Assessing Manchester United's David Moyes 10 games in

Adnan Januzaj scores during the Barclays Premier League match between Sunderland and Manchester United at the Stadium of Light on October 5, 2013 in Sunderland, England. (Getty Images)

It is acceptable that Moyes does not trust the relatively inexperienced players like Chris Smalling, Jonny Evans, Shinji Kagawa, or Wilfried Zaha so early in his new job. So he decided to go with the players he has seen for years in the league, which is why his decision to play Ashley Young is even more difficult to comprehend. Nobody plays Young if they know how he plays. They drop Young if they know how he plays.

Moyes started with Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra in almost all the opening half-dozen games – and United looked solid enough with their experience. The flip side was that by the derby defeat United lacked the fitness – and the quality – to withstand City’s brutality.

We also now know for a fact that Fellaini is not as good a midfielder as Touré; unless we’re talking about Kolo Touré playing midfield.

It is hard to point to a more unpopular decision from Moyes so far than his decision to play Young ahead of Nani, Kagawa, Zaha, Ryan Giggs or Adnan Januzaj. Moyes hasn’t picked Kagawa because he doesn’t know him, which is acceptable, given that at times even Sir Alex didn’t know how to get the best out of the midfielder. Kagawa looks like a part of a jigsaw puzzle – it’s just that he’s a piece from some other set altogether.

Moyes has to be brave enough to give tactics greater weight than players. He can’t deploy three midfielders in the team simply because of their ability to track back and cover the defence’s slower players, a plan in which players like Kagawa don’t fit. The results of the plan, though, are still in front of us.

Januzaj finally got his first start for United at Sunderland and, like the old cliché, he did exactly what he would’ve dreamt the night before. It’s fair to say that United’s board – and the fans – are now spending their nights dreaming of Januzaj signing that new contract.

Where does that performance put Januzaj in the pecking order? His performance certainly made everyone aware of his talents, but is he ready to play every game? Will he be allowed to develop away from the spotlight or is he capable of handling the responsibility of playing every week? It is certainly going to be exciting to watch him progress, which he won’t do if he decides to play for England.

What Moyes must have learnt from these 10 games is the importance of squad rotation. He went from one extreme to the other against West Bromwich Albion as he played a heavily rotated side. This produced an unusual situation where a number of players were rusty more than a month into the season.

It is okay to question Moyes’s tactical decision, what he says in the media, his transfer business, but he still needs time to learn the art of juggling 25 players in his 11 hands.

Sir Alex was a master at keeping most of his players happy and in form. Something he did really well against Real Madrid last season where he got the tactics right by playing the right players. Yet, he got there after spending 26 years at the club. Moyes? It’s no comparison.

United may not have the sparkling players Chelsea, City or Tottenham Hotspur can boast, but this is a flexible squad and there is the feeling that United can play many styles of football. Supporters just hope that Moyes picks the more adventurous, exciting, attacking combinations.

And out of all that Moyes decided to play Fellaini as the target man against City at 4-0 down. It was a similar policy at Shakhtar Donetsk. If the manager is going to sacrifice attacking football for results and deploy a 4-5-1 formation, then there’s no reason to be happy with draws. May the singing section have mercy.

Having managed the club for a nice round figure of 10 games – the Charity Shield game was a friendly – fans hope Moyes, and the tactical genius Phil Neville, know enough about the squad to let them play to their potential. Because, after all, that is a manager’s basic job.