06 Jan 2014 11:21:06
I don't accept that this situation is Fergie's fault. He seemingly had transfer targets planned like Thiago, Strootman, Garay, Di Maria etc and if he was here we would of got them early on in the summer. And I'm sure he would have moved for Ozil as well which would of helped us immensely. He also had a backroom staff full of winners - not Steve Round and the rest of the crap that Moyes brought with him. Through his own arrogance and a lack of ability both tactically and in the transfer market, Moyes has took this club way down the table - he should of taken the advise of Fergie. The players nor fans have any belief in the abilities of Moyes and to be honest he already looks like a beaten man, he didn't even flinch when we scored the equaliser. All he goes on about is 'we were unlucky' and to come out and say that business in January is unlikely has lost him even more supporters.

If it was me, I would cut my losses and bring in a better tactician - the best short term fix would have been Jupp Hyneckes who is one of the very best. I would also look at Laudrup & Klopp though. Something needs to be done before we fade into Europa League candidates for the foreseeable future.

1.) 06 Jan 2014
The team are suffering immensely due to the manager change. Personally I think it was handled amateurishly, both planning and execution. Moyes should have replaced Phelan and worked underneath SAF for a season before taking over. That was the first mistake for me. The only way I would have had Moyes as manager is if he moved over from Everton with as little change as possible. The transition should have been subtle. Targets should have stayed the same and the majority of coaching staff should have remained. If people believe that a manager should have his own targets and his own staff then fair enough, but if that's the case then the manager shouldn't have been Moyes. Moyes could have worked with a subtle transition, but too much change in such a short amount of time was foolish and we are paying the price now. The second mistake was not backing the manager enough in the summer. Yes Moyes took a two-week holiday putting things on hold and yes there wasn't much time to discuss new targets after binning SAF's targets, but again that was poor planning on the club's part. I still feel the club could have done more to back the manager. One of the things that did p!ss me off in the summer was Moyes going on a holiday. If you had just taken over from SAF why would you want to go on a holiday? Surely you would want to get to work immediately? It's not like his kids are young and they were looking forward to a holiday. He should have canceled the holiday or let his family go without him and got to work immediately. That is my opinion and I am sure others will disagree. If we were going for a complete change of manager, targets, coaching staff and scouting staff then we shouldn't have employed Moyes. Moyes may have worked subtly, but not like this. Too much change too quickly, some players not happy with Moyes as the chosen one and they should have been aware of SAF's plans.

2.) 06 Jan 2014
Fresh

Your sort of contridicting yourself there mate.
Fergie hand picked Moyes and insisted to the board that he was the correct choice.
He isn't the correct choice. His tactics are shocking, some of his substitutions are laughable.
He looked like he had aged 20 years sat on the bench yesterday, white as a sheet and completely lost not knowing what to do next. You can hear the panic and nervousness in his voice when he's conducting his interviews.
Im not one of thses Moyes out fans and I will give him until the end of the season but for me the job looks far to big for him.
now he's coming out and saying that the players he wants are not available in January so we can only assume that the players he wants are top notch and are playing in the Champions League.
so what happens next.yes I know we all wait until the summer and get our hopes up again and then they are all dashed when the top players that he has targeted go to other clubs for one reason or another.
I really don't know what direction Moyes is going, everything about him is so negative and dreary and if you ask me Fergie has dropped on hell of a clanger hand picking this guy.
Forgive me for this rant but if he (Moyes) cannot target a player that is available in the transfer window that is better than that useless clown Cleverley, Anderson, Young etc then we are in serious trouble.
you only have to look at a player like Adam Llannna who would be perfect for us. Probably cost 20 million pound, english and would probably give his right arm to play for a club like United.
Fabio Coentrao is another player who is looking to leave Madrid. He's a superb player and would improve us no end, this signing should be a no brainer. It should be already done and for 12 million pounds it's a blood steal.
It just isn't good enough, I will be completely p*ssed off if they don't bring any players into the club during the window.

