Premier League: 8 Glaring Questions From This Season So Far

4. Why Have Manchester United Declined So Dramatically?

Where do I start? Nothing seems to be going right for Manchester United at the moment. Poor results, Key players leaving or preparing to leave, late goals conceded and a league position that would see them playing in the Europa League next season. Not a great start for David Moyes really. It would seem fair to start with the manager and, let's get one thing straight, he is not Sir Alex Ferguson. No matter how much we want him to be, no matter how much the board want to make him so, he just never will be Sir Alex. David Moyes is an extremely good manager in his own right and did a remarkable job for Everton. There were bound to be some teething issues. Training is different, back room staff changes, different tactics are employed and certain players get in a paddy because all of the attention isn't on them for a moment. But nobody expected the team to decline this rapidly. So what else has contributed? Some blame must go to the players. Simply put, only Rooney has really improved in form since last season. Van Persie, Vidic, Ferdinand, Rafael, Evra, Valencia the list goes on. All under-performing, yet all part of the title winning team last year. There is always a point in a floundering season when the squad must look at themselves and think 'Have I really done enough this year?' and I think that time has come. The last reason that will be discussed is that of the aforementioned manager of the Red Devils. Sir Alex Ferguson left just in time, when a declining team with a mass of holes in most positions managed to win the league. A lot can be said for Sir Alex's ability to lead that team to the title with an 11 point gap from second. As I said before, however, David Moyes is not him and he has been left with a lot of work to do to make this team compete again. The rumour is he wasn't wholly backed in the summer either, with Ed Woodward new in his role as executive chairman and making a hash of things. Moyes does need time, but more time than most people would be happy to give him.