No one expected for David Moyes to have an easy first season at the helm as Manchester United manager. However, no one expected it to be this bad. What’s more frustrating for those who have the club’s best interest in mind is that there’s no sign of improvement, consistency or some sort of instilling football philosophy. David Moyes is diverting attention from himself to the players, mentioning luck and other things as the culprits in the bad results, but it’s hard to deny he has a huge part in everything that’s going on.
Manchester United are 9th – 12 points away from Arsenal, the top team in the league, and 12 points away from Fulham, who are in a position that leads to relegation. No need to worry about dropping out of the league, but the concerns for missing out on the top 4 and having the worst season ever for the club in the Premier League era is quite reasonable to consider.
Where did it go wrong against Everton? David Moyes has to be the worst in-game manager right now, making the wrong substitution time and time again, which is often what happens when you begin with the wrong lineup. He started with Antonio Valencia and Rafael on the right side, and Danny Welbeck as the left side winger. Even though he has someone as brilliant as Adnan Januzaj, who plays his best football on the left, Moyes Welbeck.
His 58th minute double substitution? Shinji Kagawa and Rafael off, putting Nani and Januzaj in. But he decided that Nani will play on the left, where he’s hardly every useful, and Januzaj in the hole or on the right behind Wayne Rooney and Danny Welbeck, both having an awful performance. Rooney, for the second time in three matches, should have been sent off for kicking and then hitting Jagielka. He was only booked, but is still suspended from the next match, which means a lot of trouble for Moyes as he’s still without Robin van Persie.
Back to the changes he made – Antonio Valencia as right back again, instead of Rafael? Rafael is a much better attacking presence, which is what Manchester United needed. Instead, Moyes seemingly made a more attacking tactical change, but aside from some enthusiasm early on in the second half got nothing from it.
His midfield continues to be horrendous, highlighting just how awful a signing Marouane Fellaini has been. He has no business playing for Michael Carrick, but Moyes continuously changing the names in the lineup, not giving any duo a chance to feel comfortable with each other, hasn’t been exactly the right course of action as well. Ryan Giggs, like in the last three years, is playing well once or twice a month, and only if he gets enough rest between matches. Consecutive outings just make him look old, which he is, for a footballer.
According to David D. Wallbank and his Twitter feed, Moyes wasn’t as calm about the loss as he might have appeared in the post match interview. This might be just tawdry gossip, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the way Everton fans berated him got under his skin and more. Manchester United fans remain patient, but are realizing one match at a time that their club might have hired the wrong man for the job, or maybe that Alex Ferguson set up Moyes to suffer the consequences of his own mistakes in squad building.