Man Utd: 5 Reasons Why It's All Gone Wrong For David Moyes

5. An Ageing Defence

It's perhaps of very little surprise that United manager David Moyes tried to sign Real Madrid's left-back Fabio Coentrao and Everton's Leighton Baines on transfer deadline day, given the current state of affairs at the back. That Patrice Evra was demoted against West Brom on Saturday for rookie Alexander Buttner - who wouldn't even be at Old Trafford had Baines been signed - says everything about the Frenchman's prospects. Meanwhile, you can practically hear Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic's knees creaking in the centre of defence, while at right-back, Rafael has been blighted by injury with understudies Phil Jones and Chris Smalling of not good enough quality. United have conceded eight times from their opening six games this season, and have kept a clean sheet only twice. The champions are finding themselves exploited at the back far too easily these days. That West Brom's Morgan Amalfitano was able to round Michael Carrick and nut-meg Ferdinand to put himself one-on-one with goalkeeper David de Gea for the opener so easily on Saturday says everything. United cannot be expected to defend their title when they can't defend.