I'm very fond of Moyes. He took us from a team of no hopers and relegation candidates to a very good team despite spending hardly any money. If you look at the players we bought in cheap and turned into world beaters, there is nobody in the world better at that.
But he only ever made us into nearlys. Even in our best moments under him we never quite take the last step.
We finish 4th ... and lose against Villarreal.
We reach a semi and a final ... and get schooled by Chelsea.
We finish 5th twice in a row ... but don't break into the top 4.
We smash Fiorentina and look like the form team in the UEFA cup ... and then lose on penalties.
We go on a wonderful end of season run .. and still finish 8th because of our poor start.
The big debate is whether we keep faith with the tactics and the personel which brought us so close so many times or whether we change things to try and make that last leap forward. And I think we have to change things.
We play great football now for the first time in decades. We control possession, we waltz through mdiifelds, we play in the oppositions half, we create loads of chances buit we don't win enough games.
And once I got back home today, after we lost a game we deserved to lose, I watched Sunderland/Chelsea. And Bruce, who I've never rated, took a midfield down there who wouldn't get on our bench and every time they attacked they looked like they meant business. The ball was played on the ground, but it was played so fast compared to our usual and they had so many players charging forward every time they broke. And that's what we're missing. That intent behind attacking moves, where you're not trying to hold onto the ball, you're trying to get into the box as quickly as possible.
And Moyes has to get us playing like that. I don't care if we go 4-5-1, 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. I don't care if we plays Gueye and Bily instead of Arteta and Cahill. But he has to change something and he has to get us attacking better and scoring more often. And if by the end of the season, he hasn't and we've still got this great side and we're still playing great football but we're still not winning enough matches then I want either another number 2 or another manager. The amount of goals we're scoring and the amount of games we're winning isn't good enough for how good a team this is.
He has seven months to turn it around.
But he only ever made us into nearlys. Even in our best moments under him we never quite take the last step.
We finish 4th ... and lose against Villarreal.
We reach a semi and a final ... and get schooled by Chelsea.
We finish 5th twice in a row ... but don't break into the top 4.
We smash Fiorentina and look like the form team in the UEFA cup ... and then lose on penalties.
We go on a wonderful end of season run .. and still finish 8th because of our poor start.
The big debate is whether we keep faith with the tactics and the personel which brought us so close so many times or whether we change things to try and make that last leap forward. And I think we have to change things.
We play great football now for the first time in decades. We control possession, we waltz through mdiifelds, we play in the oppositions half, we create loads of chances buit we don't win enough games.
And once I got back home today, after we lost a game we deserved to lose, I watched Sunderland/Chelsea. And Bruce, who I've never rated, took a midfield down there who wouldn't get on our bench and every time they attacked they looked like they meant business. The ball was played on the ground, but it was played so fast compared to our usual and they had so many players charging forward every time they broke. And that's what we're missing. That intent behind attacking moves, where you're not trying to hold onto the ball, you're trying to get into the box as quickly as possible.
And Moyes has to get us playing like that. I don't care if we go 4-5-1, 4-4-2 or 4-3-3. I don't care if we plays Gueye and Bily instead of Arteta and Cahill. But he has to change something and he has to get us attacking better and scoring more often. And if by the end of the season, he hasn't and we've still got this great side and we're still playing great football but we're still not winning enough matches then I want either another number 2 or another manager. The amount of goals we're scoring and the amount of games we're winning isn't good enough for how good a team this is.
He has seven months to turn it around.
