Maybe this is the match that will make David Moyes understand some thing about this Manchester United team it has taken him too long to. Shinji Kagawa isn’t a left winger, no matter how much his manager wants him to be. Javier Hernandez needs to be on the pitch in those final moments and probably more. His kind of scoring ability is something that just can’t be taught.
With all of the criticism and disappointing quality in terms of football, Manchester United have picked up two wins in four days. They’re still quite far away from the rest of the leading pack, but it’s still quite early in the season to declare them out of the title race. There’s too much talent on this team, even if it isn’t responding to Moyes’ brand of management yet, to be so low down the table and be playing with such insecurity and softness against the weakest of rivals.
Wayne Rooney might not like being a midfield, but it seems that his dropping back to help out Michael Carrick in the middle saved the match. It might tell of how badly this team has been built over the last two years in terms of quality, but it doesn’t change the fact that Manchester United might be better off when he’s not playing almost directly next to Robin van Persie.
It clears space for Chicharito to operate in the box, the only place he’s actually good at. Unlike the other Manchester United forwards, he can’t play on the wing or create for others. Hernandez is a scorer from close range, nothing else. However, he has excellent positioning and that sixth sense some strikers have when it comes to being in the right place at the right time.
Shinji Kagawa played badly until Manchester United went into their gung ho mode, which moved him from the left wing and a bit more into the middle. Out of all the changes David Moyes made near the end, which included putting in Antonio Valencia as a wing back and Adnan Januzaj to play and create all over the place, Kagawa’s position change was the least influential. But it only takes a few minutes of him playing in the midfield to see just how much wrong Moyes is doing him and his team when he uses him as a winger, wasting him away and keeping a player like Januzaj or even Danny Welbeck who are much more suitable to play on the left.
Robin van Persie continues to be a disappointment, but it hasn’t stopped him from scoring goals or providing assists from set pieces. Manchester United, right now, aren’t a team searching for ability and more consistent performances. It’s a team desperate for points, wins and confidence, including on defense, where the entire foursome is playing terribly and lacking any sort of balance and cohesion.
David Moyes has been off to a rocky start, but wins like these steady a ship for a short while at least. Maybe he is starting to learn his lessons about the lineups he selects, and that his tactics just don’t fit the bunch of players he has to use.