Excuse me while I get back into writing for my blog. I’ve taken a hiatus to slowly melt and self-implode as a United fan. Just when I thought 2014 was a year of considerable change after the miraculous signing of Juan Mata. But, I was hasty and realised that United’s situation goes much deeper than signing a high-impact player. It’s about a whole re-structuring process that’s needed and Moyes will need to find the clog before United are ultimately stuck in their ways when England’s current top-4 find their form and make influential signings.
After United’s 2-1 loss to Stoke City on the weekend, there were some blatant points: Evra doesn’t have the juices in defense anymore and Tom Cleverley, time and time again, is desperate in the middle of the pitch. And while I’m not one of those fans who’d love to see Moyes’ head on the end of a sharp trident, I do question the tactics when Fletcher seems the immediate go-to on form. Fletcher is definitely underrated as a footballer and plays an intelligent game next to Carrick (who, sad to say, hasn’t been the player he was a season ago) but Moyes feels Cleverley has some sort of knack to deliver in the starting XI. Ponderous.
The ever-present, interchangeable Phil Jones is rather suited to start in midfield than Cleverley. Even a coming-back-from-injury Fellaini who didn’t make the squad. It’s an abiding worry that continues to plague United. If there’s no creativity in the middle of the park, then how does Mata, Rooney and Van Persie get any ball to get chances in? Seems like a very basic tactic to me. Something that was again left gaping when Moyes put Welbeck on in a ‘attack-attack-attack’ stance that produced nothing in the final third.
But let’s not hammer Moyes’ decisions alone. While January’s transfer window is usually quiet on the ‘big signings’ front, Mata’s signature should have been follow-throughed with a player in defence or midfield. Mata is fixing a United’s gaping puncture but the bicycle is still sitting without brakes. (You get what I mean. I needed a metaphor.)
United are sitting 7th on the log behind Spurs and Everton who are proving to finish off games better than the Reds. With Liverpool still riding on the form of Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez, it would be a mighty task now if United scrape 4th and Europe’s elite. As Mark Hughes pointed out after Stoke’s win at home, United have definitely lost their fear factor and ultimately have to use their bad press as motivation for the last-gasp of the season. I won’t rule out Moyes’ claims of bad luck. There’s been a lot of that. But there is definitely a confidence boost that needs to be injected into the players before United look at the end of the season as a step to Europ….a glory. And perhaps it sits with Moyes, too. His post-match comments “I’m not too sure what we have to do to win” is a little disparaging. With time, he’ll fix the brakes. Before United find themselves head-first in traffic.
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