Don’t just blame Moyes: Reds failing stars are culpable for Manchester United’s demise

The focus, inevitably, has been on David Moyes. After two decades of virtually constant success at Manchester United, the difficulties endured by Sir Alex Ferguson’s successor are bordering on the catastrophic. Every time it looks as though a corner has been turned on the quest for good form, some fresh hell lurks just around the corner. Moyes has been reduced to a pessimistic wreck in the space of just a few months, commenting before the Newcastle game that: “We’re going to make it as hard for them as we possibly can.” This, should anyone need reminding, was not the visit of Barcelona.

While Moyes could hardly have made a worse start, he was badly let down by the club’s executives over the summer in the transfer market. A series of embarrassing blunders left Marouane Fellaini as United’s sole recruit, at a ludicrously inflated price. While none of this has helped ease the transition, the players also need to shoulder some responsibility for the club’s current predicament. It is all well and good venting spleen at the manager and the owners but those on the pitch are letting the fans down at this moment in time.

Other than Wayne Rooney, clearly buoyed by the absence of a manager he fell out with on a number of occasions, has a single other player improved this campaign? The defence, so often the key to securing United silverware in recent years, seems utterly unable to keep a clean sheet. The leadership on the pitch is virtually non-existent. Senior players like Nemanja Vidic, Patrice Evra and Rio Ferdinand are not taking command of difficult situations and motivating the troops. The latter, one of the team’s most experienced players, felt the weekend was a suitable moment to question Moyes’ approach to selecting his team at the last minute. While it might be a legitimate gripe, the timing could not have been worse.

For the United players, it seems now is the winter of their discontent. Javier Hernandez, one of the Premier League’s more likeable players, recently made the decision to retweet an article in which Carlos Vela suggested he should leave the club if he is not given more playing time soon. It has become clear that players accept rotation only when success is a guarantee. Under Moyes, that is patently no longer the case.

The midfield remains a problem without a short-term solution but the players who have been used in the centre of the pitch need to up their game. They should be motivated to perform, with or without Ferguson at the helm. Anderson and Tom Cleverley are simply not good enough to make the grade at a club like United while Fellaini looks a long way short of his Everton best. His propensity to play the easiest pass at any given moment is indicative of a player struggling to adapt and cowed by his new surroundings. It has been the same sorry tale with Ashley Young since joining from Aston Villa in 2011. Shinji Kagawa, while showing flashes of genius, has not been consistent enough and can no longer use the excuse that he’s being played played out of position. The fact that the Japanese star missed Saturday’s game as a result of having his stomach pumped due to overeating tells you everything you need to know. Like the sub par performances of much of the squad, that kind of thing would never have happened under Ferguson.