MOYES OUT!!.... by Guest Columnist Lyndon Pinto.

Moyes out!!.... But only after you!!

United’s loss to Olympiakos last night could be the lowest point or the nadir for the club’s fans . For us Manchester United fans pampered by unbridled success, defeat to a Greek club in the first leg of the round of 16 is bad and  languishing out of the top four is as bad as relegation. But those who believe David Moyes is the wrong man for the job, deserve to be relegated to the trash cans as non bio-degradable waste.

When you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it is bound to fall well short of expectation. Inflated by the success of our ex-manager Sir Alex Ferguson we have unwittingly judged Moyes by the same yardstick. Look at what happened to Chelsea once Jose Mourinho left. Every manager was compared to him and well ... everyone knows what happened. Unlike at Chelsea, United do not have that option as SAF has sailed into the sunset and will not do a Paul Scholes.

David Moyes was and still is in a transitional phase. United have hired him as a long term replacement. If the Board room wanted a quick fix they would have hired Mourinho. Manchester United is a big club; it takes times to understand how it functions and learn how to run it effectively and convincingly. Moyes needs that time.

On the pitch, the harsh reality is that the players let the club down on numerous occasions. You cannot be thought to keep your concentration levels up for 90 minutes. Every single player let the club down and it is now their responsibility to pick up the pieces. 

Moyes has made mistakes too, be it horrendous substitutions, awful team selection or just plain stupid and inexperienced tactics but he is evolving and picking up lessons which he could never have learnt before. As much as we are drawn to compare SAF’s 1984-85 season and Moyes’ 2013-14 season, we must categorically not. Comparisons will not change reality, it will only add doubt. 

Robin van Persie has been blighted by injury this season, supposedly because of Moyes’ dinosaur coaching methods, which implies Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger adopted similar dinosaur methods while RVP was a gunner. The irony of this season is for everything that went right it was because of the players, while everything bad was Moyes’ fault.

For the last couple of seasons United have been playing way below par but still pulling of victories because of SAF’s tactical acumen. Still adjusting to his role, Moyes has not yet taken United by the scruff of the neck and shaken it to its core like he did at Everton. With a gaping hole in the middle of the park, faltering wingers, an aging defense and Anderson, Moyes’ knew the task at hand. It may take two seasons to rebuild a complete squad but Moyes and United will.