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I’ll preface this by stating that I am wholeheartedly a Liverpool supporter (and probably biased because of that), so seeing a Manchester United side in disarray had originally given me a certain amount of sadistic pleasure.
Had. Now it’s just sad and I pity them. An EPL without United challenging makes it harder to hate them, and how I loved to hate them.
The team who I love to hate were finding my support against Olympiakos.
The Aussie way is to support the underdog, and I paled to this inherent attribute of our nationality and willed them on to victory on Thursday morning. It made me feel dirty.
Having felt that struggle or sub-par in recent years following Liverpool, I can very much empathise with United supporters.
I now feel it is a tragedy that our encounters which were held in such high regard as a great contest are now anything but (as confirmed by the the 3-0 drubbing Liverpool gave to United last week), and if I read one more article from a professional (or otherwise) saying the United players are simply not up to it, I may explode.
Barring a few additions, this current United squad is the same as the group who won the EPL title last season.
The big difference is the Moyes Effect, which is expressed as follows:
United – Ferguson + Moyes = disaster
I know that much pressure has been applied by the media and general public about David Moyes, notably the trending #moyesout, so I’m not claiming that people are saying Moyes is immune from getting fired (although he seems to think so).
However, I can’t fathom how on earth anyone who follows football can say the players aren’t good enough and that the United midfield is not creative enough.
Many professionals have said that United need a handful of quality players (such as Roy Keane, here http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2556575/Roy-Keane-Man-United-They-need-five-six-players-theyve-cut-corners-caught-I-dont-fancy-Champions-League.html) to compete again, but I for one cannot understand how the players this season are suddenly not up to it.
The team as a whole is shadow of the juggernaut we’ve seen over the United dynasty. A shadow cast by Ferguson which is no longer there. Maybe the dressing room has lost that aura of invincibility Sir Alex carried with him.
Maybe Moyes’ system just isn’t compatible with the tried and tested methods of Ferguson. Either way, Moyes is the sole person to apportion blame.
We’ve seen the great coaches in Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola achieve success multiple times in varying environments. Maybe Moyes is just too used to mediocrity after his mediocre Everton never really achieved anything.
Credit where credit is due. Competing with the big boys on a shoe string budget at Everton is probably success in itself, but did they really compete, or were they just above average?
The seemed to perform almost exactly like Manchester United do under Moyes.
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