Can the damage be repaired quickly?

[LR7]

I think the lasting damage is letting Fabio and Vidic go and spunking £27.5m on Fellaini. I doubt the players are too emotionally scarred by Moyes to rediscover their form under a competent manager. Getting rid before any more 'damage' is done is vital though.

 

[Cheesy]

To the title question, it could be repaired fairly quickly with a good appointment. Liverpool have proven that this season. Not that we'll be winning the title or anything next year, but with a good appointment we won't be taking decades to get back into the CL.

To some points in the OP, Giggs as manager would be a terrible idea. I'd rather keep Moyes than have him as manager. I'll admit that there's risks to a new man - but those risks are much less than appointing someone with no managerial experience whatsoever.

And no to Fergie as director because he's retired. He's done his time and he's in his 70s now. Unless he had a desperate change of heart, it'd be unfair to start demanding the man makes a return.

 

[Chorley1974]

The reason I suggested Giggs was due to his intimate knowledge of the club and the current squad. Then again, maybe bringing in somebody from outside with zero knowledge is what we need.

He's also part of the management team, and senior players that have so badly failed. I really fail to understand why replacing one manager who is so completely out of his depth with another who is completely untested at this level is a good idea.

 

[Rams]

Like a wound - treat the infection quickly and it heals. The longer this goes on, the worse it will be.

If David Moyes stays, he has to start tackling the obvious mistakes he's made - as long as he recognises that he's made some.

I think that's now irrelevant, it's pretty obvious Moyes is dead meat or the club would have denied the rumours straight away. I also think there's been a revolt of some of the senior players/coaches at the club.

 

[Ducklegs]

Providing he is fired, then yes the club can repair the damage he has done relatively quickly.

If this is some massive hoax and we make the mistake of keeping him another season or heaven forbid, the rest of his contract, we could be the next Liverpool.

 

[robertsoncrusoe]

We'll spend big to buy our way out of years of under-investment before returning to 'looking for value in the market', promoting youth talents and hoping that the ability of our manager can fulfill our teams shortcomings resulting from a lack of investment.

Beautifully accurate post IMO

When you finally go down there is no fast track back to the top- when Sir Matt retired it was 26 years till the next title and it now seems Liverpools 24 year wait is over ..... see a pattern here? I'm not sure any new manager is going to make much of a difference, the wheel has turned but the question for you is- 'could you support the team for the next 20+ years no matter what' ?

 

[Livewire1974]

He's also part of the management team

According to recent reports he is ignored by Moyes.

 

[kouroux]

Like a wound - treat the infection quickly and it heals. The longer this goes on, the worse it will be.

If David Moyes stays, he has to start tackling the obvious mistakes he's made - as long as he recognises that he's made some.

I think we're way past that point. Those 52 different lineups are a proof of that

 

[Chorley1974]

According to recent reports he is ignored by Moyes.

He should have resigned then, it's not done his managerial career any favours by hanging on in that case. He's weak if that's the case.

 

[Moriarty]

Beautifully accurate post IMO

When you finally go down there is no fast track back to the top- when Sir Matt retired it was 26 years till the next title and it now seems Liverpools 24 year wait is over ..... see a pattern here? I'm not sure any new manager is going to make much of a difference, the wheel has turned but the question for you is- 'could you support the team for the next 20+ years no matter what' ?

Already did from 1967 until 1993. But that's academic. The nucleus of the squad we have is more than capable of challenging for the league next season. A lot of them seen bereft of confidence and they have not played as a team. I think this was manifest clearly in Van Persie who, when compared to last season, looked like a journeyman this. I could go on about Giggs, Rio, Hernandez, Kagawa, Nani, and others.

One problem that isn't down to Moyes is the lack of investment in Fergie's latter years. It's all very well tub-thumping now about our massive war chest but we needed investment when Ronaldo and Tevez left. What we didn't need is bargain-basement signings. I know we carried on winning titles after Ronaldo but that was down to Fergie's genius, the squad's belief that with Fergie in charge we were unbeatable, and some other teams, City, Chelsea, and Arsenal, dropping off the pace a bit.

 

[A1X]

Yes.

The title winning team of 12 months ago is still there. There needs to be some patching up done, mostly at the back and in CM, but there are the elements of a good team within the United squad, not least the likes of DDG, Jones, Smalling (both of whom need to regularly be played in their best positions of RB and CB respectively), Rafael, Welbeck, Kagawa, Rooney, RvP, Januzaj, Mata and others.

I firmly believe that the major problem this season has been tactics, not personnel. A manager needs to either adapt their tactics to suit the strengths of the players he has or they need to bring in the players to make their tactics work. Moyes did not do either, but that does not make the team we have useless.

Successful acquisition of quality talent plus tactics which better suit the philosophy of the club, the players, the fans and the manager will bring instant dividends.

 

[Gannicus]

The damage can indeed be repaired quickly, but patient must be cured of the cancer quickly. Bringing in a new management will not be an inexpensive proposition and there's no guarantee of success, but we know with absolute certainty now that Moyes lost the dressing room a long time ago and there's no hope of recovery. With a proper manager and very high quality two central mids, we'll be able to sustain a legitimate run for the prem trophy next season.

 

[Sky1981]

Please... not Giggs as Manager


If he does remotely well (finishing 3rd or 4th) we will be stick long term with him with him being a club legend and all that. It's already fecking hard as nail to convince fans that Moyes is shite, imagine if Giggs is actually shite, who would have the guts to sack him?

Again, it's just too much gamble, i'd rather we go proven and tested, at least steady the ship post Moyes for a couple of years while Giggs/Ole/Neville/etc can get a better experience, and let's see from there

 

[Sky1981]

The damage can indeed be repaired quickly, but patient must be cured of the cancer quickly. Bringing in a new management will not be an inexpensive proposition and there's no guarantee of success, but we know with absolute certainty now that Moyes lost the dressing room a long time ago and there's no hope of recovery. With a proper manager and very high quality two central mids, we'll be able to sustain a legitimate run for the prem trophy next season.

I don't know about this, but manager hardly cost alot. Even 6M a year (paltry 100k/week) is already a top manager wage. I'm sure paying Moyes 5M or Klopp/Ancelotti/etc 6M wouldn't make much difference

Unless you're talking about transfer budget, but we're pretty much intact next summer, since Moyes didn't spend a penny on the fabled 200M war kitty

 

[okLaptop1]

The "damage" may not be as deep as most people fear. The team can definitely be repaired quickly. The problems we have now are essentially the same problems we had 12 months ago; we need a couple midfielders, a reliable fullback, and a central defender. Once we get that, we trim the unwanted fat (Anderson, Cleverley, Young, etc), and we're instantly in a much better position. Don't forget that we've already taken a giant step toward repairing the damage; Moyes is gone.

 

[iSparky]

The damage is not so deep I reckon, trim unwanted fat, try and ship out Fellaini at as good a price as we can, bring in some new players and we can be looking at a better situation quite quick. The biggest decision was getting rid of Moyes.

 

[Ekeke]

On the pitch I could see the damage healed quickly with a manager who can motivate top players. Unfortunately the "damage" of Fellaini, Rooney's contract and the other stuff off the pitch might be hard to deal with. Alternatively Fellaini could come good and Rooney turn into a player nearly good enough for his wage.

 

[Sky1981]

See the rise from the dead United in the next match, mark my words

They'll show what they can do to prove Moyes wrong