Should Manchester United have persevered with Moyes?
His last words were nothing new, but they did sum up the entire issue.
“I thought we played well,” David Moyes said of Manchester United’s 2-0 defeat at Everton, using the same bizarre words he had inexplicably uttered after almost every other hapless setback.
That is precisely the problem. On so many levels, that eyebrow-raising response indicated the many reasons this man was never the right choice for United — and why it will absolutely be the correct decision to sack him.
For a start, if he actually believed those words, it sets an astonishingly low bar for a club where the only acceptable standard should be victory.
It emphasises the limited view of a man who has somehow found himself in a job that requires much further-reaching vision.
United did not play well. They played like a mid-table table team. Although the 2-0 loss at Goodison Park was far from the worst defeat Moyes had suffered, it was arguably the best evidence against his suitability for the role.
Everton did not even have to be at their best to easily beat United. It was certainly nothing close to the roaring level they displayed against Arsenal. Roberto Martinez knew to simply let Moyes’ team have the ball, because they would not have been able to do anything with it. United’s play is just not sophisticated enough, it doesn’t have enough imagination. Stories abound from Carrington of a near-total absence of work in the final third.
That doesn’t cut it at the elite level, not when coaches like Brendan Rodgers and Jurgen Klopp work so hard at training to develop devastating new methods of attack. Martinez also exposed that. From their patient base, Everton broke at the English champions when they pleased, creating chances at will.
That displayed the drastic difference in the direction of the clubs — as well as the ability of the managers —arguably more than the massive points swing since last season.
If Moyes didn’t believe those words, however, it further indicates just how out of his depth he is in a job this big.
He couldn’t even strike the right tone, let alone put out the right team. It was so meek, so accepting, so lacking in any kind of defiance — so difficult for players to get behind. It’s as if Moyes again reverted to those words because he didn’t really know what else to say, as if still blindsided by the magnitude of the job.
He was the wrong choice on almost every level — the personality, the football, the ambition, the approach, the CV.
At the remove of a year, it remains remarkable Alex Ferguson could choose so poorly; that a historic figure always so adept at adapting to the changes in the game couldn’t recognise the inherent ceiling of his replacement’s abilities.
Let’s make no mistake. Moyes is a very good manager for a certain type of team. But he was never good enough for this job. Ferguson made a huge mistake. It is difficult not to escape the feeling he simply had an affinity for his younger compatriot and that clouded his judgement.
Now, few others at United have any affinity for Moyes. A series of sources state that he has alienated so many figures, that ‘the old Everton crew’ are almost completely isolated.
Respect for coaches Phil Neville and Steve Round has plummeted. One long-serving club figure walked off the training ground shaking his head one day, amazed that such a team had spent so long doing defensive work.
Now, United need someone with much more imagination, with much more charisma, to energise the club again.
Some boardroom figures have mentioned Diego Simeone while chief executive Ed Woodward is known to be a huge fan of Klopp.
Whoever it is will have a lot of issues to deal with, some of them exacerbated by Moyes, others always out of his control.
Moyes was never the only problem at Old Trafford. He is just the most immediate problem.
Manchester United is a club associated with dignity and class, but those values look to be consigned to the history books with an appalling and short-sighted decision to sack David Moyes as manager. That Moyes looks to have been handed his P45 after just a season in charge is a disgrace and the decision is not only the wrong one, but may come back to haunt United in the future.
Whoever followed Alex Ferguson into the Old Trafford hot seat faced the biggest managerial challenge of their career, and it was one which Moyes would have risen to had he been given time. Time, unfortunately, has become an exceptionally precious commodity in modern football and the game has ultimately become worse for it.
In management short cuts and quick fixes rarely work and certainly such a knee-jerk response such as this does little to address the problems at United which Moyes had begun to tackle.
It was not an overnight process and it was never going to be. And it is foolish to think a new appointment will bring instant success.
Yes, there may be an initial upturn in results but taking such a short-term view will not bring the long-term success and sustainability needed at Old Trafford. With time Moyes could have built another dynasty with the Red Devils, but sadly he will never get that opportunity. It was a chance he had well and truly earned as well, having been a managerial apprenticeship at Preston before he graduated to a decade of achievement at Everton.
Much of what Roberto Martinez has been able to achieve with the Toffees this season has been because of what Moyes left him to work with at Goodison Park after 11 years of commendable work.
There has been, to an extent, an attempt to rewrite what Moyes did at Everton because of the impact Martinez has made.
Indeed Moyes has perhaps been an unfortunate victim of his own work, along with the prominent rise of Merseyside’s other club Liverpool.
Moyes is an excellent coach, a great tactician, a shrew operator in the transfer market and a fine man-manager.
United would have eventually reaped the benefits of his work had he been afforded that time. Perhaps he just wasn’t sexy enough for some. That cannot not be said of the excellent support he enjoyed on the terraces at Old Trafford where he always had his name sung.
Those match-going United fans realise a period of instability was always going to be needed after Ferguson retired.
Moyes was the ‘Chosen One’ by Ferguson because of his principles and unstinting work ethic and it is precisely these values that United need to get back on track.
It besmirches Ferguson’s judgement as well. Whichever boardroom suit has made the decision to get rid of Moyes is sticking two fingers up to the great man.
What Fergie doesn’t know about football isn’t worth knowing, and the fact the man he choose to replace him has been so easily discarded will hurt and angerhim.
The decision to relieve Moyes of his duties also sets an incredibly dangerous precedent for the next United boss.
Moyes has barely felt at home at United before being removed — what if his successor is unable to produce an instant miracle? Does he also get the boot after a year as well? Clubs are shooting themselves in the foot with such an approach — which manager is going to want to go to a club where he could be hung out to dry after just a season?
Moyes also had a lengthy deal at United — can the club keep afford to be sacking their manager every season from a financial point of view until they get it right?
Currently there are more questions than answers at United, Moyes at least deserved the chance to answer some of those that were asked of him.
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