3.) 06 Jan 2014
06 Jan 2014 12:33:21
Sydney.
Spot on. Some says. moyes managed an average Everton team and made them a Strong Team.
I disagree. Martinez is way above of him, Everton is having their best seaosn in decades under him.

4.) 06 Jan 2014
I said from day one that Moyes was not the right choice and I was derided for it. He was at Everton for many years and won nothing, even Wigan and Birmingham have won trophies in this time and they are not as big as Everton.
His style of play is totally opposite of United's. We have never seemed managers who were defensive in their tactics. Dave Sexton being the only exceptjon and look what happened there.
We need to cut our loses and get rid of him. He will set us back five years.
It is up to the owners at the end of the day, but the fans also have a voice.
One sobering thought, this is the worst home record for over 51years, is this just a coincidence? I don't think so.

5.) 06 Jan 2014
I suppose we could all make excuses for Moyes and his staff, but that wouldn't explain why the team are performing so poorly.

Last season, we were poor for the most part, but individual brilliance saved us in a number of games.

Our style of play, or lack of it, is a direct result of the manager not being able to get the team playing in the manner he wants. For us to play the bland kind of football Moyes' wants us to play, we need those types of players. Problem for Moyes is: We don't have those kinds of players'.

Top managers’ know how to adapt. They know how to utilise what they have at their disposal. Our manager has failed at making the best of what he has. That is my opinion anyway. We seem so lacking in all the things needed to be a top side in Europe.

6.) 06 Jan 2014
@Sydney!

I agree that it was mishandled. But the important thing for me is that, we would have lost out on Thiago regardless of Moyes or Sir Alex. It was clear he wanted to join Bayern and was waiting for an offer from them.

I don't think Strootman, Garay, Di Maria would have been a sufficient upgrade on the quality of the squad. We would be a 3-4 points higher up but that is about it. The quality of football would not have changed. Sir Alex's targets would have just kept us on the life support, yet no revival. That is my view.

I think Moyes came in, saw the list of targets lined up and immediately went, "not good enough, we need to look for better." Fabregas, Baines and the rumoured discussions about Bale, that is what we needed and what Moyes tried to do, and failed. It is clear from watching United this season that its not the controlling of the game part that we are missing, but that cutting edge, that having something special and extra to break a game open that we are missing, something which Moyes' targets would have done, unlike the ones lined up by Sir Alex.

The club knew the way Moyes works very well, the way he likees to be thorough about the targets etc. its common knowledge, what I am surprised about is that no targets were discussed and sanctioned with Moyes in private before.

Apart from Rene Muelensteen I don't think any of the staff should have been kept, and its clear now that Rene had much bigger ambitions.

If Sir Alex had stayed, Rooney would have certainly been gone by now, Januzaj certainly will not have got this much gametime, no chance imo. Would Sir Alex and Gill have paid the fee required for Ozil? I don't think so.

Its a lot of "could" and "would" here.

I think if we can get top 4, what has happened will serve to be a short term pain for long term gain. Moyes needs reinforcements in January and some luck, because too often we have controlled games and given away silly goals and lost out.

This is not the time to change manager, but to change players, pay the short term premium required to get the targets in. Changing Moyes right now will only worsen the issue.

7.) 06 Jan 2014
In a nutshell, the team are scared without SAF around. Their confidence is shot and Moyes doesn't give the players any confidence whatsoever. All that on top of the injuries we have had and it's taking it's toll.

8.) 06 Jan 2014
I can't understand some of his decisions. How he thought the squad would be better off without Strootman, Thiago, Di Maria and a new left back I don't know? Surely having managed an EPL team before and having played United he must of known roughly where the weaknesses were and should of had the common sense to reinforce with the players that Fergie had been scouting for a couple of years. Much of the deals seemed to be in place or at least contact had been made with the relevant parties. Instead Moyes went after players like Fabregas and Schweinsteiger which was ridiculous - the amount of time wasted was laughable. And yes Sydney, the holiday was ridiculous, it put us WAY behind in the market.

