David Moyes retains the backing of Manchester United’s owners for now and there are no plans to issue a vote of confidence in the manager. While the club’s executives acknowledge that the manner of Tuesday night’s 3-0 defeat by Manchester City at Old Trafford was not acceptable, it is felt there is no need to back the Scot publicly and that it would be contrary to how the club conduct their affairs.
Sir Alex Ferguson was verbally abused by some fans as he sat in the directors’ box over his decision last summer to anoint Moyes as his successor. It was the first sign of open revolt against the 50-year-old former Everton manager. While Ferguson is held in the highest regard at United, the fact that Moyes is drawing wider criticism from supporters adds to the sense of disquiet at how his first season in charge has unfolded.
United, the Premier League champions, are now 18 points behind the leaders Chelsea and 12 away from a Champions League position. Tuesday’s result meant that for the first time in the Premier League era United have suffered 10 defeats in a season. They will now finish with their lowest points total since the competition was introduced in 1992, their previous poorest return being 75, first in 1997, which was good enough to win the title, and then in 2004, when they finished third.
In their previous home game United had also lost 3-0 to another fierce rival, Liverpool. Both matches were marked by insipid performances and the anger shown by fans towards Moyes on Tuesday is being viewed in the context of two disappointing displays – and results – at Old Trafford.
Despite the erosion of support for Moyes among hardcore fans, the club’s former midfielder Paul Scholes agrees that the hierarchy should continue to back him. “You have to stand by him, he’s made a couple of signings that haven’t quite worked out yet as he would have liked,” said Scholes, in reference to Juan Mata and Marouane Fellaini. “In the summer he’s going to need backing, there’s no doubt about that. Was he backed as well as he could have been last summer? I’m not sure, but this summer he has to be backed and I think he knows he needs players.”
A further sign that Moyes is losing the trust of United supporters comes from Red News, the influential and oldest club fanzine. Barney Chilton, the editor, told the Guardian: “On the Red News forums the percentages have ebbed away from Moyes like the English coastline. First [it was] 70% in favour of sticking with him during autumn, then down to 50% during New Year, then it started to become unnecessary to even ask the question. I know several stalwarts but they are few and far between.
“My own view is I was happy with the appointment. Much work was needed and the blame for the mess lies at many feet but this is not 1986 [when Ferguson became manager]. We were champions and Moyes has shrunk rather than grown into the job. We all felt he had time but that too has eroded. First I thought we should see where we were after two years, then that became 18 months, then next October – now this May?”
Chilton believes results will ultimately dictate Moyes’s fate. “For all talk of fans’ unrest deciding this, that is dictated by results and they will sway the owners,” he said. “Moyes’s media appearances create negativity rather than optimism and he keeps telling us he and United will try, which is a very un-United approach. Nothing would surprise me now, but I do think the owners, as much as the fans and clearly the players, are ‘twitchy’.”
On Saturday, Aston Villa are the visitors and another poor performance would increase the doubts regarding Moyes’s future, with little prospect of any respite given that United’s next opponents at Old Trafford are Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-final first leg on Tuesday, with the European Cup holders having already wrapped up the Bundesliga title with seven games to play.
If Moyes does survive until the summer, Scholes pointed to the major rebuilding work required. “It looks to me that there’s a few areas that need addressing,” he said. “Centre midfield you could say they’ve been looking for that for quite a few years now and maybe haven’t quite come up with the answer.
“I think defensively as well, with [Nemanja] Vidic going – it looks like Rio [Ferdinand] and maybe [Patrice] Evra are going as well, there’s three of your back four gone. That’s another area he’s got to look after. Going forward, they’re all right. But it’s probably midfield and defence where he needs to look.”
The Guardian.
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