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Monday, April 21, 2014

Offload Daft Captain, Save a sinking Titanic: Moyes must Go, Leave Man United

Squad that won the EPL; inherited by Moyes
1: David de Gea (GK), 2: Rafael da Silva, 3: Patrice Evra, 4: Phil Jones, 5: Rio Ferdinand, 6: Johnny Evans, 7: Antonio Valencia, 8: Anderson, 10: Wayne Rooney, 11: Ryan Giggs, 12: Chris Smalling, 13: Anders Lindegaard (GK), 14: Javier Chicharito Hernandez, 15: Nemanja Vidic, 16: Michael Carrick, 17: Luis Nani, 18: Ashley Young, 19: Danny Welbeck, 20: Van Persie, 22: Paul Scholes, 23: Tom Cleverley, 24: Darren Fletcher, 25: Nick Powell, 26: Shinji Kagawa, Alexander Buttner, Ben Amos (GK).
Ferguson’s favorite line-up featured:
1.        GK-de Gea
2.       RB-Rafael
3.       CB-Phil Jones/Vidic/Evans
4.      CB-Ferdinand/Smalling/
5.       LB-Evra
6.      MF-Carrick
7.       MF-Kagawa
8.      LW-Young
9.       RW-Valencia
10.    S-van Persie/Chicharito
11.     S-Rooney/Welbeck
Except for midfield maestro Scholes who retired with Ferguson, nothing much has changed. Moyes has since bolstered the midfield by bringing in Maroune Fellaini, Juan Mata to find a ‘Scholes’ and offloading Anderson. Pragmatically, the only real force that United miss is Scholes. But that does not justify the new lows United has dipped. Scholes played a holding role; calming down the game when the pace was too overwhelming for the united lads. He knew where to place the ball for a striker’s tap in. Cleverley, doesn’t come any nearer to doing this even after inheriting the No. 18 jersey. He is just not a Scholes. Nothing much can be said of Fellaini.
Scholes didn’t play regularly but United won matches. His absence cannot be said to be the reason United have for the first time missed the 70 points mark.

