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Moyes undone by failure to grasp United’s soul

Once Manchester United’s players decided the only place David Moyes was leading them was over a cliff, he was doomed. He was beaten by a combination of his own shortcomings and the scepticism of the dressing-room in which Alex Ferguson set a buccaneering tone for 26 years.

Moyes’ strained relationship with Van Persie resulted in the latter showing little motivation. Getty Images

Moyes’ strained relationship with Van Persie resulted in the latter showing little motivation. Getty Images

Once Manchester United’s players decided the only place David Moyes was leading them was over a cliff, he was doomed. He was beaten by a combination of his own shortcomings and the scepticism of the dressing-room in which Alex Ferguson set a buccaneering tone for 26 years.

Elite footballers can sense when a manager is out of his depth. In United’s increasingly limp demeanour, it was obvious few of Ferguson’s former players were willing to sacrifice their careers while an over-promoted manager served a long apprenticeship in life at the top. Call it player power, if you wish. United’s players would call it player-survival or unavoidable reality.

So far had Moyes’ stock fallen that some Old Trafford insiders considered it an act of kindness to end his brief reign with four league games left, with no wish to see his reputation further damaged by the kind of feeble performance he oversaw at Goodison Park on Sunday.

A powerful financial consideration was also at play. Moyes was planning to spend huge sums this summer to clear out United’s passengers and instil fresh talent. The Glazers, who own the club, were due to arrive this week to discuss transfers.

Sunday’s alarming 2-0 defeat at Everton destroyed the remnants of their willingness to hand Moyes a £150 million-plus (S$317 million) fund. Simple business logic dictated that it was better to confront the malaise before money was wasted than stumble on out of loyalty to a man who is held in high regard for his personal qualities but (in retrospect) was poorly equipped for the jump in class and culture at Old Trafford.

How did this manifest itself? In long, monotonous training sessions that were at odds with much of what went before. United’s practice routines were always skills-based: Short, concise drills for players who were used to operating at Champions League level. Moyes and his former Everton coaching staff laid down a longer, slower pattern of training that suggested a more chess-like, old-school style of play.

The results were apparent straight away. United’s cut-throat, relentlessly positive football gave way to a more ponderous approach, with more long passes from the back, crosses from the wings and caution in possession.

United’s fans wondered why the team were no longer reaching for the throat of the opponent.

There was more at play here than tactics. There is a Manchester United way, based on attacking, creativity, domination, spirit. Ferguson once said: “I never picked a team without thinking I was going to win the game.” The opponent was a dartboard, especially at Old Trafford, where the badge, the history and the will of the crowd were all harnessed to maintain a domineering mindset.

The spiritual complexion of the club he inherited seemed lost on Moyes. He understood the size of the institution, its faith in youth and its winning tradition.

But there was seldom any sense of emotional engagement with the club’s romantic side. Ferguson spoke about football as a game of the heart and soul: A passion play, in which he was the pirate captain on hostile seas. He turned United into a brotherhood, a cult. It was never a mechanical exercise in grinding up the field or flat post-match press conferences.

The effect Moyes was straining for was authority, calm, long-term wisdom. The ability to think in years, rather than weeks, was one of his strongest qualifications for the job.

But the whirlwind was soon upon him. Clearing out Ferguson’s coaching staff was the first major error. Mick Phelan, Rene Meulensteen and Eric Steele were all popular with the players and knew how the first team operated. They knew their way round Europe’s biggest haunts.

While friends and colleagues at the club bemoaned their departures, there was resistance to the Everton-isation of Carrington in personnel, outlook and decision-making.

This unnecessary upheaval led to a pattern on the pitch best described as a conviction-deficit. They were hesitant and crab-like, the rhythm and pace gone.

In the autumn, sympathy was largely still with Moyes. He had coaxed Wayne Rooney back into the tent. The summer transfer blow-outs were not all his fault.

But four defeats in January laid the ground for subsequent losses at Stoke and Olympiakos, and the calamitous 3-0 wins for Liverpool and Manchester City at Old Trafford.

By then, there were rifts between players and the manager, and deepening doubts about team selection and tactics. United played like a group of people sent out with the wrong starting XI and formation and therefore doomed from the first bell.

Ferguson’s career of 13 Premier League titles and two Champions League crowns has been studied by the Harvard Business School. The short interregnum of Moyes also deserves its own academic treatment. Employed by Glazers, he struck a glass ceiling. Culture shock overwhelmed him. He changed too much, not too little, upsetting the patterns that served the club so well.

When United’s falling stars began to feel Moyes was incapable of competing with the best managers at home and in Europe, self-interest kicked in. The team’s heart disengaged. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

 

Reasons why Moyes was sacked

1 Clear-out of Ferguson’s respected coaching staff of Mike Phelan, Rene Meulensteen and Eric Steele.

2 Indecision in the transfer window and rejections from transfer targets resulted in the ill-fated signing of Marouane Fellaini.

3 Moyes complained about their tough opening fixtures in his first press conference as United manager.

4 The strained relationship with Moyes resulted in Robin van Persie showing little motivation.

5 Moyes’s declaration of arch-rivals Liverpool as title favourites angered supporters.

6 Moyes failed to give Wilfried Zaha a chance before loaning him to Cardiff in January.

7 Supporters accustomed to Ferguson’s free-flowing, cavalier football grew tired of Moyes’s defensive and negative tactics.

8 Moyes largely overlooked veteran and player-coach Ryan Giggs and seldom communicated with him.

9 Moyes enraged supporters by suggesting Manchester City were a club United must “aspire to”.

 

 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Paul Hayward is The Daily Telegraph’s chief sports writer.

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