Season Review 2013-14: Manchester United - Plethora of Broken Hearts

When you look behind, you see nothing but shattered dreams. Fallen hopes, broken promises and a deceivingly bad transition, Manchester United have been the victim of the most dreaded footballing decision in the last two decades.

As Sir Alex called curtains on his 27-year long career, an irreplaceable space was created in the Manchester United backroom. To deepen the misery, David Gill chose to depart along with his long-term contemporary. A dynamic figure at the helm of the club’s administration, David Gill was an inexplicable enigma who was the backbone of Sir Alex for the past decade.

Intricately linking the gravest nightmares of every United fan, 2013-14 chose to make short work of United and leave it to the wolves. The subtle difference of not being Sir Alex Ferguson turned out to be what was a destructive nine months for David Moyes.

All the 11 years of toil which had resulted in him being handpicked by Sir Alex came down crashing in a very short span of time. His reputation was destroyed. He was made the scapegoat. And to complement his nightmares, he was sacked just nine months into his job.

As we despise a disastrous season, it would do no bad to analyze our performance and take a sneak peek into the essentials of the past season

Positives and Negatives

With so many decisions to ponder upon, the negatives far outnumber the positives and that shouldn’t be the calling of Manchester United. Telling such a statement should be considered an insult in the first place to Manchester United’s rich legacy. The appointment of David Moyes was made with the appropriate gusto but his musings at Old Trafford made sure the incumbent responses weren’t the desired ones. There started the problem as fans failed to trust the manager.

While the fans share the blame for this, the manager gave them no reason to do so. Thereby, insinuating a mutual lack of trust. If any reason as to how a manager gets things done, it’s to connect with the club. And for some reason, Moyes never felt a moral obligation to do so. In the process, he managed to attract the hatred of fans by failing to obtain results.

Apparently, there is a difference between Phil Neville and Rene Meulensteen. Moyes, to his credit forged his mind into believing that never existed and it resulted in him getting the sack.

The second negative was the mentality. As is the tradition, a team is only as good as its manager. A parasitic growth of any team is the mentality of its manager. While Sir Alex exuded confidence and desire, David Moyes was quite the opposite. He played it safe whenever he could and stated out openly that his squad wasn’t good enough to win the Champions League. That was the bug in the team. A poorly cultivated attitude resulted in a failure to adhere to the compellations of tough challenges.

The gargantuan task of replacing Sir Alex had gotten into Moyes’ nerves quite deep and the heart-warming fact of not having to face the hairdryer crept into the players. An inability to comply with the stern action the team needed coupled with the stealth of the team to imbibe some careless attitude culminated to depriving everyone of the Manchester United we had seen the previous year.

While the masses are intent to blame Moyes for his ineffective tactics, their condescension on his inability has been far too much. What everyone has failed to realize is that Moyes alone cannot make the team work; it takes eleven men to comprise a football side. The blame should be shared equally by everyone although Moyes gets the lion’s share for being unable to shoulder his responsibilities. As the fans are so compelled to discount any factor other than Moyes to recount for this season, I should say the above mentioned reasons suffice for everything you may have not observed.

Speaking of the negatives, we are programmed so as to observe every one of it while the good just glances past our eyes. The positives of the Moyes period have been relatively less but some of it may be beneficial in the future.

To begin with, Moyes’ tryst with promoting youngsters dates back to a 16-year old Rooney scoring against Arsenal. That certainly was carried over to United as Moyes showed no fear in regularly playing Adnan Januzaj. His sparkling start and excellent season has to be attributed to David Moyes. While Ashley Young wasn’t performing, Moyes chose to go with the youngster and it paid off. Transforming into one of the most important players, Adnan Januzaj has been the shining light this season at Old Trafford.

The imminent transfer of Wayne Rooney at the beginning of the season seemed to infiltrate Manchester United’s transition. But, David Moyes made sure the English striker stayed put thus ensuring that United had a player to build their team around.

But, the biggest positive in a terrible season has been the arrival of Juan Mata. While he has not yet set Old Trafford on fire, the distinction of his quality has sure emerged with some excellent performances. So, this evidently displays that Moyes has left something in store for the next coach to utilize. And Juan Mata might just be the positive remnant of this season.

Worst Player

Although the troubled times presented a tough situation for David Moyes, he could have handled it better and gone with stability. But, he decided to rope in the terms of change and experiment newly every match.

He never played two matches with an unchanged squad. While a player legitimately being ruled out would have sufficed for a reason, Moyes’ had no such obligation to do. Even while his players were fully fit, he decided to change every week.

This resulted in stringing some extraordinarily poor performances which would ultimately be Moyes’ undoing. As the quality of United’s playing kept coming down, one player was at the forefront doing absolutely nothing to justify his 27 million price tag.

