Man Utd: 5 Reasons Why David Moyes' Team Are So Different To Sir Alex Ferguson's

2. Moyes Took Over A Distinctly Lacking Team

One popular and widely held belief about former Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola was that he left the Catalan giants at just the right time. The team was in decline, and have not picked up a Champions League win since his departure in 2012. The same can be said of United, and perhaps Ferguson realised that the team wasn't as good as the Premier League standings last season made out. The other teams in the last campaign made United's task easier by either dropping points unnecessarily in Manchester City's case or by changing their manager so many times that they broke the revolving door at Stamford Bridge. Gone are the days when Ronaldo and Rooney ruled the roost and destroyed everyone in their path with their devastating counter-attacking style. Now whilst Rooney remains the players around him look less than ill-suited to the task of providing a replacement to the Portuguese legend. Robin van Persie is being slowed down by injury troubles once again and at 30 is approaching the latter stages of his career, whilst Nani, Ashley Young and Anderson do very good impressions of footballers. Actually in fairness the impressions aren't that good. At the back they have Rio Ferdinand, still a good defender on his day but his days are all too infrequent at present, despite his personal training regime. When Nemanja Vidic has been injured this season, Ferdinand has partnered a mix of either Jonny Evans, a player who although tries hard does make mistakes and will never reach the top, or Chris Smalling, a youngster with massive potential but still a long way from the finished product. In midfield they have nothing aside from a huge and ineffective Belgian, a criminally underused Japanese star, an ageing man who will soon need a zimmer-frame and Tom Cleverly. The only name worth any mention in the midfield options is Michael Carrick, a player who cannot be effective when surrounded by players who can't do anything with the ball for one reason or another. And we wonder why Moyes is having so much trouble with his team!