Is David Moyes solely to blame for Manchester United’s faults?

When Manchester United players escaped into the Athens night on Tuesday, heads down, lights down on the team bus and without giving a single interview in the mixed zone — even to the club’s own television channel — they sent out a message that was not difficult to interpret: this squad of players doesn’t want to take responsibility.

It is all too easy to say David Moyes is to blame for recent results; that the players don’t like his system, don’t enjoy his training methods, don’t think he compares to Alex Ferguson, don’t have confidence in his methods. But really it is all lame excuses.

Moyes is a good man and a good manager who holds the respect of just about everyone in the game so the problem cannot lie entirely at his door. When Ferguson stepped down at Old Trafford last year everybody in world football knew United would have a difficult transition period as the club adjusted to a new era; and certainly the players knew it too. Their job was to make it as easy for the new manager as possible by taking responsibility for performances on the pitch. The bottom line is they haven’t done so.