I've seen it said a few times on here that Fergie left Moyes a flawed or weak squad, and that it was Fergie's managerial ability and mentality that won us the league. Frankly, I think that's a load of shit.
Our goalkeeper is one of the best in the league, with the potential to be one of the best in the world. Our defence contains three senior players who, you could argue, have all been the best in their respective positions at some point in their careers, with at least two of the three still being able to perform to a decent enough level. In addition to this, we've got a number of brilliant prospects in Rafael, Fabio, Smalling, Jones and Evans. We've got a wealth of wide players, and whilst one of them might not exactly be a fan favourite, there's no denying that our wide play has been a key part of our success. Up top we've got two of the league's best strikers, with one of the best poachers around as back up, and although he's not flavour of the month at the moment, Welbeck is certainly a talented player. Our one area of weakness is the midfield. We had Carrick, an aging and inconsistent Giggs, an out of form Cleverley, an out of shape Anderson, an out of position Kagawa, and an out of squad Fletcher prior to the arrival of Moyes.
Many people love to blame Moyes for the lack of strengthening in this area, but it has to be remembered that the guy in charge of our transfers also changed this summer. Given that Woodward and Moyes had never worked together before, it's understandable that it might not have run quite as smoothly as they liked first time around. In the summer, we apparently made bids for Thiago, Fabregas and Herrera. If Woodward is in charge of transfers, surely he is responsible for the failure to secure the signature of any of these players, or any others on our shortlist for the midfield. It was apparent quite early on that Moyes wanted to bring in Fellaini (and Baines), and on paper he was the sort of player many thought we needed. Again, Woodward is responsible for the transfer dealings, so again, surely the blame for a) failing to sign Baines, b) paying over the odds for Fellaini, and c) not securing the deal until the dying seconds of deadline day lies at his feet. The same applies to the failure to sign Coentrao.
I think Moyes has been given a bit of a raw deal so far, with it appearing that Woodward essentially fecked up every transfer we attempted to make, including the one that we actually managed to complete. Our performances this season have been far from ideal, but it seems grossly unfair to place all of the blame on Moyes. The players also have to take some of the responsibility, particularly those that have repeatedly looked uninterested game after game. Moyes obviously needs some time to build a proper working relationship with both the squad and Woodward, and that's not going to happen overnight. It's all well and good comparing this situation to the managerial merry-go-rounds at City and Chelsea, but we don't have the same amount of shit to throw at the wall as them, so we have to be a bit more careful and try and identify the bits that will definitely stick.