The backroom staff is one of the biggest issues. Replacing SAF causes enough upheaval, nevermind getting rid of most of the staff including Meulensteen who RVP quoted as saying 'the best coach he ever worked with' and De Gea's favourite Eric Steele who even learnt Spanish to help De Gea. He was replaced with Chris Woods - WHY?!

9.) 06 Jan 2014
06 Jan 2014 13:15:40
i know how moyes became the chosen one all the liverpool fans voted in the arkles pub after a match who they wanted to succeed fergie, they all wanted a manager with a rubbish record at anfield and no trophy lifting experience, there was only 1 name handed in.moyes, moyse, moyse, moyes, moyes, moyes, moyes, moyse, moyes, moyes,
oyes.

10.) 06 Jan 2014
Agree with Sydney once again, Moyes looks scared, he has no presence and looks white as a sheet. He isn't a good looking man but he has got even worse and has aged terribly. He is way out of his depth and should never of had the job if he was going to make such huge changes.

11.) 06 Jan 2014
@Fresh!

Moyes wanted Baines, Fabregas (De Rossi, Herrera, Khedira were also targeted), all better players than Strootman.

Its very easy to look back now and blame him but the truth is the club failed to sign the players he targeted. If we were sitting here in the same position with Fabregas and Baines signed then I would hold my hand up and say Moyes out.

12.) 06 Jan 2014
RF, Khedira was no more than paper talk or Twitter talk and Cesc was never going to leave Barcelona. We may as well have been bidding £25m-£35m for Messi.

I am not saying "Moyes out", I think it would be even more damaging to sack him now, but it was a mistake to bring Moyes in and gutting the MU staff at his demand.

13.) 06 Jan 2014
Redfaith you say moyes would of looked at strootman, garay and di maria and thought they wernt good enough? is that why he then went out and spent £28 mill on a donkey

14.) 06 Jan 2014
I don't like what Moyes is doing. Really don't.

Sack him is not the solution, at least not during the season. But he has to show that he deserves to be trusted.

All the talk about the transfer targets like Fabregas and. it was all BS.

15.) 06 Jan 2014
@Sydney!

The Editor confirmed that a representative of United made a verbal bid for Khedira (although it was nowhere near the valuation). It was not just paper talk, we were definitely interested.

Fabregas was very much on. It was funny how he never spoke a word during the time we bid for him and only after it became clear that a fee was not going to be agreed did he come out with his love for Barcelona and how he was never leaving.

Jose, Klopp or any other manager coming in would have brought their own team in and would not have kept the existing staff.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I cannot seriously believe that Strootman, Garay and Di Maria would have gotten us in a much better position than we are in. Any manager coming into this huge job would have seen those lined up targets and changed them, especially the bigger name managers.

16.) 06 Jan 2014
Moyes may have wanted Fabregas but anyone could see he wouldn't join us if he came to the EPL. We put derisory bids in for many players and alienated many CEO's. Getting Strootman, not as a super star, but as a solid performer would have made perfect sense, and he was so much cheaper than Fellaini.

17.) 06 Jan 2014
RF, Di Maria and Strootman would have helped us a lot. We wasted too much time on Baines and Cesc. Cesc was never going to join Fresh. He had no intention of leaving Barcelona, he wanted to use MU as a way of getting more game time at Barcelona.

18.) 06 Jan 2014
Fresh why do you continually blame Moyes for everything.He gave the board a list of targets which they were responsible for getting but they failed miserably by putting in pathetic offers.They keep leaking inside information that Moyes will be allowed to buy whoever he wants but don't back it up with hard cash.They even ended up paying £4 mill over the odds for Fellaini because he was the only player they could of bought at the last minute.If no-one comes in this window don't blame Moyes blame the board!.