5. Overhaul Of Backroom Staff
When Ferguson left, as did the majority of his backroom staff, most notably assistant manager Mike Phelan and first team coach René Meulensteen. New manager David Moyes brought his own people in, including his assistant from Everton, Steve Round and Phil Neville as a coach, who had retired as an Everton player at the end of the previous season. The problem with an overhaul is the lack of continuity and thus a lack of experience in dealing with recurring injury problems with certain players, and man management of the elder statesmen in the team - in terms of training schedules, regularity of appearances and, therefore, keeping them fresh - which Ferguson and his team were renowned for. Meulensteen, who left despite Moyes asking him to stay on, took the majority of training sessions in previous seasons. Moyes, himself, now leads the team on the training field. Moyes 'draconian training methods' have since been criticised by the Dutch assistant national coach, Raymond Verheijen, attributing van Persie's pre-season thigh injury to a punishing summer warm-up. This leads me into my next point...
