Friday, 11 April 2014

Republik Of Mancunia

Republik Of Mancunia

Please sack him – now

Posted: 10 Apr 2014 02:00 AM PDT

I genuinely wanted to support whoever replaced Sir Alex Ferguson until the bitter end. I’ve always enjoyed the siege mentality that our former manager instilled in us and was ready to back his replacement.

When David de Gea replaced Edwin Van der Sar, the press ate him up for breakfast. That first game against City in the Charity Shield was a nightmare. He gifted them two goals and we were 2-0 down before half-time. Thankfully we came back to win 3-2, but the press were out for him from day one.

The fans got behind though, chanted his name when he made a good save, and did all we could to support him. It was clear this lad had bags of potential and that, when he bulked up and learnt to deal with the more physical nature of our league, he would be a fantastic goalie.

Two years later he was named PFA Goalkeeper of the Season and this year has been United’s best player, certainly worthy of the Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year award. It shows you just how quickly people can turn things around and how fans can justify their support.

That might make you think I’m about to claim that Moyes can turn things around but, unfortunately, I just don’t think that is the case. De Gea came here with trophies, recognition and potential. The same can be said of Ferguson when he was appointed in 1986. Whilst Moyes certainly was deemed to have potential, he’s done nothing to suggest he warrants the job of being manager of one of the biggest clubs in the world.

It was a nice experiment, allowing Ferguson to pick his replacement without so much as an interview, but let’s chalk this one up to experience and get someone good enough in for the job now.

It’s meant as no disrespect to Moyes, who I’m sure is a lovely chap, but there’s no way you can be giving the job of Manchester United manager to someone who’s been in the field for over a decade and still hasn’t won anything.

If United were in the top four, whilst I would still have my doubts over Moyes’ long-term suitability to the job, he would done something to justify keeping his job. Whilst both City and Chelsea have changed managers and improved, we would have to be understanding that we had got worse under Moyes, because Moyes was replacing one the greatest manager ever… not Rafa Benitez or Roberto Mancini. But there is no understanding for us being worse than Everton or Spurs. Moyes left Everton and took their top scorer from last season with him, yet there’s every possibility of them finishing 12 points ahead of last season’s champions. How any United fan can look at that scenario and not be massively embarrassed, I don’t know.

Genuinely, what I would like to see happen is Moyes sacked now. He’s got nothing to offer us and United have nothing to play for. I don’t want to see us in Europa next season, just a manager given a clean break, with the a transfer kitty, and a whole summer to work out what their best XI is. Give Ryan Giggs the job and let him play our most promising youth team players amongst our starting team.

I realise that is a fantasy and I am under the impression that Moyes will be given until Christmas, which is just a bonkers notion. Why spend two years in this position when we can just write this season off and get someone who is actually qualified to do the job?

I feel bad for Moyes. I think Fergie has, unintentionally, screwed him over. But my sympathy for him doesn’t mean I’m willing to see him ruin yet another year for United, and the sooner the Glazers realise he is nowhere near capable of replacing Ferguson, the better.

Reactions to United’s defeat against Bayern Munich

Posted: 10 Apr 2014 01:30 AM PDT

1. If someone had told you when the draw was made that United would lose 4-2 on aggregate, you would probably be fairly happy with that. The expectation was that United were going to get battered and a 4-2 to scoreline is pretty reasonable. We are the 7th best team in England playing against the German and European champions, yet, bizarrely, this feels likely an opportunity lost.

2. Patrice Evra is a hugely popular player amongst United fans and it was fantastic to see him put us 1-0 up. What a fantastic strike. I could hardly believe it when I saw it hit the back of the net. He hit it so well, as well as he would dream of hitting it, and celebrating as you would imagine, kissing the badge and saluting the travelling support. He gets it. Evra is a red. But he is still a liability and was still at fault for two Bayern goals. He just doesn’t have the pace or awareness that he once had, and whilst he’s a regular threat on the attack, he is a regular liability defensively.

3. Wayne Rooney wasn’t fit tonight and if he was going to play, should have only featured for an hour maximum. To play him for 90 minutes was absolutely bonkers. Two good chances fell to him which, on another night, he probably would have done much better with. He hesitated for the first. He didn’t shoot and then didn’t pass to Shinji Kagawa, who was in space, but instead waited and then hit it against the defender. In the second half he had an even better opportunity to score but snatched at and didn’t even hit the target. Over 90 minutes he completed just eight passes in the opposition half, which is embarrassing, when you consider Phil Jones completed 11.

4. David Moyes appeared to get it right tonight, just as he did in the first leg, begging the question why he had so regularly got it wrong in big games this season. At 1-0 up we were looking good. Even when Bayern equalised, it wasn’t a big deal. We had to presume that they were going to score at home against us. Even when they went 2-1 up, it was fair enough. We knew we had to score a second goal once they had equalised, so going 2-1 up made no difference. But it was bizarre to see Darren Fletcher get hooked for Chicharito. Bringing Hernandez on was an obvious substitution, but given than Rooney clearly wasn’t fit, he seemed to be the obvious player to take off. Who knows whether Fletch would have made a difference to Bayern going 3-1 up less than two minutes later, but it was an unnecessarily risky move from Moyes. Take Rooney off! To then wait until there was less than 10 minutes to go to bring on Adnan Januzaj was equally as strange. But then to take off Danny Welbeck, the only player to really stretch the Germans thanks to Rooney’s lack of mobility, was actually mental. I know we can all be armchair managers, using hindsight to berate the manager, but Moyes’ decisions didn’t even need hindsight to highlight just how poor they were.

5. Last season we used to sing “hard to believe it’s not Scholes, it’s Carrick, you know” on a weekly basis. Most weeks, we would sing it several times a game. He kept the ball for the team, he completed more passes than anyone on the pitch time and again, and whilst Robin van Persie scored all the goals, Carrick was crucial to our title winning team. It was no surprise when his peers voted him in to the shortlist for the PFA Player of the Year, making the top six for players in the Premier League. This season he has been a shadow of the player he was last season and last night’s game showed that perfectly. In 90 minutes of football he attempted just 29 passes and completed just 22. That’s less than 13 players. That is an absolutely appalling return and was totally unheard of last season. He has nowhere near the influence on games that he had last season and should be desperately disappointed with his performance tonight.

6. Whilst the result is a pretty disappointing, United fans will likely be fairly hopeful for the future. Imagine if Kroos, who completed more passes than anyone on the pitch, played for us instead of them. According to the press Kroos has told his team mates he wants to sign for United and Ed Woodward is staying over night in Munich to agree a deal. We aren’t a million times away from having a quality side. But I can’t abide by the people who say Moyes needs more time. He almost gets it right, fairly often, but very, very rarely does get it right. I’m not arsed about us being average sides away from home, something he has excelled in since joining United, and his inability to make the correct substitutions, at the correct times, is just further evidence to me that the man is massively out of his depth. I like him, I think he’s a good bloke, but he’s never a United manager, and the sooner we end this madness and appoint someone qualified, the better.
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