Moyes Or LVG?

By Robbie Butler

The West Brom/Manchester United game on Monday night was intriguing to watch. It struck me during the first half just how many players starting for United never played under Sir Alex Ferguson despite the fact he retired as manager just over a year ago. Shaw, Rojo, di Maria, Herrera, Blind and Mata all started the game having never experienced the Scot’s managerial skills (more than half the team), while Falcao and Fellaini both came on and were signed post-Ferguson.

With the exception of Juan Mata, the other five starters who never played under Ferguson, also never played under David Moyes. The team is really starting to have a Louis van Gaal look about it. 

So if it’s LVG team, is a 2 – 2 draw against West Brom good enough? 

Had the Baggies hung on for the win, LVG would have amassed 11 points from his first 8 league games; David Moyes accumulated the exact same amount 11 from 8. As happened, United rescued a point, pushing them up to 12 in the league. The league results for the first 8 games for both LVG and Moyes are presented below.

While LVG is one point better off than Moyes, it should be noted that the Scot had, by the 21st of October 2013 already knocked rivals Liverpool out of the Capital One Cup and avoided defeat in two Champions League games, beating Bayer Leverkusen 4 – 2 at Old Trafford and drawing 1 – 1 in Ukraine with Shakhtar Donetsk. Additionally, it has been argued that this was the ‘easiest’ start the Red Devils had to the Premier League in years. Their opening eight fixtures included only one game against a team (Everton) that finished in the top eleven places last year in the league. This is in stark contrast to Moyes’ start as United manager which included league games against Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool before the end of September.

With this in mind, I decided to look at comparable games to see who is doing better. This is far from a perfect analysis. Firstly, teams can change dramatically from season to season. Southampton are evidence of this. Secondly, LVG has played the three promoted teams which weren't in the league last year. To overcome this problem I use last seasons promoted teams for the comparison. 

The  United defeat at Leicester this season is compared to their draw at Cardiff under Moyes as both were champions of the Championship. Burnley are compared to Hull City (2nd place in Championship) while Crystal Palace are matched up with QPR as both were prompted via the Play-offs.

The table is very interesting. Moyes 19 - 12 LVG. It would make you wonder how well LVG is actually doing when compared to Moyes. And I haven’t even mentioned the net spend of more than £110 million since LVG took over....