond this point:

    Manchester United are in trouble.

    On paper, Manchester United was expected to breeze through their first several games, not really seeing a challenge until they met Everton FC at Old Trafford in October.

    The result has been the complete opposite of all expectations.

    Relegation fodder and third tier teams come at Man United with no fear and no respect, thrashing them at home and embarrassing them away.

    The former champions have been exposed, and new manager Louis Van Gaal has done nothing to pull back the curtain.

    With his stubborn refusal to move on from his darling 3-5-2 formation, he would rather blame the team for a poor result than his own rigid and predictable methods.

    Blame is something to be spread around. Manchester United’s players lack heart and conviction and some shouldn’t even be allowed on the bench.

    And LVG needs to realize that he’s at risk of making a mediocre David Moyes look like a comparative genius.

    Others have pointed out that Van Gaal has never been one to take troubled clubs to the top. One famous is example is that he nearly got FC Barcelona, one of the best football clubs in the world, bounced from Spain’s La Liga!

    His ego is immense, and perhaps Man United’s board mistakenly thought an ego and an iron will would together be enough to fix their many problems.

    Yes, Sir Alex Ferguson had a massive ego and an iron will.

    But he also was a brilliant coach who knew how to get the best from his players while emotionally scarring the rest of the league.

    It was he that constructed Manchester United’s “unbeatable” mythology. And the wall he painstakingly built over two decades has all but crumbled in about two years time.

    If Manchester United doesn’t see the warning signs now and all concerned parties move to address the issue, this season just might be even WORSE for the Red Devils than the shocking result of 2013-2014!

  • David Moyes: What Went Wrong For The Chosen One?

    Perhaps the biggest mark against the now fired David Moyes is that despite being labeled “The Chosen One”, it was never a job that he had chosen for himself.

    Moyes said of his appointment that he was called over to the residence of Sir Alex Ferguson and told that he had the manager position at Manchester United FC.

    It came to him as a complete and total shock. In retrospect, it’s clear it was never a position for which he had ever been mentally or emotionally prepared.

    He was told that he was the new boss and that was pretty much the end of it.

    From Day 1, Moyes was simply a guest in the “house that Ferguson built”. On Day 348, he has been kicked out for vandalizing someone else’s property.

    It seems almost unfair to punish the man for not being Ferguson.

    He was seemingly never expected to be able to make adjustments that would allow him to make the United team his own.

    He very likely found out (the hard way) that the Manchester United club wanted him to leave everything just the way that Ferguson did when he departed. In truth, tumbling to 7th is unfortunate, but in a new coach’s first season at the helm, it’s not unexpected.

    However, he had only one so-called task to do: Everything as Ferguson did and not deviate an inch. He failed because he tried to deviate, thinking he was going to be allowed to actually manage the Manchester United team. He failed because it was not his club and not his team with which to experiment, change, and certainly not cost Champions League football.

    Too many assumed that because Ferguson was able to get the most out of a team he personally crafted that Moyes need only mimic the man to see the same success repeated.

    Moyes was not a Ferguson clone; he had been an Everton fan. Everton was mediocre (less so since his departure), but not so bad as to expose Moyes in any way as inept. Still, many neutral observers saw the writing on the wall before the season even started. Nothing good could come of this.

    The Ferguson-ordered love affair drowned out any warning cries. Moyes was “The Chosen One” or so it said in the front pages of British newspapers. The words were arrogantly echoed on the huge banner that Manchester United hung proudly at Old Trafford.

    Months later, a devastating loss would force security guards to prevent Manchester United fans from ripping that same very banner to shreds.

    After 34 games, not even a full season, a man that was never truly in control of his own destiny at Manchester United has been shown the door.

    “You are no Sir Alex Ferguson!” is the sneering response to a question of why he is leaving. He leaves having never established himself at a club that never intended for him to be his own man. He trashed the Ferguson legacy with a 7th place finish in one season.

    This lack of patience will prove remarkably embarrassing in retrospect if Manchester United fail to recover within months under a new leader.

    Entitlement and arrogance are deadly sins in the realm of football and Manchester United’s troubles can be blamed on both. Moyes may be gone, but if these behaviors remain unchecked, it cannot bode well for the club going forward.

    Moyes will probably feel as if he’s returned from an out-of-body experience where he journeyed into the seventh circle of Hell.

    He will leave the Red Devils behind for a new and likely more carefully chosen position no doubt.

    Perhaps his former will also engage in carefully picking their next manager. But only if they set aside expectations that he “stick to the plan” and “do it just like Fergie”.

    These are behaviors that interfere strongly with a rebuilding process. It doesn’t matter what sort of quality coach is selected to replace Moyes. If that man is not allowed his own legacy and decision making, Manchester United could find themselves delaying their return to serious title-challenging competition.

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  • David Moyes Soon To Leave Manchester United?

    With approximately three weeks to go in the Barclays Premier League, Manchester United FC finds itself in a strange new place: A mid-table position.

    Mid-table games lack the drama of either title-challenging teams or those teams fighting to stay in the league.

    As such, it often doesn’t matter how well or how poorly teams in the mid-table region play. Aside from fans, no one really cares.

    The fact that tongues are wagging about Manchester United has more to do with speculation than anything else.

    What many want to know is if manager David Moyes would get the chance to prove himself next season after the disappointment of this one.

    Early rumors suggest that a decision has already been made and that Moyes will be headed for the exit.

    Following a disappointing 2-0 loss to Everton FC it appears the Glazer family, Manchester United’s owners, may have had enough of the Scottish manager and his frequently “turned corners”.

    While some expect him to see out the last three games, there are reports a player manager could act as caretaker in his absence. It’s also expected that Moyes’s self-appointed staff will follow him out the door.

    While angered Manchester United fans will be relieved at the news, rival fans will no doubt be disappointed. Moyes’s failure to comfortably step into Sir Alex Ferguson’s shoes has been a source of amusement.

    Now it’s just a matter of who exactly will prove a proper replacement. An able coach could get the most out of the team that Ferguson left behind. However, it’s also possible that manager will need a few seasons to restore Manchester United to the Champions League and Premier League title contention.

    Whether the United fans like it or not, a Moyes departure is not going to signal instant success; it will be just another stage of the inevitable rebuilding process.

    Image via YouTube