It was Moyes’ favored player Maraoune Fellaini. As we saw the season progress, he kept declining in stature by the day producing dreadful performances. The same player, a year ago had inspired Everton to their best ever finish under David Moyes.

And now, he was heading United into a roadblock. Fellaini seemed to show no effort to improve while Moyes never showed any restraint to not play Fellaini.

Manchester United 2013-14 Season | Create Infographics

Best Player

While Fellaini comprises a player United have absolutely no necessity for, there was a player who made every effort to save his team. Rightfully so, he was awarded the Player of the year award by fans and teammates. This 23-year old Spaniard has been brilliant throughout the season and unlucky that such a disaster had to befit his defense.

David de Gea’s cultured growth under Sir Alex was finally culminating as he showed every trait of the finished product. With the World Cup approaching, De Gea did well to earn himself a fair shot at making Vincente del Bosque’s team and we shouldn’t be surprised if he does.

Well established team this season

Manager Analysis

For twenty six years, Manchester United had reached the depths of success and tinkled with the very fabric of time. Sir Alex Ferguson had established a dynasty invaluable to modern football. From being threatened of relegation to the World’s most popular club, one man remained the lone constant. But, when he chose to erase himself from the proceedings, downfall sought to arrive.

The season was a colossal disaster. No less. An inherent proposition to play safe sprouted the rapid decline of English football’s most successful side. When David Moyes walked out as the manager for the first time in a pre-season friendly, a million eyes deceived itself into believing it was the birth of a new era that would recreate the past glory.

Who would have imagined in their wildest dreams that the arrival of David Moyes would prove to be a blessing in disguise for every club other than Manchester United. The void left by Sir Alex Ferguson was so huge that the emotional turmoil got the better of everyone linked with Manchester United. As false delusions clouded our mind into believing David Moyes would lead Manchester United into glory, we always had a corner where the truth lay in rest.

With a rather disheartening pre-season, the FA Community Shield was sorted as a welcome relief. 42 days as a manager and David Moyes had won a trophy, at least for namesake. The nuances of the Premier League and Community Shield were long forgotten as the celebrations riddled over the red half of Manchester.

Swansea city were the calling as David Moyes entered into a world of magnanimous belief and little mistakes. A 4-1 win in his first ever Premier League game for United and the fans were willing to believe Moyes was indeed the ‘Chosen One’. The constant wailings of Sir Alex’s departure were far lost in the rejoicing of Moyes’ arrival as the Special one stood next. First ever home game against Chelsea and a dramatic 0-0 draw propelled Moyes to the big league. The surprising thing being that was the only game Moyes tactically outclassed his counterpart.

With the Rooney allegations seemingly put to an end, Jose Mourinho’s mind games were disproved as United dominated Chelsea and Rooney put in a masterful performance. A Chelsea domination at Old Trafford was perhaps the best result of the season as Moyes diminished by the day ever since. Individually procuring Fellaini on deadline to back up a dormant transfer window summed up the not so ingenious brain of David Moyes.

As the frailties of Manchester United emerged, Moyes failed to take up the task of repairing it and let it rot. Day by day, the club’s reputation was going down the drain while David Moyes continued to sit at the perch indifferent to the nuances of the past twenty six years and this one. The rapture of the past twenty seasons of the Premier League were all neutralized in this one as Manchester United failed to make it into the top 4 since the opening day. Admirable sentiments failed to salvage pride as Ryan Giggs proved to be no greater than the primordial substitute.

Ryan Giggs endearment with Manchester United may extend to his performances on the pitch, but that shall always remain in the pitch for his managerial performances are average, to maximize the effort.

Future Expectations

Manchester United’s expectation for the next season stands at a very low level and the despicable situation must be ridden off immediately. While the expectations of this season came crashing around reality, the manager failed to act.

Ryan Giggs tenure of four games presented a welcome change but failed to inspire anything. Perhaps, the debut of James Wilson and Tom Lawrence were the best things from those four games as United failed to ensure a spot in European competitions. While Ryan Giggs is certainly not going to continue, the successor should definitely be a man worthy of attracting star players and rebuilding the club. For the immediate future, our expectations should be modest considering the depths of animosity Manchester United are riddled with.

Expecting a spot in the European competitions at the end of the next season would be a decent accomplishment and anything more would be a gift.

Conclusion

The players failed to comply with the manager and earned the disrespect of critics. As we talk about the destruction caused in a single season, we should remember that Manchester United are one of the most pragmatic clubs in English football.

The understatement would be to discount Manchester United from performing well in the next season. Their inherent ability has been to rise up from a potential disaster and come out in flying colours. They did it after 1958 and I see no reason why they shouldn’t after 2014.