Moyes happy United will improve

Man United 1 Southampton 1

Are Manchester United in danger of missing out on a place in the Champions League this season?

David Moyes, fresh from seeing his team concede a late equaliser in another impoverished home display that has seen them score just four times at Old Trafford in the league, bristled slightly at the suggestion.

But there is little doubt the body of evidence — United closer in points (four) to the relegation places as they are the top four this morning — renders this a relevant line of interrogation.

“The players here are good enough and come the end of the season is when you have to be in your best form,” said Moyes. “Over the years Manchester United have been slow starters quite often. We have been a little bit slow in the way we have gone about things at the start, but, hopefully, that will improve. We knew we had a difficult opening period and we knew the games we were coming looked as if they were more winnable, but we have to try and do it. We have got to do it. We lost two points today. We will pick ourselves up. We have to make sure we do our job. We can only try and win our games and concentrate on the other matches later on. It is a slow start but I am sure we will improve.”

There are slow starts — and a slow start might have been expected given the tough early schedule thrown up by the fixture computer — and then there are slow starts that gradually merge into something of far greater concern.

Not since 1991, and a sixth-placed finish, have United finished outside the top three of the top flight but on current form, and the current lack of ready answers, it is hard to make a case that Moyes’ side looks better equipped than Man City, Chelsea or Arsenal … to name just three.

“At the start everyone thought it would be a Premier League season which might throw up a few different things,” added Moyes. “But I can only start looking at us. Now I’m needing performances and results to get a bit of consistency.”

The circumstances seemed ideal for Moyes as the pre-match hype surrounding teen winger Adnan Januzaj culminated in the announcement on the morning of the game he had signed a new five-year contract with the club.

And when his sublime pass set Wayne Rooney free for a shot which was well saved by Artur Boruc before Robin van Persie clinically netted the rebound after 25 minutes, it looked like normal service was being resumed at Old Trafford.

But United struggled to cope with Southampton’s impressive, high-intensity, pressing game. The five midfielders Mauricio Pochettino planted in the sector swamped United’s, swift-moving forwards pressured the home defenders on the ball and, with Adam Lallana orchestrating proceedings, the Saints always threatened on the counter-attack. More relevantly, an impatient and nervy Old Trafford crowd hardly helped United as they attempted to see out the game and, with two minutes remaining, poor defending at a James Ward-Prowse corner allowed Dejan Lovren to scramble in an equaliser via a deflection from Lallana.

To make matters worse for Moyes, who faces what now appears a no-room-for-error home Champions League tie with Real Sociedad on Wednesday, this week sees the launch of Ferguson’s eagerly-anticipated autobiography, the intense media spotlight having already begun and expected to reach a crescendo tomorrow when the book is officially unveiled.

As if the comparison were needed, the fact Moyes has seemed conservative in his substitutions on Saturday and in general — bringing on Craig Smalling for Rooney with four minutes to play, for example — and the fact that United were unable to hold on in circumstances that once were tailor-made for them, simply adds to the sense that United are a very different animal without Ferguson.

“I didn’t think that at all,” said Moyes, defending Saturday’s replacements. “We didn’t take the two forwards off. We kept them on. We brought Danny Welbeck on, brought Ryan Giggs on. I thought we actually tried to get a second goal. Only in the last three or four minutes when I was trying to make sure we had some height at set pieces we actually lose a goal from a set piece.”

Thank goodness for Januzaj. It is a long time since a more exciting prospect has emerged from the Old Trafford ranks, certainly dating back to the Beckham era, and early indications are, given his entry into a United team in transition, his form may be one of the few guaranteed positives for the United faithful.

“He’s a terrific talent but it’s a case of the old cliche – as long as he keeps his head down he’ll do great things for this club,” said team mate Phil Jones. “It’s pressure, it’s massive pressure. It’s a testament to him.

“He’s only a young kid but he has come in and done a great job. He’s sharp, he’s got nimble feet and he will do great things for this club. But he will have to keep working hard as well.

“He’s a quiet lad. He goes about his business quietly. And if he keeps producing performances like that he will be a real star.”

MANCHESTER UNITED (4-4-2): De Gea 6; Rafael 7, Jones 7, Evans 6, Evra 5; Nani 5 (Giggs 68, 6), Carrick 7, Fellaini 5 (Welbeck 76, 6), Januzaj 7; Rooney 8 (Smalling 86), van Persie 7.

SOUTHAMPTON (4-2-3-1): Boruc 8; Clyne 9, Fonte 7, Dejan 8, Shaw 6; Wanyana 7 (Do Prado 82), Schneiderlin 8; Lallana 8, S Davis 7 (Ward-Prowse 67, 7), Rodriguez 6 (Lambert 56, 7); Osvaldo 6.

Referee: M Jones 7.