Does Moyes' reign look better with hindsight given the dismal performances of his successors?

[USABlue]

He did decent but was never going to win anything. As said above onwards with silva and brands

 

[davek]

is there really any question thats moyes was better on every level than every manager since?

Ha Ha Ha.

 

[Jimmy Flangemoth]

Great site, lads.

 

[Bluewolf]

Not so! Martinez introduced his own style of play, bringing in McCarthy and Barry to play in defence. He relied on the fullbacks - and Coleman in particular - to take the ball forward and cross from the wings, with McCarthy or Barry dropping back to provide cover.

It worked very well his first season. Later, opponents made it difficult by pressing much higher, and Martinez failed to find a way to overcome this.

As opposed to under moyes when Coleman was the best attacking right back in the leauge and Baines was one of the best attacking left backs in Europe?

Also all the back 5 were players moyes bought. Add to that the fact that in Martinez first season the defence was allowed to go long and not always having to play the ball to Barry (which was what actually happened). In essence they played the way they always had.

Where it fell down was in the second season the oppositions midfield pushed up on barry and stopped him from having time on the ball. With martinez refusal to let the cb go long when there was no other option and both of them not being ball playing cb. They would inevitably pass themself into trouble. Obviously the full backs were pushed up on but it was Barry that was the main issue.

With the thing of the cm dropping into the open full back positions. That's been going on for years, it's nothing new. Just usually the cb fills the space and the cm covers the cb space or the defence shifts over. I remember watching a interview with Gary Neville and he said when he was a kid training. They used to tie a rope around the four defenders so when the full back went forwards the defence would be pulled into position to cover him, it's a basic of football training. You might as well praise him for playing a goalkeeper.

 

[Bluewolf]

with all due respect mate, Martinez first season wasn't about a solid base/defence it was about how good we were going forward, it was about Martinez not being scared like moyes to go and attack the "sky 4" at there own grounds, it was about fluid fast counter attacking football

second season onwards went downhill to be fair, but he didn't cost us anything in the Europa league, stones was injured so alaraz played, if stones isn't injured maybe he don't go out, even against shaktar were we got battered im sure we hit the post about 3 times and they scored 2 worldies that 99 times out of 100 don't go in, it was just one of them, moyes negativity away from home cost us a few times in Europe as well ( fiorentina rings a bell, sporting pasted us )

the two semis again were harsh, especially against city, the goal they scored to level the tie shouldn't have counted, it went out for a goal kick before someone crossed it to score, the assistants do there job maybe we hold out that game?

In Martinez first season we had 13 clean sheets and only conceded more then 1 goal in 10 games so think the defensive base was a big factor. What did the playing attacking exspansive football away at the top sides get us? City? Our first loss that I can remember in a while. Liverpool? Our worst loss against them in over a decade. Spurs? Lost. Chelsea? Lost. Arsenal? We neded a last minute goal to get a draw. We only beat United and they were unlucky not to score tbh.

Stones wasn't injured he was on the bench for the Europa league game. Martinez just chose alcaraz because he had a decent game against Newcastle the weekend before. He was diabolical against Kiev (it was Kiev not shaktar mate) how he played the whole game is beyond me. Is this moyes at sporting away when we had no one in defence and had to play senderos? Our back line was Baines, yobo, senderos and Neville. We had jags on the bench but it was pretty much his first game back from his acl.

We were undone in that semi by bad refs I'll give you that but playing stones at rb, taking off deulofeu and replacing him with kone allowing city to move another 10 feet up the pitch, when we had the likes of Lennon on the bench who would of at least been a threat. It's those decisions that cost us that match imo.