“We’ll never die, We’ll never die”
It reverberated around the Stretford End last night. Most supporters stood up, many arms aloft, singing a chant which has become synonymous with the spirit of a club.
In games where all hope is lost and the result has gone, a rendition of ‘Keep the red flag flying high’ is the defiant soundtrack as the fourth officials electronic board is raised.
Against City, it was sang five minutes into the second half. A support that has tried to inspire a collection of players to play something like a team, seemed to sense the doom that was coming. Almost a minute after the chant had subsided, Dzeko made it 2-0. Game over, again. Let’s hope they’ve declared at two. Of course they wouldn’t, and our own inability to gram even the smallest consolations sends shockwaves across the Twittersphere.
Fergie is slagged at the ground, phone-ins are full of pissed off supporters demanding a change of manager, the United world goes into meltdown. And they’re all dead right. It is Fergie’s fault for leaving a shit squad to an unproven (at our level) manager, though slagging him in the stands is going to do fuck all. Moyes is out of his depth. Has been for months. A manager with his excuses lined up before every big game. If you’re not able to get the players you want in a transfer window, tough shit. You should be a manager capable of organising a team. You should be able to get them drilled to carry out their roles so that when the big games come round, we’re capable of taking at least a point through determined defending.
This bloke can’t do that. Can’t organise. Can’t inspire, whether in a team talk or a press conference. A man who is to United what Roy Hodgson was to Liverpool – a nice bloke, but not fucking good enough.
Last night has seemed the last straw for many. First half, I thought we do alright and looked like we carried some sort of threat going forward. It was a similar game to the one’s we had against Chelsea and Arsenal from 04-06. Games where we knew we were outmatched but were prepared to have a go and try and nick something. In those matches we would at least have a spell towards the end of a game where we had the opposition on the ropes. Not this team.
But the inevitably of another home defeat has perhaps made us all realise how far we’ve fallen. In a bid to avoid being labelled ‘spoilt’, we’ve all waited to have our say. Spoilt is if all this was following a defeat which meant we had little hope of catching City in the title race, and were forced to settle for third. Being pissed off at 10 league defeats when there is little chance of finishing higher than seventh is totally acceptable.
The players aren’t doing it. Some may believe that Moyes will be sacked soon and are already preparing to impress a new boss. For all the anger we may all feel about a lack of effort, how many times have a squad of players been sacked. Footballers play shit, managers then get sacked. That’s football. We all need to deal with it.
Because the selections aren’t working. For every good performance against a mediocre side such as Crystal Palace or West Ham is followed by a ripping up of the winning formation and the experiment of Cleverley right wing against City. Now I wrote on this website some time ago that Cleverley may benefit from being played right hand side to take him out of the central firing line; but never in a million years would I consider the derby a chance to test it out. There’s ‘horses for courses’ and then there’s ‘donkeys for derbies’ and Moyes should have seen what was happening early on. The introduction of Kagawa alongside a merry-go-round with Welbeck and Rooney unsure who to stay up top killed the game in as big a way as the second goal. United will move on to Saturday to play a team which plays with United’s kryptonite- pace. Then to Munich. Last night, we were outplayed and embarrassed but that could have been Wembley. Sunderland may had spared us that humiliation, Olympiakos haven’t spared us from playing a team who could well end up with a six goal aggregate win.
Get rid of Moyes. Get Giggs in temporary charge till the end of the season and give ourselves a couple of months to do what we should have done last season, find out who can take the club forward. Under Moyes, the only way is backwards.
