It was limp, lifeless, lacklustre.
Sunday’s 3-0 trouncing was one of the worst North-West derby performances Old Trafford has ever seen.
Liverpool could hardly believe their luck.
It offered a 90-minute encapsulation of Manchester United under David Moyes as he slipped to a sixth Old Trafford defeat in all competitions.
United lost to Liverpool under Sir Alex Ferguson – of course they did – but not like this.
Even the 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Rafa Benitez’s Liverpool at Old Trafford in 2009 was nowhere near as desperate as this.
From start to finish, United were outplayed by Liverpool in every department as Brendan Rodgers’ men added to the pain and humiliation Moyes continues to suffer at Old Trafford.
The United boss once again looked helpless on the touchline as his team failed to get anywhere near stopping Liverpool taking them apart at every turn.
His tactical ineptitude gifted United’s old rivals everything they needed to control the game.
Moyes chose to line up Juan Mata and Adnan Januzaj on the flanks with Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie up front. It was effectively a 4-4-2 formation.
While that quartet may form the spine of a magnificent five-a-side team, it was clear for all to see that United would be overrun in midfield, and so it proved.
Michael Carrick and Marouane Fellaini were powerless to stop Liverpool’s central three from cutting through them time and time again.
With the diminutive Mata and Januzaj on the wings, there was no extra line of defence, leaving the home side horrendously exposed.
Yet Moyes failed to change as the game went on, waiting until the 75th minute before making any substitutions.
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Dithering Dave’s’ failure to react cost United dearly.
He seems unwilling to roll the dice, unlike the man who was once touted as a possible successor to Fergie.
While comparisons may be unfair, Jose Mourinho has made treble substitutions at half-time on numerous occasions, when he has seen things going horribly wrong.
Moyes was unwilling to do this. He was unwilling to stray from his hopelessly misguided formula.
He had picked a team he thought would excite United’s suffering supporters, without any consideration of how he was going to stop Liverpool playing or how he was going to be able to get a foothold in the game.
It was tactical suicide and displayed the naivety and inadequacy that Moyes has inflicted on United all season long.
The Theatre of Dreams has turned into a house of horrors for Moyes with Liverpool inflicting a fifth home defeat in the league this season.
A hangover can make you forget about the hellish day before for a few joyful seconds. But the memory always returns. pic.twitter.com/7fDoZztLCb
— Paddy Power (@paddypower) March 17, 2014
It effectively ended all hopes of United making the Champions League, leaving The Red Devils 14 points adrift of the top four.
While the supporters showed their vocal support for the side, the point has come where the United hierarchy, including Ferguson, must accept that they have picked the wrong man for the job and move to replace him.
The players are not blameless.
They are the same players that won the Premier League by 11 points last season and this campaign look little better than mid-table also-rans.
There is no ingenuity, no invention, no pace, no energy and no commitment.
However, the manager needs to inspire modern footballers play for him. If the players do not respond to the management, they will not turn up and give everything for the cause.
With the exception of one or two individuals, United’s players are not backing Moyes and that has to be the biggest indictment of his tenure.
It has been suggested that Moyes must be given the chance to spend big in the summer transfer window to bring in the quality players he needs to mould his own team.
The bottom line is that the Scot can surely not be trusted to spend in excess of £100million on this squad.
And even if he did, why would even stronger players respond to his management any better than the current crop?
Sympathy must be felt for Moyes. He did an outstanding job at Everton and deserved this chance at a big European club.
He is clearly doing his best to succeed but sometimes there has to come an admission that it is just not working out.
There are no signs of improvement, no shoots of recovery in this season of one disastrous performance after another.
He may have been the right appointment at the time, but it has since proved that he is not the right manager for United.
It is a job which sadly is not for David Moyes and below are the thoughts of club fanzine United We Stand editor Andy Mitten.
The Liverpool debacle was his watershed moment, the final nail in the coffin.
For once, Sir Alex Ferguson backed the wrong horse as Moyes looks like rivalling William Prunier, Eric Djemba-Djemba and Massimo Taibi as Ferguson’s worst-ever signing.
Of course managers should be given time, but that time has to be earned. United are not in a position where they can afford to give time to the wrong man.
David Moyes is the wrong man.
Main image courtesy of Carl Recine via Action Images, with thanks
