Moyes warns fans of tough times
MANCHESTER United manager David Moyes has said he is still short of players ready to go straight into the team and warned fans to prepare for more days like last weekend’s defeat.
MANCHESTER United manager David Moyes has said he is still short of players ready to go straight into the English champions’ first-team and warned fans to prepare for more days like last weekend’s derby defeat.
United were thrashed 4-1 by Manchester City, a result immediately billed as a “demolition derby”, on Sunday.
Moyes, speaking ahead of yesterday’s League Cup tie against arch-rivals Liverpool, said he was under no illusions about the scale of the task confronting him in succeeding retired United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who bowed out with the team winning the Premier League by 11 points last season.
“It was always going to be tough following such a great manager with a great team and I think people with real football knowledge will know there are probably some changes to be made,” Moyes said in comments reported by Britain’s national press yesterday. “It is not going to be made in one fell swoop.
“It is going to be done in time. That is why the Manchester United board realised the job that needed to be done was a long-term one. There were always going to be days like this and there might well be more days like this.”
Moyes’s delayed arrival from Everton meant the only major signing United made during the last transfer window was Belgium midfielder Marouane Fellaini from his old club.
Meanwhile, Everton’s Leighton Baines remained at Goodison Park, while fellow left-back Fabio Coentrao could not be enticed away from Real Madrid.
“I don’t think it’s actually the squad, I think we’ve got numbers,” said Moyes as he prepared to face a Liverpool side set to be buoyed by the return from suspension of striker Luis Suarez.
“Maybe we’ve got work to do to bring in players not for the squad but to go right into the team.
“That will happen. But going back to that transfer window, we always said it was going to be a tough one and it was going to take a little bit more time.”
Moyes accepted that for all his long experience of football, which he hoped had prepared him for the daunting task of succeeding Ferguson, nothing could compare to the job of actually being United’s manager.
“I thought I was (prepared) but obviously when you come here then I realise maybe I wasn’t,” said Moyes.
At Sunderland, caretaker manager Kevin Ball has let it be known that he wants to become Paolo Di Canio’s permanent successor at the club after leading the Black Cats to victory in the League Cup third round on Tuesday.
Former Sunderland captain Ball, who played 388 games for the club, oversaw a 2-0 home win against League One (third tier) Peterborough in the Capital One Cup, after taking over as interim head coach following Di Canio’s sacking on Sunday.
Goals from Emanuele Giaccherini and Valentin Roberge put Sunderland into the last 16 as the gloom around the Stadium of Light lifted after a run of poor results under Di Canio.
Ball said of the vacancy: “Anybody who is anybody would like to be considered for it. In the sense of what I have done as a coach or a player and, not only that, my qualifications I have gone out and got as a coach, I would like to be considered.
“But, ultimately, that’s the club’s decision and I would go with that, whether it was me or someone else, they would have my full support,” he told Sky Sports news after the match.
Ball previously took charge of Sunderland for 10 games following Mick McCarthy’s departure as manager in 2006. According to British media, Ball will be competing with the likes of former England manager Steve McLaren, and former Chelsea head coach Roberto Di Matteo along with former Brighton boss Gus Poyet, who is the front-runner among the bookmakers.