Time to remove the old guard for Manchester United as transfer window beckons

The result might have been the same, but there were changes aplenty on New Year’s Day at Old Trafford from the previous time Manchester United squared off against Tottenham Hotspur at home.

The lasting image from the Spurs’ 3-2 victory at the same venue last season was Gareth Bale‘s effortless victory in a footrace against Rio Ferdinand, as Andre Villas-Boas’ side won for the first time in 23 years to help relieve their young manager of some pressure in his first season at the club, against a man who had seen more than 25 at the helm at Manchester United. And while none of those protagonists set foot on Old Trafford’s hallowed turf on Wednesday, albeit for completely different reasons, there were others that grabbed the chance to take centre stage with both hands.

The match signified a rebirth of sorts for Emmanuel Adebayor, whose goal in 2006 helped Arsenal secure a narrow victory against their fierce rivals in what was the Togolese striker’s first full season in England. The 29-year-old continued his recent resurgence after the Spurs’ managerial switch, notching up his fourth goal in 5 games with an unerring header and playing a vital part in his side’s winner.

The numbers look tidy for managerial incumbent Tim Sherwood as well, as his side’s midweek victory took him to 10 points gained out of a possible 12 in the Premier League in his first job as head coach. Far from the tactical cage that was imposed upon Tottenham by his predecessor, Sherwood’s brave deployment of a two-striker system showed his appetite for adventure, a punt that paid rich dividends over the course of the game and, for now, vindicated the much-maligned Daniel Levy’s faith in a rookie manager.

In sharp contrast was Moyes’ valiant move to remove a defender for another attacking body after going just one goal down, as Antonio Valencia showed, not for the first time this season, the perils of playing a winger at full-back for the visitors’ second goal that came just five minutes after the switch.

Among the others who suffered a rough night were Manchester United skipper Nemanja Vidic and his deputy Patrice Evra, who were harried throughout the encounter by the visitors’ movement, and were caught out of position far too often. The previously-reliable Vidic has looked a shadow of his former dominant self in the United rearguard for a while now, and put in another sketchy performance, while Aaron Lennon scurried past Evra at every given opportunity and played a big hand in both goals, showing that while the French defender is a threat down the left flank, he is as much of a growing liability while performing his defensive duties.

That three of the four players that lined up at the back for the hosts were signed in the January transfer window is indication that there is some refurbishing in the defensive department that can be done by Moyes over the next month, though who the Scot can bring in is anyone’s guess.

Then, there are the obvious frailties in the midfield, as Moyes, devoid of options and rattled by injuries, has struggled to stem the flow of goals as well as create chances. To have Wayne Rooney and Shinji Kagawa, effectively United’s two greatest creative threats, playing as quarterbacks in central midfield while the hosts were chasing a goal indicated the lack of direction and personnel in United’s attacking department.

The old guard has to be slowly, but swiftly, flushed out, and January has not come a moment too soon. David Moyes might have had a go at referee Howard Webb for his decisions on Wednesday, and rightly so, this after the official’s litany of errors in another high-profile clash between Chelsea and Liverpool. However, for the United manager, the problems, it seem, lie within.

Table courtesy Opta

Not just on the overall table, but in the European candidates’ mini-league, too, have Manchester United faltered, claiming just five points from eight games against their direct rivals, despite the fact that five of those games were played at Old Trafford. No one is calling for Moyes’ head yet, but there is growing clamour from a fan base that is learning to support a club missing its ‘winning mentality’.

No one said that taking over the mantle as Manchester United manager would be easy. But the Scot might have been led to believe that it wouldn’t have been this hard.