Manchester United

[Mr Darko]

WTF? - mentioned on the radio earlier and didn't believe it so checked...

Away table so far...
No code has to be inserted here.

What witchcraft is going on here?

[spud_gun]

Puts into perspective how abject they've been at home this season

[RedReet]

Not too surprised to see United top as that stat has been mentioned a few times, but shocked to see us 2nd.

Thinking about it logically, of course we would be up there considering recent form, but I wouldn't have predicted it considering our poor away form earlier in the season.

[BobTheCharmer]

That away form table is a concern, as **** as utd have been its been their home form that has ****ed them, if they get that right next season they will be up there. A team as **** as utd have been, shouldn't have that good an away form.

[spud_gun]

That away form table is a concern, as **** as utd have been its been their home form that has ****ed them, if they get that right next season they will be up there. A team as **** as utd have been, shouldn't have that good an away form.

Even if they'd shown the same form at home as they have away they'd still only be on 66 points.

Season has been an unmitigated disaster for them and this 'best away record in the league' bluster that we've heard more and more of in recent is nothing but a bandaid covering an amputation.

They're going to get mullered at Everton tomorrow.

[TheElephantMan]

Chelsea in 6th having not won 9 out of 17 away from home.

[john316]

That away form table is a concern, as **** as utd have been its been their home form that has ****ed them, if they get that right next season they will be up there. A team as **** as utd have been, shouldn't have that good an away form.

It's why **** teams like Aston Villa are better away from home. Defensive managers who haven't the belief in himself and their players to attack teams at home. Prefer being away from home so they can try and react rather than dictate.

[baitman]

phil neville says man utd are ****e and him and moyes dont really know what they are doing...

Manchester United: We failed this season, says coach Phil Neville

Manchester United have "failed" this season, according to first-team coach and former defender Phil Neville.
The defending Premier League champions currently lie in seventh place in the table with five games remaining.
They have not finished outside the top three in the top flight since 1991.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/27079860

[TheElephantMan]

"We have not fulfilled any levels of expectations this season," Neville told the BBC's Football Focus show. "We have failed on the football pitch and that doesn't sit kindly with anyone."

It sits kindly with me.

[Roboklopp]

It sits kindly with most people I know.

[Yozza]

It sits kindly with me.

I'm rather enjoying it on the whole too

[Shaggy]

Moyes does a Houllier

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/apr/18/david-moyes-everton-roberto-martinez

David Moyes says his legacy at Everton has helped Roberto Martínez

• He has picked up a really good group of players, Moyes said
• Manchester United manager returns to Goodison for first time

David Moyes has said that Everton's successful season is "not a surprise" given the legacy Roberto Martínez inherited from him as manager, as the Scot prepares to take Manchester United to his former club for the first time.

United have struggled in Moyes's first season and stand seventh, nine points behind Martínez's team, going into Sunday's game. Yet he pointed to the squad he left and the firm foundations built while manager there for 11 years.

Asked if the opinion that Everton are more exciting under Martínez is fair, Moyes said: "They have some really good players and they have gone on again. Great credit to Roberto but he has a group of players who were always capable of going on again, of improving. Maybe moving further up the league. Don't forget Everton finished above Liverpool last year – and the year before. So it was a great achievement for Everton. In a way it should not be a surprise they are doing well because I did such a great job there.

"He's picked up a really good group of players, there's some top senior players there. There has always been a chain of young players ready to go in the team and I think that's helped. We had a great recruitment department, a brilliant staff, all round the club. All those people have helped. It's a well-run club and that makes it very easy for a new manager to go in there and do well."

Moyes has drawn animosity from some Everton fans for identifying Marouane Fellaini and Leighton Baines as targets for United. A section also believe Moyes knew before last May he would replace Sir Alex Ferguson as manager.

Yet the manager, who has not been back to Goodison Park since leaving the club, believes that most supporters have moved on. "I went to see Everton on Saturday against Sunderland [away]. I've not been back to Goodison," he said. "I've just felt that it wasn't the right time to go back at this moment. Time is big healer as well. It is nearly a year since I probably only found out about the opportunity [to join United], it was about May 1 – April 28th, something like that."

What needs healing? "Possibly the way people see me leaving," he said. "Maybe people don't believe how it happened. I think there was animosity because of the players – we'd like to have bought a couple of them. But lots of United players go to Everton – so there is a reverse."

Moyes, who has Wayne Rooney fit again following a foot problem, suggested that despite last summer's difficult transfer window and the club's intention to make signings before the World Cup, that may not happen.

"It's difficult as players are going to be going away for the World Cup so it's maybe not quite as easy as, ideally, all clubs would like to get the work done early," he said. "We cannot guarantee it but we will try to make that happen. I've got to say I'm well into my planning with my thoughts and ideas, getting ready for next year. Not everything you read is correct, I've got to say that.

"We're linked with player after player and every time I go to a game I'm supposed to be signing three or four players from that game. That isn't the case but everyone is well aware we are looking to make signings and will try to do that whenever the opportunity arises. It will probably be after the end of the season before anything takes place but we have got to look to do one or two things."

Next week United's medical team will visit Robin van Persie in the Netherlands, who has a knee injury, to analyse how he is recuperating. "Our medical team is heading out there to see him this week and get a better feel as to exactly where he is," Moyes said.

[RichC]

I'm going to have to read the original to check on what surely must be additions from you !!

[maxwellbaxter]

"Great credit to Roberto but ....."
translates to "He's ok but he couldn't have done it without me"
What a penarse!

[Shaggy]

Did anyone see that 'Everton Head Chef' absolutely destroying Moyes on Twitter this week?

Deleted his account now after an Everton official intervened but he said Moyes was hated at Everton. It all tied in with what PTP told us (his mate works at Everton). He said Moyes is known to refer to Martinez as 'the Spaniard' and that he was an unapproachable dictator at Everton and that "Martinez already knows the club better than Moyes did in all the time he had here".

Here's a few of his tweets...



Some similar tales here:

This week one Everton source told Sportsmail: 'Some academy staff did feel as though Moyes was slow to blood some of their players. They thought Barkley was sent on loan when he could have been on the bench here.

'But show me a club with a youth academy and I will show you youth coaches who are moaning. It's always the way.'

When Moyes revealed he was leaving Everton that tumultuous week last May, not everyone at the club was sorry.

He had little or no relationship with some senior executives, for example, simply because he felt his close bond with Kenwright was sufficient.

The club's marketing and commercial staff, meanwhile, were quick to wave goodbye.
'There were some sighs of relief, that is true,' said another Goodison source. 'He was not easy to deal with. The marketing and commercial teams felt he was taciturn and that they couldn't rely on his co-operation.

'He hardly came to the stadium on non-match days and few people ventured down the long corridor to his office at the training ground.

'The office was right at the end and some felt it was alien territory almost. Very few executives ever ventured down there without an invite and those invites never came.
'It was, in a way, classic bunker mentality and most people saw it as strategic.

'In terms of results on the field it worked, no doubt about it. It just didn't make him universally popular.'