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David Moyes

LONDON. — It’s early February, the time Manchester United traditionally put their foot to the floor and accelerate full throttle to the Premier League finish line.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s teams were practically invincible after the New Year, using wins over the busy Christmas period to slingshot into another title charge.

How very different it is this year as they sit a lowly seventh, 15 points shy of pace-setters Arsenal and with even their readjusted target of Champions League qualification looking far from guaranteed.

David Moyes inherited a squad of serial champions, but a winning formula has eluded him.
And in his increasingly panicked hunt to find a consistent, successful team he has gained a reputation as something of a Tinkerman.
Moyes has made an incredible 83 changes to his starting line-up in the 24 Barclays Premier League matches played to date — 11 more than the second highest total.

United have not fielded an unchanged team in the league so far this season and, taking into account matches in all competitions, Moyes has fielded 13 different central midfield combinations and seven different pairings in central defence.

It is little wonder United have failed to find a consistency of results if the spine of their team is so interchangeable. Of course, injuries take their toll, but the vast majority of the team changes are the result of Moyes’ ongoing attempts to piece together the jigsaw of his ideal United team.

His first choice centre-back pairing would still be Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.
Although 35 and 32 respectively, and both likely coming to the end of their Old Trafford careers in the summer, their supreme understanding of each other’s games — from scores of battles at home and abroad over the best part of a decade — mean they remain United’s most solid combination.

But persistent injuries and the need to manage creaking bodies mean Vidic and Ferdinand have only lined up together eight times in 37 matches in all competitions this season.

So Moyes has an urgent need to find a new central defensive duo that are equally as resolute but likely to stand the test of time.
This has proved a real headache — Chris Smalling and Jonny Evans have played six games together, Evans and Phil Jones just five.
The result has been a fragility in United’s defence that any opponent is able to exploit. United have lost eight times in the Premier League and are out of both the FA Cup and the Capital One Cup.

Contrast this to Laurent Koscielny and Per Mertesacker, Arsenal’s central defensive pairing — the team has not lost since 2012 when those two have completed a full match together. It’s the kind of stability Moyes can only dream about at present.

In midfield, to have 13 different central partnerships already this season cannot be explained away as prudent squad rotation — Moyes has simply been unable to work out his strongest two.

Tom Cleverley and Michael Carrick are the most regular — with 10 appearances — but the next is Jones and Cleverley — arguably the best in the long-run — with five.

Even before he got injured, the introduction of Marouane Fellaini and his subsequent poor performances complicated things.
As his first major signing and at a hefty cost of £27 million, Moyes felt pressure to integrate Fellaini but finding a suitable midfield ally has proved tricky.

Intensely disliked by the fans, it will be awkward for Moyes to reintegrate Fellaini between now and the end of the season, leading to more chopping and changing.

To develop a rock solid pairing in either defence or midfield takes time together — 10 games at a time at least — but this hasn’t happened. With the return of Darren Fletcher from long-term illness, Moyes has paired him with both Carrick and Cleverley. He’ll need to decide soon which to stick with.

In far too many matches this season, United’s midfield has been overrun and their defence hopelessly exposed.
By accident or design, Moyes needs to find a winning spine to his team as quickly as possible otherwise matters at Old Trafford will lurch from dire to truly disastrous. — Mailonline.