Moyes – just wrong man for United
IT was during an episode of farce on Bondi Beach, days into David Moyes’s reign as Manchester United manager, that it became evident the Scot had misjudged the magnitude of the job he had walked into.
Having left behind the frenzy of Bangkok on the first leg of United’s summer soccer tour, Moyes had decided to take his squad on an impromptu trip to Bondi — a stroll around the beach to stretch the players’ legs after training.
On a similar summer trip to Sydney with Everton, Moyes had taken players on the same bonding session and it passed without incident. But this was United, and Moyes’s new team were mobbed and besieged by supporters to the extent that the manager had to hide his players in the rooftop bar of a nightclub until security arrived to restore order.
United’s security staff and local police usually work in tandem when such trips are planned, but Moyes was unaware of this and a tour which had already made him uncomfortable due to the demands of sponsors and supporters had just delivered a stark example of the monster he now managed.
Moyes failed to heed the lesson of Bondi, however, and as his disastrous reign progressed, he walked into every pitfall in his path.
Initially, Moyes was too awestruck by his new surroundings. He also hinted at inner doubts about his suitability for the job, saying in Sydney: “I tell you, there’s not one person who would turn around and say: ‘ Taking over Manchester United, you think you can breeze in and think you can do it easily?’ Of course not. There has to be an element of fear that comes with managing a club like Manchester United.”
Gary Neville, United’s former captain, said in his newspaper column in December that Moyes would have to “let United change David Moyes rather than David Moyes change United”, but as he toiled away, the sense emerged that he was doing the opposite.
His first decision as manager, to remove Sir Alex Ferguson’s coaching staff and transplant his Everton backroom team at Old Trafford, was a sign of his determination to do things his way, but it was the first of many decisions that left players and staff confused. No-one would challenge him and it allowed Moyes to continue on his course to disaster.
Early rumblings of dissatisfaction among the players as a result of Moyes’s training methods were dismissed, yet they failed to go away. Players accustomed to sharp sessions with the ball under Ferguson were now being asked to improve their fitness in much more physically demanding training routines. Yet rather than produce a fitter team, United appeared lethargic and increasingly incapable of passing the ball, as borne out by their abject performance at Goodison Park on Sunday.
Tactically, Moyes also left players bewildered. Midfielders were told not to get ahead of the ball, which reduced their goal output and left the forwards isolated and starved of possession. And when René Meulensteen, Ferguson’s former coach, returned to Old Trafford with Fulham, resulting in a 2-2 draw, his claim that United were predictable and easy to play against undermined Moyes at a time when supporters were bemoaning the approach of incessant crosses from the flanks.
On the pitch, there were few signs that Moyes was getting it right. A 1-0 victory over Arsenal in November failed to kick-start United’s season. And a brief flurry of victories in December came to a shuddering halt against Tottenham on New Year’s Day, when a 2-1 defeat sparked a run of seven defeats in 14 games, ending in the 3-0 loss to Liverpool.
But while the alarm bells were ringing on the field, the signs off it were equally worrying. Moyes naively allowed himself to be lulled into a conversation with an Everton supporter in a hotel bar after his former team’s victory at Old Trafford in December. The conversation emerged on Twitter, forcing Moyes to defend himself against accusations he had labelled Everton fans a “f...ing disgrace”.
On that occasion, Moyes simply fell into a trap that Ferguson would never have allowed himself to be drawn towards. Inevitably, Moyes was compared to Ferguson the manager as well as the man, with club staff describing him as lacking the personal touch and charisma of his predecessor.
He rarely snapped in front of the media, but when he addressed journalists as “s...houses” earlier this month after the publication of a letter he had written to supporters, apologising for the team’s performances, it highlighted the strain he was under.
That strain was evident from day one. A decent man of integrity, Moyes ultimately proved to be the wrong one for Manchester United. The club will bounce back, but will David Moyes?