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With rumors of the sacking of David Moyes gathering pace, this article analyses the first seasons of Brendan Rodgers and David Moyes in charge of Liverpool and Manchester United respectively. Rodgers had the Europa League campaign while Moyes had the Champions League campaign to attend to. While the matches in Europa league are less competitive, an increased number of matches and the long travel to various parts of Eastern Europe prove to be equal if not more challenging tasks for the teams. Thus, a fair comparison of the managers can be made in many ways even though the initial conditions were quite different.
David Moyes has been the victim of too much criticism this season due to United’s poor form this season, a lot of it has been deserved while some of it was not! Brendan Rodgers found himself in a similar position not too long ago when he first came to Liverpool. Rodgers is a loquacious person and his ability to be verbose was misinterpreted as all talk and no results which resulted in him facing a lot of criticism. The ‘Being Liverpool’ series didn’t help his cause either.
The first seasons of Moyes and Rodgers at two of the most successful clubs in England bear some remarkable similarities:
Difficult fixture list at the start of the season
Rodgers’ tenure had started with a disastrous trip to West Bromwich Albion which culminated in a 0-3 loss. This was followed by matches against Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal coupled with a trip to Sunderland in between. Those five league matches resulted in two points. Home losses to United and Arsenal coupled with an away loss against West Bromwich Albion had people questioning the decision to sack Kenny Dalglish.
The football was pretty but the end product was lacking at times. There was no penetration with a lot of meaningful possession. Joe Allen had wowed the Anfield faithful with his passing ability and man of the match performances against City and United but other players were still getting used to Rodgers’ philosophy. Suarez was still reeling from the after effects of the racism row with Evra and had just scored two goals in 5 matches. Gerrard was looking clueless, Borini got injured and things could not have been worse.
Moyes started his Premier League tenure with a blistering 4-1 win over Swansea at Old Trafford followed by a commendable 0-0 draw against Mourinho’s Chelsea. A 1-0 loss to their biggest rivals Liverpool was followed by a 2-0 victory against Crystal Palace. But a 4-1 mauling at the hands of City and Moyes was already beginning to feel the heat. A respectable 7 points from the first five difficult matches had given Moyes a solid if not spectacular start to his career. Away losses to City and Liverpool were attributed to the transition period.
The transfer window debacles
Liverpool sold Dirk Kuyt, Maxi Rodriguez, Craig Bellamy and Charlie Adam for different reasons. These players had been responsible for around 50% of goals scored by Liverpool in the previous campaign. Brendan Rodgers decided to buy Joe Allen, Fabio Borini along with Assaidi and Nuri Sahin (on loan). Borini had scored 10 goals for Roma and had just one previous experience on English shores with Swansea in the Championship. Thus, it was difficult to fathom Borini filling the void left by these big-name departures. Allen, on the other hand, had just completed his first season in the Premier League with Brendan Rodgers.
The transfer window was turning out to be a decent one until Rodgers offloaded Andy Carroll on loan to West Ham without finalizing the Dempsey deal and Liverpool were left with just two senior strikers in Suarez and Borini for a season where they would have to endure the travails of Europa League. To make matters worse, Henderson was also offered in a player swap deal with Dempsey to Fulham in the dying minutes of the summer transfer window. Thankfully for Liverpool, Fulham turned down the offer.
Cesc Fabregas still interesting Manchester United?
The public pursuit of Fabregas and Thiago Alcantara failed miserably with the former staying at Barcelona and the latter departing for Bayern Munich. Meanwhile, Rooney was also courted by Mourinho and Wenger adding to the pressure on Moyes. Ander Herrera was also pursued but his high price tag and Bilbao’s refusal to allow him to leave added to the frustration of United fans.
Moyes had a chance to buy Fellaini earlier in the window but he wanted a double deal with Everton for both Baines and Fellaini. Everton refused to budge and United squandered the chance to get Fellaini at £ 23 million and instead had to cough up an additional four million pounds due to their inefficiency. United though did not suffer from similar exits as Liverpool and were ultimately able to add Fellaini in place of the retires Scholes to their title winning squad.
The first half of the season and the perennial injury problems
Liverpool were out of the reckoning for the top four given their disastrous start but then things began to look up slowly and steadily. Their primary target for the season was to finish as high up as they can. 25 points accrued in the first 19 games certainly did not help matters. Injury to key players such as Lucas, Kelly, Borini and Johnson also did not aid Rodgers.
Rodgers was still not sure of what his best team was or even what his best midfield combination was. Losses to Tottenham, Stoke and draws against Everton and Chelsea continued to put pressure on Rodgers due to a miserable points per game ratio. Allen and Sahin faded after impressing in the early part of the campaign and Liverpool were finding it hard to score goals as expected and things were continuing to grow difficult for Rodgers. Suso and Sterling played well but could not affect the goals scored column.
At the halfway point of the season, United had picked up some pace. Inspite of losses against Everton and Newcastle and draws against Tottenham and Cardiff, United found themselves just 8 points shy of the Premier League pole position! It was a commendable achievement presided over by Moyes, inspite of the flak he had received till then, considering the injuries that had blighted United’s season.
Key players such as Rooney, Van Persie, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evans, Fletcher all had been out injured for some time until that point. Progress to the group stages of the Champions League coupled with being just 2 points off Liverpool who occupied the fourth position had bought some hope back that Ferguson had indeed chosen the correct one. It was expected that United would finally begin their assault to the title by a strong showing in the second half of the season as was common with the Everton team under Moyes!
To read the second part of the article, click here.
