I just read a review of Manchester United’s last game where they played bottom of the table Fulham and the result was a 2-2 draw. This was a terrible result for Manchester, Fulham had conceded 11 goals in their last 4 games, this should have been a comfortable game for Manchester but it instead was another it was another poor result in what is turning into the worst season for a long time.
What concerned me most was the following comment from Moyes, “How we didn’t win I have no idea”. This is not a comment that is going to inspire confidence in his team, the teams supporters or the management of the club.
This is an admission that he doesn’t know how to fix the problem. This is not leadership, this is an absence of leadership.
In this game his team persisted with the same tactics, they produced 81 crosses the highest number for a team in 6 years, and yet still lost. Most people know that if you persist with a method that is not working then you need to change the approach.
Continually trying the same approach and expecting different results is one definition of madness.
There seems to be a lack of ideas, a lack of confidence, and lack of ability to turn dominance into wins, even when playing the worst team in the league in front of your home supporters.
This is not a situation that can be allowed to continue, this is something which is going to continually undermine and eat away at the confidence that people have in the leader. If the leader cannot show a way out of the situation that you are in why should people follow you.
The situation gets worse and worse for Moyes, as senior players are already announcing that they will retire or leave the club at then end of the season.
Whilst this is actually the right thing for the club, it does makes Moyes job more difficult, as he now has to fill these gaps and he needs to have a creditable plan for how he will do this.
So far there has been very little from Moyes other than excuses, surprise at the way things are going, rather than any real concrete ideas on how to fix the problems.
It’s like David is on a path of self destruction, every day now when i wake up I expect to see that he has decided that he’s had enough, that he’s out of his depth, and that he has resigned.
In order to survive Moyes needs to take his finger off of the self destruct button and needs to come up with a clear plan of how he intends to turn things around. So far we have not seen or heard anything and time and patience is running out. If he doesn’t do this soon, the decision of whether or not he should stay might be taken away from him.
Manchester have a massive rebuilding ahead of them which is going to involve spending significant sums of money, and so far Moyes has done very little to suggest that he is the man to spend this money wisely and turn the team around.
I would really like to see him be more successful (as a Leeds Fan I don’t want to see him win the league or anything), but it’s amazing how far and how fast things have gone down hill, and with the manager openly admitting he doesn’t know why is not a good sign or a position to be in.
As leaders we need to be able to have an inspiring vision not excuses, when we rely on excuses, then we are on a path of self destruction!
Gordon Tredgold
Leadership Principles