A case in favour of David Moyes' six months at Old Trafford.

Manchester United manager David Moyes

When Sir Alex Ferguson decided to step down at the helm at Old Trafford in the summer and announced David Moyes as his successor, there must have been a set of disgruntled United fans who might have been hoping for a more decorated man than the former Everton manager.

And this set of fans must surely be raising their voice – “Didn’t I say in the summer itself that he is not the right man for United?” - right now looking at how the last six months have panned out for Manchester United under the leadership of David Moyes.

Yes, at this moment in time, they seem to be absolutely right. We are just at the start of January and United have already been dumped out of the FA cup and are almost certainly out of the title race with them being at the seventh place in the table and eleven points behind the league leaders Arsenal. The blame has to certainly go to the manager.

If David Moyes was at any other top club across Europe, he might have already been sacked at least three times by now. Thankfully for the Scot, he is at a club where patience and stability are considered as the cornerstone for success.

And the same belief reflects in another set of United supporters who brandished ‘The Chosen One’ banner at the Stretford End and firmly believe in Sir Alex Ferguson’s choice of David Moyes to carry on the legacy built by himself. The belief in this set of supporters, however, must have taken a serious blow, especially over the last month, after watching their side lose four out of the last six matches at Old Trafford – something that has been absolutely unheard of in the Premier League era.

So how do these supporters ensure that they are right in still believing in David Moyes and, at the same time, try and convince the former set of supporters as well to get behind the Scotsman? On the contrary to the entire football world right now, let’s try and put forward a case in the favour of David Moyes based on how he has gone on with the job at Old Trafford over the last six months.

Considering the magnitude of the job that David Moyes took up in June last year where he succeeded one of the best ever managers in the history of football, this transition was always going to be this way, regardless of whoever might have taken up this job instead of Moyes.

To start with, the Scot was hugely let down by the club’s transfer activities where, despite having all the money at their disposal, his first choice players were allowed to slip by from his grasp which left his squad depleted in many areas. If you compare that to transfer activities at Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and even Tottenham, then you would be left embarrassed. The weakness in the squad, resulting from almost no business in the summer, especially in the midfield area, was ably exploited by the opposition in the early season losses to Liverpool, Manchester City and West Bromwich Albion.

However, all of that cannot be blamed on the squad alone. The manager had his own faults as well. But those faults were more natural than self imposed. For most of the initial months at Old Trafford, quite naturally, the Scot struggled to find his best side as he juggled with the playing eleven a lot. Moreover, whenever he took his seat in the Old Trafford dugout, the shadow of Sir Alex Ferguson stand loomed large over him. Everything that he did was being compared to Sir Alex’s reign. As a result, again quite naturally, the former Everton manager had forced himself to follow a conservative approach.

He realized the expectations at Old Trafford and thought he might well be better off to follow risk-free measures to start with, which were quite evident in his team selections, substitutions and game plan, that will keep him in good stead with the supporters. That approach of his, as was quite evident in those early losses, had well and truly backfired. He simply lacked self-confidence during this period.

As the initial months went by, Moyes started to learn from his mistakes. Moyes came out of his conservative approach and took some strong decisions in team selections and substitutions which also resulted in some good performances on the pitch in Europe, Capital One Cup and even in the Premier League as well. It saw them winning 0-5 away at Bayer Leverkusen and also lifted them to within five points from the leaders Arsenal at one stage.

This minor resurgence, however, was cut short by two back-to-back home losses against Everton and Newcastle, which were largely due to lack of cutting edge and concentration from the players than his own management. Moreover, injuries to key players Michael Carrick, Robin van Persie and Phil Jones during that period didn’t help his case either.

Following these losses, over the last month, Moyes’s team selections have finally started to show some signs of consistency as he is starting to get in terms with the players. This again resulted in six straight wins for United in all competition before again being halted by another couple of shock home losses to Tottenham in the league and Swansea in the FA Cup.

And amidst these league standings and FA Cup knockouts, there are things where Moyes has done wonderfully well that have gone unnoticed. First and foremost is the resurgence of Manchester United’s player of the season thus far – Wayne Rooney. Second is the handling of one of the shining young stars in world football right now – Adnan Januzaj. And third is the re-emergence of Danny Welbeck who has shown tremendous improvement over the last month.

Therefore, it has been a topsy-turvy first six months for David Moyes at Old Trafford where he has been constantly learning from his mistakes and has shown gradual improvements, although at a smaller pace than required, as the months have passed by. And it is most likely that he will continue to do so. Moreover, if the injured players are back soon and hopefully if the club is able to get some reinforcements in the January transfer window, then his case will strengthen even more.

So the former Everton manager has not done as bad as the social media and other media houses portray him to be. It is still a learning curve for David Moyes at a club like Manchester United where expectations are sky high and instant results is the need of the hour. The good thing for him is that despite in this age of instant results, the Old Trafford hierarchy understands that it takes time and is prepared to offer him exactly that to pan out his own image, ideas, philosophy and mentality at Manchester United.

The big concern however is: are the fans prepared to offer him that time?

Every one of you asking for marquee signings, splashing cash and managerial changes, must realize that all of that might build you a pretty cool camp at the footballing summit. But United were never about those temporary camps. They want the entire summit, a perfect land to build their castle that will last a lifetime. And unlike others, they have always been patient enough in the past (along with their fans) in collecting the supplies (while others kept fighting for the scraps), and then carrying those supplies along with them at the summit so that they last for an era.

David Moyes, if given the support of both sets of supporter described, is exactly the man that offers them that stability and the know-how to collect those supplies with patience and then re-build United’s castle at the footballing summit. It may not be this season, it might not even be the next season or the season after that, but when it does happen, that will be the only thing that everyone would remember.