The year a team went missing - post Scouse game

Lots of stuff in the press after this game of course. The Daily Mail reported “On social networking sites and fan forums on Monday, the groundswell of opinion against Moyes continued to grow. Even the more rational are beginning to tire of United’s insipid football and a manager who rarely seems to say or do anything to inspire confidence in his ability to reverse a downward trend.”

The Huffington Post had “David Moyes: 9 Reasons Why Manchester United Should Sack Him”.

The Guardian “With each demoralising defeat the ire and concerns of United fans focus more on Moyes and whether he is the man for the job. The manner of the defeats the 50-year-old is overseeing is the chief charge against him. All teams lose but to go down constantly by playing like a team of strangers seven months into his inaugural season offers scant hope of optimism.”

Telegraph “It would not take Saatchi & Saatchi too long to come up with a slogan to sum up Manchester United's torrid season. 'David Moyes isn’t working’ would be a remodelling of something they have produced before but, as the home supporters drained out of Old Trafford at the end of a 3-0 humiliation at the hands of Liverpool, enough were raging against their sinking manager to suggest that those four words would perfectly encapsulate the mood. Had Moyes been employed by any other footballing superpower and presided over such a disastrous run of results, his tenure would have been cut short weeks ago. His survival at United is based on the club’s determination to give the manager time to reshape the squad and team in his image, reduce the average age of the squad and promote from within.”

It’s reported that there’s a rift between him and Giggs and it’s true that Giggs has not featured for several weeks.

Kevin Sheedy the Everton youth coach has tweeted that Moyes showed no interest in the youth team. This would support the fact that he didn’t go in for Ross Barkley who has established himself in the premiership this season in just the kind of midfield up and down role that we are crying out for. Moyes obviously didn’t see his potential and, instead, paid £27m for the lumbering Fellaini.

Many long standing United fans now have backs to the wall attitudes and want to stick with Moyes in the same way that the Labour party stuck with many unsuccessful leaders in the past. That is that they have some notion of principles that overrides results. This is perverse. These fans wear the 25 years in the wilderness up to 1993 as a badge of honour. Any right minded supporter must conclude that despite the size and worldwide appeal of United the club has been run in the manner of a market stall. While Fergie was there all was fine but no plan was in place for the succession. He was allowed to go on until he had had enough and then chose Moyes to follow him. Fergie is to blame but so are the top management of the club. He should have been told to give 12 months notice of his retirement and then a proper plan could have been made. As it was he retired at the same time Gill left as Chief executive which made the transition doubly difficult. In any case the next manager had to be an individual big enough to come into the club and say “this is me” like Cantona did. Mourinho would have fitted that bill. Moyes definitely not.