It wasn’t all doom and gloom under the Scot, and here’s why.
5. Keeping Wayne Rooney
The England international may not be in the form of his life this season, but with so many high profile names rejecting the chance to join United last summer it became vital for the club to hold on to the stars that they already had. Rooney is somewhat of a talismanic figure at the club, and even when not playing well he still has the ability to pull something out of the bag at the right time. Perhaps the new manager, whoever he is, will finally be able to get the best out of him once again.
4. David de Gea’s form
Under Sir Alex Ferguson, the Spaniard showed glimpses of what he could do, but was so shaky that he was already being tipped to move on just a year after joining the club. However, in bringing former England international Chris Woods with him from Everton, he had the goalkeeping coach work extensively with de Gea in order to bring him up to his billing as one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League. He has since catapulted de Gea onto the fringes of the Spanish national team and given him a regular platform to iron out the deficiencies in his game.
3. Adnan Januzaj
The emergence of the young Belgian/Albanian/Turk/Serb/Englishman has been one of the most exciting things to happen to the club’s youth system for a number of years, and Moyes was certainly the one to put faith in him by giving him so much game time. So far this term the 19-year-old has bagged four goals in 31 appearances across all competitions and will surely be a mainstay in the squad for a number of years to come. Untrusted by Ferguson, but maximised by Moyes, Januzaj will owe a lot of what he achieves in his career to the former Everton chief.
2. Guiding the club to the quarter-finals of the Champions League
While the club’s domestic form may not have been up to much, United’s Champions League campaign was just as exciting as it’s ever been. The Red Devils frequently make to as far as the last 8 when they don’t actually win the tournament, and only the best team in the world were capable of stopping them. There is no shame in losing to a club like Bayern, and chalking up victories over the likes of Bayer Leverkusen, Shakhtar Donetsk, Real Sociedad and Olympiakos makes for an impressive list of casualties.
1. Signing Juan Mata
It may be fair to say that fans probably won’t see the best of Juan Mata until next season, but the fact that Moyes was able to snap him up is impressive in itself. Left to languish on the bench at Chelsea, Moyes sought to smash the club’s transfer record in order to bring in the Spaniard, who will no doubt still be hungry for success as well as the chance to show Mourinho just what he’s missing.
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