It has been a season of firsts at Old Trafford so far this term. In barely a month, beginning at the start of December, Everton won their first match in Manchester for over twenty years, Newcastle won their first in over forty and last Sunday's 2-1 reverse of David Moyes' side in the third round of the FA Cup was Swansea's first ever victory at the Theatre of Dreams. Moyes' tenure at Old Trafford is still very much in its infancy but even the most ardent of United fans are struggling to keep sight of any sort of silver lining as billowing clouds begin to envelop the world's most famous football club.
It is difficult to not feel some sort of sympathy for Moyes. Clearly a talented manager, as evidenced by his occasional heroics at Goodison Park, the Scot has overseen a dramatic decline in Manchester United's fortunes since Alex Ferguson's retirement at the end of last season. One might have expected the managerial transition to have gone a little smoother than this but such was Ferguson's influence over his players, and the encyclopaedic knowledge of every facet of the football club, that no blueprint exists outside of Ferguson's mind on how to effectively operate a juggernaut of this magnitude.
Despite their current status as champions, Manchester United aren't the best side in the league. Not even close. What they do have is a handful of excellent players, mixed in with a few average ones, and at the helm a coach struggling to successfully imprint his footballing philosophy on the group in the shadows of the omnipresent Ferguson.
Moyes' probationary period at Old Trafford hasn't been helped by injuries suffered so far this season to key players. Robin Van Persie, United's most consistent performer last year, has played in only 11 of 20 league games. Michael Carrick has only features 12 times in the league, while Phil Jones has just 13 appearances to his name. Most clubs in Europe would feel the absence of this influential trio but when you add to that the rapid loss in form suffered by the ageing Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs, Patrice Evra and Nemanja Vidic and the poor performances of Antonio Valencia, Nani, Shinji Kagawa, Ashley Young and Javier Hernandez, the Red Devils begin to look more like a club in crisis than a mere sleeping giant.
It's unsettling seeing a Manchester United team so weak in midfield. Ferguson's succession of United teams were all based upon being strong in the middle third of the pitch. Bryan Robson, Paul Ince, Roy Keane and Paul Scholes were all high-level operators and mirrors of their manager's mentality on the field but the present impact of United's midfield is limp and anaemic, leading to fewer chances created and more pressure on the aging legs of their struggling centre-backs - but this isn't tremendously difficult to rectify.
What can be done to change Manchester United's fortunes? It may not be as difficult as you might imagine. United's strengths lie in their goalkeeper, David De Gea, and their attacking tag-team of Robin Van Persie and Wayne Rooney. Add to them a fit Rafael, Michael Carrick, Jonny Evans, Marouane Fellaini and the blossoming talents of 18-year-old Adnan Januzaj and you have the core of a very good team. If, either in this transfer window or the next, Moyes can successfully integrate a mobile centre-half, a wide player and a dominant presence in the centre of the park he can get this team ticking once again.
David Moyes has proven at Everton that he is capable of identifying a team's weaknesses and adapting in the following season. Taking over a struggling side on a shoestring budget, Moyes first steadied the ship and then oversaw a new phase of success on the blue side of the Mersey, with an impressive fourth place finish in 2004-2005 being arguably his biggest achievement at Goodison. Suddenly that is a minimum requirement in his first season in Manchester.
Every poor performance from Manchester United this season has been increasingly accompanied by a brigade of #MoyesOut hecklers online, some of whom aren't old enough to have lived through a period of Manchester United's history when they have been in decline. Moyes can, in this writer's opinion anyway, successfully steady the ship but will he be afforded the opportunity to before the baying yells of the pitchfork-carrying minority becomes too loud to ignore?
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