I generally agree with you on both counts. That said, it's Giggs 2nd game in charge and after his first loss his reaction to the loss already included the nightmare line "I honestly don't know". If DM had said that he would have been flayed (like he was when he said something similar after the loss to Stoke). Giggs post-Sunderland loss comments. Replace "Giggs" with "Moyes" for that whole article and how different would the reaction have been?

I forgot a few more lines we have seen a lot this season. "Champions by 11 points to THIS?!" "WTF same mistakes again and again, when will he ever LEARN?" A lot of times we have seen fans saying the team is as good or some even claimed BETTER this season in terms of personnel compared to last season.

If the problems this season were 100% due to the manager alone, then how do we explain the Sunderland game? Giggs has been in the coaching staff and the first team all season, how do we explain him:
- Choosing to start/play Young (something that makes so many of us groan)?
- Or that when Young was not doing enough to stay on the RW he was not subbed out but instead moved to the LW (where he has been doing sweet f*** all for most of the season, barring a couple of games where he scored)?
- How do we explain Kagawa not even being on the bench? Or Welbeck coming on when we needed goals?
- So many changes in the lineup compared to the previous game vs Norwich (DM got a lot of flak for "excessive tinkering, changing the team all the time").

These are the exact same things DM got nuked for. Giggs has seen it all and from the inside as a coach and a player this season. So doesn't this make his choice to REPEAT these decisions which have (rightly or wrongly) been labelled mistakes even WORSE?

Or maybe the players are just pulling the same stunt they tried under DM, because nobody (DM, Giggs) is SAF. Look OK in training, then slouch off on game day. Maybe being manager of United is tougher than we gave credit for. Maybe the team DOES need massive rebuilding and isn't fine or better than last season.

I gotta say I'm not wishing DM was back, nor am I defending his mistakes (he definitely made mistakes). Just saying DM has been a scapegoat and focus of blame all season for the poor performances. Now that he is not even in the same country/continent as the team turning out this kind of performance, maybe we can look past blaming the manager and look at the team itself.

Why? Because whoever the next manager of United is, it is not impossible he will also struggle next season. Even Mourinho "going home to Chelsea" is having some bad results this season (losing at home to Sunderland, the CL 2nd leg performance/result, a draw to Norwich, his press conferences have become more negative as the season passes, etc).

Hopefully next season we won't repeat the "WTF la this guy should not be United manager, it should have been [insert alternative name]" cycle quite as quickly or brutally if results and performances don't meet our hopes and expectations. Something tells me it's going to be awhile before we can regularly be happy with the team and results.

What's wrong with Januzaj?

Young cross didn't even pass the first defender. He's utterly crap. On right wing, can't cross pass first defender, on left wing, always have to check back to right foot before crossing.