More misery for Manchester United boss David Moyes

David Moyes’ Manchester United side suffered a 2-0 defeat Olympiakos in the Champions League last night

Manchester United suffered yet another defeat last night, as the reigning English champions went down to a 2-0 defeat at Greek champions Olympiakos in the first leg of the Champions League last-16.

Awful

In truth United’s performance against the Greek side was awful. Olympiakos wanted it more in every department and in the end got what they deserved.

There was passion, class and quality on show, unfortunately for United it came from the home side.

It will be very difficult for the Red Devils to rescue the tie, even with the second leg to come at Old Trafford.

Responsibility

Here is an extract from United boss David Moyes’ post-match press conference: “I take responsibility, it’s my team and I’ll always front it up. We didn’t play well tonight and we have to play better. We can do. The one good thing is that there is the second game to go.

“The players are hurting as well. They know how they performed. But there is a team here, that won’t change, and we’ll stick together.

“There is the second game to come and Old Trafford has seen some great nights in the past – I’m looking forward to hopefully seeing another one.”

Moyes is right he has to start taking responsibility for not only this performance, but every poor performance from United this season. Everybody knew he would need time to adjust to managing such as high-profile club, but in truth he is struggling.

Previously Manchester United fans have laid a lot of the blame for the Red Devils collapse at the door of the players, but they do not pick the team, train the team or motivate the team. David Moyes is the man that is on big money to get the best of his players and he is clearly not.

Questionable

David Moyes did a decent job at Everton. He helped the Toffees climb the Premier League table and left them as a top six top-flight team. In truth though, that is not over-achieving for a club the size of Everton.

Everton have won more league championships than Manchester City and Chelsea combined, yet Moyes was lauded for keeping the Merseysider’s in the top half of the table.

Everton may have very little financial resources available, but they still have a big history in English football. Current boss Roberto Martinez has improved the style of play at Goodison Park and still maintained a similar league position, granted with a lot of the players Moyes bought in.

Maybe Moyes achievements in keeping Everton competitive in the Premier League were not that big a deal after all, especially as the Toffees are in the worse trophy draught in the history of the club.

If Everton fail to win a trophy this season it will be 19 years since the Toffees last claimed a trophy, 11 of those were years that Moyes presided over the team. That does not make good reading for Evertonians.

Tactics

David Moyes’ tactics were questioned at Everton and he made some terrible errors in judgement, which cost Everton badly. However, his perceived achievement of keeping Everton’s head above water seemed to hide his tactical naivety.

In over a decade at Everton the Scot’s tactical awareness never seemed to improve. Most bosses improve tactically as they become more experienced, but with Moyes there were question marks over his tactic nous even in his final season.

His cautious approach to the game also frustrated Everton fans at times. In a number of big games Everton were hard to beat, but he struggled to get the better of big teams. The Scot failed to win at United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool in his years on Merseyside.

I would not have said that was ideal preparation to become the manager of one of Europe’s biggest clubs, losing big games, would you?

Out of his depth

As soon as David Moyes was appointed as Manchester United boss, I thought he was out of his depth. His failure to win a single trophy at Everton meant he had no track record of any real success at the top level.

Former-United boss Sir Alex Ferguson chose Moyes as his replacement, but maybe the veteran Scot was blinded by the fact that the pair has similarities. One factor was that was not similar was the fact that Ferguson was successful prior to joining United and Moyes was not.

I wonder whether the great Scot is now questioning his choice of replacement, just like the majority of United fans?

Losing faith

Most right-minded Manchester United fans have given David Moyes their backing and allowed the Scot some time to settle. The honeymoon period is now over. United are out of the domestic cups, on the brink in the Champions League and 6^th in the Premier League, and that is only on goal difference.

All the noises coming out of United in recent months have been that David Moyes is a long-term appointment and that he needs time. However, I do not think that anybody expected United to have performed so poorly in Moyes’ first season.

Surely even the most ardent David Moyes supporter must now be questioning whether the former-Preston boss is the right man for the job.

Some tough questions need to be asked at Manchester United this summer and one of those tough questions has to be, is David Moyes really good enough to move Manchester United forward? Sadly for Moyes, all signs point to no at the moment.

Should Manchester United stick with boss David Moyes?