I feel like it is a big mistake for Man Utd.

Moyes is a fantastic frugal manager; he gets players to play a specific way, in a specific position which they grow to know like the back of their hands- making even mediocre players look fantastic. The problem is, this leaves zero space for flexibility.

We do very well against teams who play at us, but when teams sit back and counterattack we struggle hugely, and this is the fault of Moyes's managerial style. Just look at the points we have dropped to the bottom 6... it is astonishing. This is not the end of the world when you are the manager of Everton, we are expected to drop points here and there and if we can't break down a rugged defence then nobody is going to get out the pitchforks.

Imagine if Man Utd stop being able to break down those defences and consider the reaction of the faithful then.

In addition to that, Moyes, even after 10 years in a top flight job seems to fail to understand attacking football. Year after year we have struggled to score, forward after forward have been brought in; but each one disappoints. After a certain amount of time one needs to stop looking at the players and begin to blame the manager. Luckily we have excelled in other areas, which has limited the damage from crappy forwards, but it is another thing that is going to be a major concern for Man Utd fans over the forthcoming years if he does get the job.

The fact is however, that Man Utd is publicly traded- they need to bring in a figurehead that the stock exchange will be able to have faith in. Would an unproven (on a CL level) manager with question marks hanging over him damage the share price more than a loose cannon (Mourinho) or a manager unproven in the PL (that is if they do manage to lure Klopp, which will be tough)?

I honestly don't know.

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Forgive the wall of text. I will try and keep some brief TL:DR's going.

He usually changed tactics when we went ahead, but to his credit he did so when we were behind at times to good effect. One prime example was Spurs last season, we were playing pretty OK- went 1-0 down (like at the weekend, similar time also) and Moyes brought on Vellios for Osman in about the 80th minute.

Now I doubt you are familiar with our lumbering Greek, but he was a big, stupid target man type- a clear tactical option with little skill. The reason it was so interesting is because we already had Fellaini as a target man in the hole, and Jelavic as the striker. Bringing Vellios on really threw the Spurs defence off.

With their lot trying to sit a bit deeper, the ball made it to Baines whenever we wanted it to- and he was able to throw in his lethal first time crosses from deep time and again. This worked great for us, and really freed up Fellaini, as AVB was too slow to adjust and get orders out to his team. This game ended up with us scoring in the 90th and 94th minute (Pienaar and Jelavic IIRC)- and to his credit, that was completely down to the confusion of putting Vellios on.

The exact same thing also happened vs Sunderland, they were 1-0 up- in the 70th minute Vellios came on, and we ended up winning 2-1 (goal from Fellaini and Jelavic). It was a pretty decent plan B, albeit not elegant..

(MOyes can't do this at United though, because he doesn't have 1, let alone 2 monster target men, and he doesn't have a player like Baines who can deliver pinpoint crosses with his first touch. This is an important aspect, as it doesn't give the defenders chance to think about their positioning before a ball is blasted in a dangerous area. One big issue with you vs Fulham (aside from the general shit quality of the balls coming in) was that they took too long to be delivered, often from the byline- so the big ass defenders could position themselves perfectly. With a Baines type player, they never have that option)

The issue with Moyes is that he would often sit on his hands and pull this face where he sucks his lips together, rather than making the changes needed- kind of like this. Whilst he would usually make changes to the system eventually (which were largely in the vein of the above- reverting to more of a long ball style), they often came 10-15 minutes too late. I remember watching us getting outplayed by O'Neil repeatedly during the last 10 years, always because that dour tosser always made quicker and smarter tactical changed during the game. It bloody killed me that did.

TL:DR - Yes. He changed tactics at times, but he was dithering about it- he knew what he was doing, but often lacked the sort of bollocks that great managers like Mourinho or SAF have. With egos and abilities like those two, they can take the stick when it goes wrong- which I think Moyes is a bit fearful of, even more so at United.

The more frustrating this as an Everton fan was that he was far more concerned and proactive about changing tactics when going ahead, usually reducing the tempo and trying to hold onto the ball. Unfortunately for us this was very hit and miss, and it allowed teams to claw their way back into the game when we were dominating. It worked back in our CL qualifying season, but that was because we were able to hold tighter than anything and won something like 9 (or maybe even 11) games 1-0. Since then he has tried to replicate that style, but the issue now is that teams all have the individual stars to break down that negative style with a moment of brilliance.

Whilst we were never really in the position that United were yesterday, we had quite a few games that reminded me of it.

The most telling examples of this from recent memory were QPR or Reading last year. We were just bulldozing both of them, it was insane- we could have been 4-0 up vs either of them, but it was not to be.

Against Reading we went 1-0 up early on, and it was just glorious. We were passing freely, creating chances and forcing the keeper to make saves. We go in at half time, and come back out playing negative football- not pressing at all and letting them dictate the tempo. We ended up losing that game 2-1.

Most of the time however we just struggled to break down tough teams, we dropped so many points to deep-sitting defenses, and that is what cost us Europe time and again.

What I really hated was the fact that there was no 'get up and go' to force the opposition out of the game when we went ahead. Under Martinez we use those moments of vulnerability after they have conceded to try and put the game out of sight, with Moyes we always just tried to sit on the scoreline. This was evident this season for you lot in one game that I saw, I am pretty sure it was the Swansea game where you went 1-0 up, were dominating... And just relaxed for the last 10 mins of the half. I may have got the game wrong, but it was around that time.

TL:DR - Moyes has a bad habit of going negative when the team are playing amazingly. It lost us a whole bucket of points every year, and only really worked once, and the year that it did work we were the most boring team this side of Leeds under George Graham.

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