Moyes tried hard but consistently fell short of expectation

“Hard work”, “honesty” and “integrity” were the values attributed to David Moyes by the employer who was forced to issue one of the most public dismissals sport has known on Tuesday. Those words were well chosen, and are likely to be accepted as the truth by the huge majority of football commentators. They were not the empty, thoughtless platitudes that corporate communications departments so often specialise in. But there is another, much crueller reality that was not revealed in the official statement – namely that the incompetence displayed by Moyes in his grim succession of Sir Alex Ferguson has caused deep embarrassment at Manchester United. [caption id=“attachment_1492725” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of David Moyes with Ryan Giggs, the man who has replaced him. AFP[/caption] One win in 12 matches against the six teams positioned above them in the league, six Old Trafford defeats, a first failure to qualify for the Champions League since 1996 – and that final disappointment becoming a mathematical certainty with three games still to run. The Theatre of Dreams has been transformed into a Crucible of Nightmares. The Glazer family, whether through their own intuition or the unwavering opinions of their advisers, are not prepared to accept that this has been merely a messy baptism for Moyes. United have chosen to stomach the multi-million pound severance payment, ditch the six-year plan, and, wounded, start the search again. By far Moyes’ greatest misdemeanour was his catastrophic failure to strengthen the United squad in the summer of 2013. Only Moyes knows why he elected to keep three defenders the wrong side of 30 when the pace of so many opposing attacks demands faster legs from the back line. Only Moyes can explain how a midfield studded with mediocrity in the shape of Nani, Ashley Young and his own Everton import Marouane Fellaini was expected to mix it with the best that Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool could throw their way. When Juan Mata was eventually brought on board half way through the season, he rarely produced the zestful displays that he had regularly shown in the blue shirt of Chelsea. Moyes was not blessed with luck: Robin van Persie’s injury problems, forever an issue at Arsenal but not for Ferguson at United, flared up; and eventually, even Wayne Rooney’s batteries went flat. It was that refusal to buy and sell last summer that killed Moyes’ Old Trafford career at the root. Arsenal sold 12 players and loaned out two during that transfer window, City sold seven and also loaned out two. At United, Moyes sold an untried defender called Scott Wootton and loaned out a couple of youngsters. He bought Fellaini – more of him in a bit – and a Uruguayan defender called Guillermo Varela. That was it. The implication was clear: Moyes was largely trusting that Ferguson’s last United squad was – at absolute minimum – good enough to finish in the top four in his first season in charge. But he had failed to realise what everyone else could see, namely that United had won the league in 2013 in spite of their squad, not because of it. While it is true that Moyes was led to believe that both Gareth Bale and Cesc Fabregas were on their way to Old Trafford last summer, it is the manager’s failure that those moves were not completed and that the only back-up plan – if you could call it that – was Fellaini. This is the same Fellaini who even once settled at Everton could play brilliantly one week and terribly the next, and drift in and out of games on an alarmingly regular basis. If that reliance on Ferguson’s squad was Moyes’s first error, then his second was conducting the training sessions in a manner that was so very different to the approach favoured by his fellow Scot. Ferguson would stand on the touchline, observing; Moyes runs about among the players in a tracksuit acting as chief coach, failing to delegate to his assistants. The probability is that the senior players who had grown used to Ferguson’s ways found the Moyes method a major irritant. Player selection often confused and confounded. If there was criticism one week that Shinji Kagawa had not been picked, Moyes would invariably crowbar the Japanese winger into his line-up the following week. If Kagawa then played poorly, he was liable to be hoicked off for the next game. No wonder the poor chap looked as out of his depth as his manager on so many occasions. Moyes was far too reactive and lacked faith in his strategy. If you were to ask him now to name the best 11 players in his squad he’d probably struggle. Moyes also failed to assess the challenges posed by individual opponents and come up with methods to counteract them. Contrast his approach in this regard to the flexible but sure-footed strategical awareness of Roberto Martinez at Everton and Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool. Finally, Moyes appeared blinded to reality, particularly after a defeat. At his old stomping ground of Goodison Park last weekend, he repeatedly told reporters afterwards that his team had “dominated” the game. It was clear they hadn’t. Yes, they had enjoyed more possession then Everton but had done practically nothing creative with it. Quite incredibly, United attempted more than double the number of passes Everton did in the opposing third, but managed just two shots on target compared to their opponents’ five. It must have been horribly galling for Moyes to see Leighton Baines, the progressive defender he tried to bring to United, score the penalty that opened the scoring that day. It would have been just as painful for him to see the other full-back, Seamus Coleman, put in a man-of-the-match performance. But that pain has been brought to an end now. United’s fans, many of whom have been so dignified during this debacle, can at least look forward to the new season with a degree of hope. And we can all speculate whether the man-who-follows-the-man-who-followed-the-man will have the wherewithal to produce an Old Trafford renaissance.