Let me break it down to the players’ chemistry. Ferdinand and Vidic knew when to let one go as the other cover the goalie. The duo crossed the halfway only when United had a corner. Vidic was also quick to fall back just in-case. Jones had learned the ropes but being young, athletic and agile he would surge forward more too often and forget to relapse. If playing alongside Rio or Vidic, this wasn’t much of an issue.
Disastrous results would be expected if injuries and or suspensions sidelined Rio, Vidic and Jones. It meant Smalling and the porous Evans were the last soldiers. Evans has everything for a worse player. He just doesn’t know what is to be done to a ball. Let alone closing in on an attacking opponent. He doesn’t know where to play, who to play the ball to. He’s a classic non-footballer. He and Smalling, often left de Gea exposed and it is by sheer luck that Gea got his grooves back to outperform his limits. Gea played as goalie and CB1 and CB2 in the absence of Rio, Vidic and Jones.
Rafael and Valencia were the architects who won United the Championship(s). They had more than chemistry. They had gelled. Each knew where the other was on the pitch. At goal-kick, Rafael would be in his traditional RB position. Gea would pass him the ball. He would slowly move forward as Valencia backtracks. Rafael would pass the ball to Valencia and quickly move up to take Valencia’s RW position. Quick, successive passes between the two would find one (especially Valencia) wt the Right corner. That is when he lobbed crosses into the box for the likes of Rooney and van Persie to justify their huge wages and egos. Most times they didn’t disappoint. The match was virtually played on the right wing.
The left wing didn’t produce awe moments. Both Evra and Young happened to be fast paced and forward going. Theirs was an ordinary player performance. Nani was for a long time reduced to making the bench warm. Maybe, he performed better in the bench.
United’s midfield didn’t bring out any extraordinary, magical, spectacular performances. Carrick was good, so was Fletcher. Anderson was an on/off performer. He wasn’t reliable. However, incidentally he performed very good when playing against Manchester City and at the advanced stages of the Champions League. The real midfielder United has ever had is Paul Scholes. Whenever he stepped onto the pitch some sobriety was felt. The tense moments melted and the Fergie time was well utilized to win difficult fixtures. He knew where to place the ball for the strikers to tap in. and when he chose to do it himself, his drilling shot was unstoppable. No keeper would dare challenge Scholes shot, unless he had an assurance he would go to heaven or inherit the famous 72 virgins. Only a martyr would stand on the way of Scholes’ shots.
Rooney, van Persie, Chicharito, Welbeck. A united quadruple. Given choice I would exploit British support for Welbeck to hugely cash in on him. Welbeck cannot be described as a striker. He’s a ball shooter. He just shoots. Luckily, his shots somehow found their way into the wrongside of the opposing keeper’s positions. That is how he earned goals for Manchester United. Otherwise Chicharito is a thousand times better than him. The only problem Chicha had and will never let it go unless he leaves England for Spain or native Mexico is his race. Ferguson rarely played non-Europeans. Chicha and Kagawa would rival Messi, Cristiano and Bale in accolades if they were Europeans. Messi is lucky he is playing in Spain. He wouldn’t be exception if he signed for a British side. Except for the segregation, Chicha is the Ole Gunnar of the current United. His performances have been electrifying. He has saved United a couple times when United needed a savior. When he started, Chicha scared and got his opponents off guard, when they least expected surprises. Quick goals from him left his opponents shaken and more susceptible to easy errors for easy United goals. Petr Cech will forever remember this little pea. And when United seemed beaten and in shame, he restored the pride of the Trafford universe. He defined the true United belief in never giving up until Fergie time was exhausted. Only the ref’s whistle assured rival goalies of no more goals from the marvelous Chicha. Rooney and van Persie equally performed well to justify their being in United jerseys. Expecting over-performance or otherwise from the duo was unjust. They did or did not do what they are paid to.
So, what has changed so much that Moyes can’t replicate Fergie’s successes? Is it the absence of Scholes? No. He’s got super Giggsy, Mata, Cleverley, Carrick, Fletcher, Fellaini and at times Kagawa for the position. By mid season he should have picked who came close to Schole’s performances from the crowd. Further, he has promoted Januzaj a traditional LW maestro. An unbeatable player. A player the world is watching, waiting for a moment of magic from the ypungster. The biggest problem Moyes has is his daftness. He inherited and exaggerated the stupid racial segregation of non-European players from Fergie. Fergie somehow played Rafael and when he found the going tough threw in Chicha and Kagawa to save him blushes. Daft Moyes never considers that an option. His cheap ego has drowned a titanic. United has sunken purely from the daft captain’s silly ignorance. There is no justifiable reason as to why Rafael has featured so irregular. Between 2011 and 13, Rafael and Evra played 97 consecutive matches. They only rested when the great Sir Fergie was assured the premiership had been won. Rafael hasn’t played a third of that under Moyes. Why?
Moyes’ makeshift sides make a comedy. He just lists players and throws them around the pitch, out of positions. The players fail to register a single complete pass. Resulting to what we now know of United.
Under Moyes, United has broken records and set new lows. They may not fit here if I listed them. Everyone has ambitions to be famous, that I know very well. Fergie has these as accolades he got working with United:
SIR ALEX FERGUSON, MANCHESTER UNITED
Manchester United
Ferguson’s Individual

Moyes has since reversed all these. United is finished. For the first time in the longest time United will not get the 70 points mark and will miss the CL and Europa spots. Sad.
There is only one way to salvage the sunken ship. Fire Moyes. Keep the young squad. Offload the underperformers: Fellaini, Cleverley, Evans, Nani, Young, Welbeck. Recall loanees: Lingerd, Zaha, etc. Endeavor to sign a formidable holding midfielder, centre-backs and a LB of Jordi Alba, Alaba caliber.
United’s management should forget the rebuilding nonsense. The universe has no patience to wait the rebuild. We want results. Immediate results. Positive results. Moyes must Go. United should try get Jurgen Klopp, Pep Gudiorla, Carlos Quiroz and man enough to match them for the Manager’s position.


Am done. 
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