Moyes damned as soon as he relinquished United’s identity
Even up until last weekend we still thought it could too. A respectable last-eight exit in Europe, a storming finish to the league, creating the impression United had merely run out of games to catch up on Arsenal, Everton and Spurs and claim their perennial Champions League place; it all seemed entirely possible and respectable, enough grounds for the man to be given that summer kitty and at least until Santa splashed his gifts in December.
But then came his return to Goodison Park. Clearly Moyes would have been up for that one. And clearly his players weren’t. It was one thing for them not to be playing for him; another that they weren’t responding to him. He had obviously lost the capacity to positively affect them and as many of those resistors as he might have cleared out during the summer had he the chance, he could never clear out them all.
Instead it makes more sense that he’s the one that’s moved on.
It will be the right decision, even if it may be done the wrong way.
The reason for David Moyes being manager of Manchester United no longer exists. His original mandate wasn’t to build a new team but rather tweak and upgrade an existing one. He was supposed to be the safe bet. Now his retention has become too much of a gamble.
Of course you have to have sympathy for him. He seems to be a decent, good man and has proven himself elsewhere to be a decent, even good manager.
Champion teams can age overnight and sink drastically. Brian Clough found that out at Leeds and at least Moyes has lasted over 200 days more than him. Good manager, wrong situation: it has happened before and will happen again.
But like Clough, Moyes didn’t help himself. He had a disastrous off-season and pre-season. A man who was hired out of his apparent respect for United’s existing structures effectively cleared out Alex Ferguson’s backroom to bring in his own. You should never underestimate the wisdom and value of the eyes and ears that have been there before, but Moyes did. There wasn’t enough continuity in the support staff, and then, not enough changes to his playing staff.
Like Clough, the one player he brought in was one he knew, Marouane Fellaini being his John McGovern. But Fellaini’s signing instantly reminded us of another Clough, Nigel.
Tony Cascarino once said that buying Clough Junior from Nottingham Forest was themoment he knew for sure Graeme Souness was all wrong as manager for Liverpool. Because Clough was all wrong for Liverpool. He could pass sure, but he couldn’t pass and move. That was the signature of a Liverpool midfield player.
So it was with Fellaini. Like Clough, he was a fine player at his previous club (but he wasn’t the right fit for his current one). United were once about pace. They needed a signing who had pace. Fellaini never had pace. Instead of being a signing to get Moyes out of a hole, Fellaini dug an even deeper one for him.
Moyes himself increasingly hasn’t looked like a Manchester United manager. It isn’t just in his verbal and body language at press conferences after defeats. It’s primarily in how he has his team playing. The biggest failing at Old Trafford this season hasn’t been that United relinquished their Premier League title so tamely. It’s that they have relinquished their identity.
You can never undervalue identity. A team without an identity is at war with its true self and can win nothing.
In trying to change Leeds’s identity overnight, Clough lost the Leeds dressing room overnight. Under Brendan Rogers, Liverpool aren’t merely on the verge of regaining the title, they’ve regained their identity. They play The Liverpool Way.
What now is the United Way? Under Ferguson, Manchester United played how Brian Clough wanted Leeds United to play: “good, clean, attractive football” as the original Special One put it to Irishman Giles & Co in The Damned United. Under Moyes, it has been ambiguous.
In not having an identity for his team, Moyes has appeared to too many of his senior pros as not having a clue. And that is why he would have triggered some of the disbelieving looks that Clough would have prompted from another bunch of veterans 40 years ago at Elland Road.
We can see Moyes reinventing himself down the line, not necessarily by winning a European Cup with a Nottingham Forest a la Clough, but restoring an Aston Villa to top-eight respectability, and regaining his own while he’s at it.
As for United, they’ll hardly spiral downward like Leeds did post-Clough, but they’ll need a manager who truly realises the playing values of the club. That it’s not just any club he’s at. It’s damn Man United.
