Manchester United manager David Moyes needs to take another look at his squad and the way he uses certain players. A couple of players in the team do not have the ability to perform in the positions they are currently deployed. There may be hard decisions that need to be taken to reignite this squad.
For a team that is renowned for getting value for money in an increasingly difficult market, United have done the opposite the recently. Moyes inherited a team that had just added Wilfred Zaha; the best player in the Championship last season, who was courted by many big teams before Sir Alex Ferguson signed him. The young winger failed to make the expected impact and has subsequently been loaned out to Cardiff.
Marouane Fellaini, one of David Moyes’ best players at Everton, signed for £27 million after the club’s ill-fated attempt to sign Cesc Fabregas failed. The Belgian’s performances have only ever fluctuated between poor and OK.
And the recent club record signing, Juan Mata, has only managed mediocre performances to date.
These new recruits are just part of an endemic problem of under-performance. This team could definitely do with more quality, but the main problem is that United are not very united.
Michael Carrick is one of the best holding midfielders in the league, but needs a ball player along him who has quality to pass receive the ball in tight areas and spread it with a variety of passes. Fellaini and Tom Cleverley both rely too much on slow, sideways, sidefooted build-up passes. Contrasting these midfielders to Yaya Toure who can press, bend, dink or slice the ball with great accuracy, the Manchester United midfielders lack the technical ability.
In the forward positions, Mata is a pure no.10. Moyes should have known this before he broke his club’s transfer record to bring him. He already has his talisman, Wayne Rooney, occupying that role, so instead sacrificed the out-of-form Antonio Valencia to accommodate the Spaniard.
The problem with that move is that Mata lacks the athleticism and physical presence to make an impact in wide areas, so he frequently drifts inside and tries to influence the game from central positions. The only player who tries to provide natural width when United attack is Adnan Januzaj, but the young prodigy also doesn’t possess the pace of someone like Nani to constantly run in behind full-backs and cross from the byline.
No matter how hard Manchester United players try, their build-up play is slow, they lack pace in wide areas and their biggest stars are easy to mark as they converge in the centre of the pitch.
The answer involves asking Wayne Rooney to drop into midfield but Moyes is yet to deploy that. After the Liverpool humiliation surely Moyes will talk to Rooney about playing deeper or else drop one of his stars.
Surely he can’t continue as it is.
