Sunderland,10 points away from safety with seven matches to play, look set for relegation, but what should they do with David Moyes?
Sunderland lost 3-0 to Manchester United at the weekend, the seventh match in a row they’ve failed to score. The Black Cats look all but certain to go down at this point. They’re 10 points away from safety with seven matches left to play, and not playing well at all. Assuming they go down, should they stick with David Moyes? In our weekly roundtable, FanSided’s soccer staff debate.
Moyes can still make it work
James Dudko, @JamesDudko
Sunderland should stick with David Moyes as manager next season, despite him being the gaffer who is set to oversee the end of their decade-long stint as a Premier League side. Moyes’ Sunderland are rock bottom of England’s top flight, a massive 10 points adrift of safety after losing to Manchester United 3-0 at the Stadium of Light on Sunday.
Still, the Black Cats are going to need Moyes in the Championship. The Scot is also going to need a year in England’s second tier to help repair a reputation shredded by high-profile struggles in recent seasons.
It was ironic United inflicted a 21st defeat of the season on Sunderland. After all, it was Moyes taking over at United in 2013 that started the unravelling of his career and standing in the game.
Moyes succeeded Sir Alex Ferguson as the so-called “chosen one” following some solid work at Everton, where he’d developed a reputation as a shrewd team-builder capable of producing results on a budget. Phrases like “pound-for-pound the best British manager in the game,” written about Moyes by Martin Samuel of the Daily Mail when he had his pick of clubs before joining United, were regularly used in connection with the man who had cut his teeth with Motherwell and Preston North End.
Yet things didn’t go to plan for Moyes at Old Trafford as he took a squad of Premier League champions from first to seventh place in less than a season. Moyes was fired before his lone fateful campaign in charge of United officially came to a close.
When he surprisingly resurfaced at La Liga side Real Sociedad, it seemed a lot like Moyes had chosen to escape the glare and scrutiny of Premier League audiences who no longer believed the hype. Being dismissed from Sociedad in November, 2015 saw his stock slip further downward.
A return to the lower reaches of the Premier League seemed a good idea, with Moyes positioned as the ideal pragmatist to engineer the now annual run to safety for Sunderland. It’s how Moyes announced himself at Everton in 2002, but the old magic has continued to elude him at Sunderland.
Okay, so enough of the history lesson, especially when it’s this bleak. Why should Sunderland keep Moyes at the helm?
The answer is two-fold and fits a simple theme: what hasn’t worked for Moyes in the Premier League can work wonders for the club a division down.
One reason Sunderland have struggled this season is a squad bloated with over-the-hill old pros who have seen their best days at the top level. Moyes has fostered something of an old boy’s network, adding ex-Everton players such as Victor Anichebe, Darron Gibson, Joleon Lescott, Bryan Oviedo and Steven Pienaar to 30-somethings like John O’Shea and Jermain Defoe.
Getting the band back together hasn’t worked this season, but the Championship has featured many teams earning promotion thanks to squads full of aging pros, who, despite being in the winters of their careers, still had too much quality and nous for the second tier. Queens park Rangers did it in 2014 thanks to Bobby Zamora and Harry Redknapp favorites Niko Kranjcar, Richard Dunne and Clint Hill. Hull did the same in 2016 with Curtis Davies, Michael Dawson, Tom Huddlestone and Shaun Maloney.
History says Sunderland’s crew can do the same.
Of course, Moyes won’t be able to lean on experience alone. Instead, he’s likely going to have to replace some promising younger players. Among them, 23-year-old goalkeeper Jordan Pickford is reportedly on Arsenal’s radar, per Richard Mennear of the Sunderland Echo. Many Premier League teams would no doubt also love to acquire physical center-back Lamine Kone, midfield destroyer Didier Ndong and deep-lying playmaker Jan Kirchhoff.
Fortunately for Sunderland, Moyes has a decent history of unearthing hidden gems and giving chances to academy players. He brought Leon Osman, Jack Rodwell and Wayne Rooney through the ranks at Everton. He also signed right-back Seamus Coleman, central defender Phil Jagielka and midfielders Mikel Arteta and Tim Cahill for bargain fees.
Moyes’ career-long habit of fusing experience with potential on a bargain scale won’t save Sunderland in the Premier League. But it would help the club make a quick return from the Championship.
Such a return would also be the best thing to happen to a manager who needs to step off the biggest stage for a while and rejuvenate.
Moyes is the wrong kind of manager for this club
Peter Johnstone, @9PniJ2
The heartache continued for Sunderland fans this weekend as they saw their side fall 3-0 to Manchester United, leaving them 10 points from safety.
The only silver lining for Sunderland is that a lot of their remaining games are winnable and a few come against fellow relegation candidates. But the Black Cats have shown no signs of improvement in recent weeks, and while soccer is full of twists and turns, it seems like Sunderland’s story is already written.
If they are to go down, the club needs to make a decision on the fate of David Moyes. I always criticize clubs for not giving managers enough time, but it’s hard to see any reason to keep Moyes around in the Championship.
In the past, the Scottish manager has taken his time to truly influence the clubs he was in charge of, but he was successful in the long run. At both Everton and Preston, Moyes endured some tough times before eventually improving his teams.
However, ever since his unfairly short stint with Manchester United, Moyes has lost his mojo. His time in charge of Real Sociedad was catastrophic, but surprisingly it was not damaging enough for Sunderland to take a chance on the Scot. A chance is exactly what it was, though, and the club have paid the price for taking it.
In Moyes’ defense, he inherited Sam Allardyce’s squad in somewhat unexpected circumstances. But his own signings have hardly made a difference. He let Jeremain Lens, stylistically exactly the sort of player Moyes is missing, go out on loan to Fenerbache, and brought in the likes of Adnan Januzaj and Steven Pienaar, who’ve been poor.
Instead of trying to sign more strikers, Moyes opted to focus on the defensive side of the game. That’s a reasonable enough approach for a bottom half club, but it’s backfired spectacularly.
Jermain Defoe has done all he can this season for Sunderland, but his production was never going to be enough to single-handedly keep them up. The Black Cats have of course been unlucky with key injuries to players like Duncan Watmore and Jan Kirchoff, but Moyes did little to bolster his squad in January, as he signed Bryan Oviedo, Darren Gibson and Joleon Lescott. Other than the fact they used to play for him, it’s unclear why Moyes thought they’d make a telling difference.
Sunderland could probably use some time in the Championship, given how depressing their current stint in the Premier League has become. But they need a manger who will give fans something to shout about. Moyes’ defensive credentials are up for debate given Sunderland’s current record at the back, but even if they weren’t, his pragmatism is unlikely to get many fans excited at the prospect of watching the Black Cats play.
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The Championship is one of the most competitive leagues in the world and if the Black Cats don’t get rid of Moyes, they could be facing an extended stay. They should look over to their fierce rivals Newcastle for a blueprint on how to make a quick return to the Premier League. The Toon signed some experienced Premier League players like Matt Ritchie, Dwight Gayle and Mohamed Diame — all of whom have played their part in helping the club to the automatic promotion spots.
Sunderland will have the money to sign players of this calibre from bottom half Premier League sides but if they don’t bring in a more inspiring manager, they’ll struggle to bring in exciting players. Barring a miracle, Sunderland will be going down to the Championship in May. If they don’t axe Moyes at that point, they’ll remain out of the Premier League for quite some time.